Discuss the need for collaboration between teacher and psychologist in supporting a childs

language development with SEN.

The collaboration between teacher and psychologist in supporting a childs language
development with SEN is so crucial and is the bridge that is needed to solidify a steady but
also progressive educational journey for the child in question. The psychologist is such an
important element but also support when a child has SEN because of the range of duties and
checklists he/she can fulfil with the child when the teacher is carrying out their job, which is
to teach the whole class scene. The psychologist carries a number of roles which include:
assessment, observation, use of diagnostic tools, consulting and writing reports to make
formal recommendations, designing therapeutic and behavioural programs, conducting active
research, liaising with others professionals and attending case conferences involving
multidisciplinary teams on how best to meet the social, emotional and behavioural and
learning needs of the children and young people in question. These roles are so very crucial
and essential in the collaboration as the teacher would not be able to carry all this out alone.
While the teacher is indeed required to monitor, detect and draw attention to any special
educational needs that he/she believes are evident and progressing in their class, it would
simply be impossible but also inefficient for the teacher to carry out the duties of the
psychologist at the same time. Instead the teacher and psychologist can work simultaneously
and in collaboration so that each duty, step and precaution is carried out in the most efficient
and effective manner.
Psychologists can be referred to work in a school and can be sourced from a number
of organisations such as the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS), Health
Service Executive (HSE), Education and Library Boards (NI), Voluntary Agencies, Academic
Institutions and Private Practices. While many psychologists do indeed work from the above
branches, NEPS would be the primary source of psychologists in Irish schools. NEPS
psychologists work with both primary and post-primary schools and are concerned with
learning, behaviour, social and emotional development. Each psychologist is assigned to a
group of schools. NEPS psychologists specialise in working with the school community.
They work in partnership with teachers, parents and children in identifying educational needs.
They offer a range of services aimed at meeting these needs, for example, supporting
individual students (through consultation and assessment), special projects and research.
In my first school placement experience, I saw a psychologist working primarily with
children who were displaying social-emotional behavioural difficulties. However in my last
placement, I worked with a child in resource who was only six years old and had not yet been
diagnosed. He struggled to retain attention, eye contact, and any form of focus or
conversation. While he was a very pleasant child, he couldnt possibly keep up with his
resource class schedule, let alone the mainstream class setting. There was a clear need for a
psychologist here and the resource teacher who worked with him so closely pushed for an
assessment as soon as possible so that she could help him in the best way that she could
however I saw first-hand, just how difficult it was to get a psychologist to come to the school.
While NEPS provides an essential service to Irish schools, it is perhaps evident in many cases
that it is often difficulty to get a hold of this service and thus, there is a delay on this crucial
collaboration between psychologist and class teacher.

Rebecca OBrien PMEd2