ADVICE CENTRE: BRIAN MOONEYanswers your questions
I have concerns regarding my child's social/ educational progress, what should I do?
If you have concerns regarding your child's educational or social development, you should initially raise these concerns with your child's classroom teacher.
How the teacher responds to such concern is determined by the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS), whose focus is on early intervention with pupils and staff in schools, in order to maximise pupil's potential, to combat school failure and to avoid acute crises for children and young people.
The procedure followed is that of a "continuum approach" to assessment and intervention, as laid out in the recently published document Special Needs Education - A Continuum of Support, which has been circulated to all primary school teachers.
The teacher will initially observe or screen the child to determine if your concerns are valid. The observations may be formal or informal and may include the administration of rating scales, to gather more information about the concern. This process of observation and screening will only be applied to children in senior infants and above. If this initial screening validates your concern, the class teacher will then write an intervention plan, indicating what they will do in the classroom to assist your child.
What happens if the problem persists?
If the plan has not helped with the problem, your child can be referred, with your permission, for more intensive help. You will be asked to give permission for the Learning Support Teacher (a special education teacher) to complete a "diagnostic assessment" of your child, which will help determine the underlying problem.
You will then be asked to allow your child to be assisted by the learning support teacher, who will work with your child and write a tailored educational programme.
At the end of about one term, the learning support teacher will consult with you about the impact of this intervention. If it has been successful, your child will continue as a member of the mainstream class; if not, the school will seek permission for a more formal evaluation to be completed by an educational psychologist from NEPS.
Psychological assessment of your child
All primary and post-primary schools have access to psychological assessments either directly through the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) or through the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments. The assessment will be carried out by the psychologist with a view to accessing resources from the National Council for Special Education - where the pupil's needs meet the criteria set down by the Department of Education and Science. The main focus of the assessments/ consultations will be the formulation of an Individual Education Plan for your child, designed to address their needs.
The assessment will often involve a full psycho-educational assessment to establish more specific information on their ability, learning styles, learning strengths and weaknesses and academic and other skills' attainments, and it will also allow teachers, pupils and parents to review progress of pupils constructively, with a view to adapting plans to increase success rather than to "give up" and refer for more assessment or placement "elsewhere".
TALKBACK...
The original target for the employment of psychologists when the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) was established in 1999 was 190, based on the school population at that time. Good progress was made until a recruitment cap was put in place after the 2002 general election. Since May 2007, the number of psychologists employed within the NEPS has increased from 128 to 138, and during 2008, this is planned to increase to 169.
These psychologists will be assigned schools with particular emphasis on those with DEIS status, continuing the ongoing priority afforded by the service to designated disadvantage schools.
Before the Dáil rose for the summer, the Minister for Education and Science indicated his intention to increase NEPS psychologist personnel to 200 during 2009, thus enabling all schools to be served directly by NEPS psychologists. It will be interesting to see if that promise is kept in current economic circumstances.
With more than 1,500 primary schools in the country without a NEPS psychologist, and over 5,000 such assessments being approved annually, it is clear that most schools can only get assessments for a small proportion of those in need. Thus, some parents are forced to use private- practitioner psychologists, which can can cost from €600-800 each.
As a result, some children are accessing support in schools as outlined above, based on a privately funded psychological report, whereas others, often with far greater need of intervention, cannot access it, because their parents cannot afford to pay. This is hugely detrimental to the child's long-term development. All children deserve equal access to support services appropriate to their condition, and such access should not be determined by the size of their parents bank balance.
• You can talk back to Brian Mooney at bmooney@irish-times.ie
