Sometimes families know there’s something getting in the way of their child flourishing in school, but they don’t always know what to do to help them.
An educational psychologist can work with families to identify their child’s strengths and needs, and to understand how these might be affecting their learning.
At Firefly we know how important education is, and how upsetting it can be to see your child is struggling at school. We believe that, in the vast majority of situations, educational settings do a great job of supporting young people with additional needs, and our advice would always be to speak to the SENCo as a first step.
We also know, however, that occasionally this process can break down. In this situation, Firefly can and does take on parental referrals. The aim of this work is always to support communication between home and school, to help identify potential barriers to learning, and offer suggestions for how your child can be supported to flourish.
FAQs
I typically work with children from birth to 25.
No. Over the years, I’ve worked with many children who have not been attending school for a variety of reasons. I have previously seen children at home, in Alternative Provisions, at play group, youth group, and even in the park. I can work wherever the young person is most comfortable, although, as an educational psychologist, I am always interested in seeing where they do their formal learning. If they are not currently attending school for whatever reason, it is often helpful if I can see them interacting in different ways with different people, such as with siblings at home, or other people in a different setting. This helps to give a fuller picture of their strengths and needs.
I value pricing transparency but this is a complicated question as each child is so different. Firefly’s pricing structure is largely based on how much time is required to do a piece of work, and this depends ultimately on the referral question, which assessments are needed, how your child responds to working with me, and how much support you need. Costings will be discussed and agreed during the initial discussion, and any potential changes to this will be discussed with you.
To give you an idea of what costings might look like, these are a few examples of actual pieces of casework.
Child A – Literacy difficulties. A Y6 girl was referred to me due to concerns regarding her reading. I spoke to her teacher and the teaching assistant who ran her reading intervention. I then looked through her intervention folder and carried out a full day of assessment with the girl, including cognitive, phonological and attainment assessments. I wrote a full report highlighting strengths and needs, as well as making recommendations. I held a feedback meeting with the school and family, and had a separate meeting with the girl. The cost for this was £1,000
Child B – Emotionally based school avoidance. A Y4 child who hadn’t attended school for a term. A stepped programme was developed and implemented with the family and school. No direct work was carried out with the child, but a series of meetings over a term were held with the family, school, and teaching assistant. A report was written to inform an EHCP application. The cost for this was £850
Child C – Difficult behaviour in school. A Y9 was at risk of exclusion. I met with the young person and engaged him in some solution-focussed planning. I then held a consultation meeting with the family and school and wrote a consultation record that detailed recommendations and agreed actions. £500
No. Autism is a medical diagnosis that requires information and agreement from different professionals. For example, a speech and language therapist, a psychologist, an occupational therapist, and often a psychiatrist. Firefly’s reports are often used as part of this process, but for the reasons stated above, I do not diagnose Autism by myself.
No, not at this time.
All sorts!
The casework referrals Firefly gets cover a wide range of questions and challenges, including issues with, learning, social skills, emotions, behaviour, and communication. Firefly has access to a broad range of assessment tools that can help me understand why your child might be struggling, not just what they are struggling with. Some examples include looking at a young person’s cognitive ability (how they reason, plan and problem-solve), their attainment (how their academic skills are developing), and specific issues that may exist around their literacy skills, mathematical skills, attention control, memory, how well they can inhibit their actions, how quickly they think, how they relate to others, and how well they manage their emotions.
All the assessments Firefly carries out are comprehensive and aim to give insight into your child’s strengths and needs so we can think about what might help to support them. For some families, assessment is not needed and using a consultation framework is more helpful. Firefly enjoys working collaboratively with schools and families in this way.
For more about this, see our article, What is an Educational Psychologist? A guide for parents and carers.
Normally, yes. The type of written record, and the level of detail included will be discussed with you during the initial meeting.
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