Educational Psychology Input - Age 4

In his last term at school nursery, T1 was observed in nursery informally by his Educational Psychologist.  Following this, she called a Formal Consultation Meeting at school to discuss her findings and to plan for T1's transition into Primary 1.  At this stage, T1 did not have a formal diagnosis of ASD or Aspergers so we were really just discussing how he presented at home and at nursery and the benefits of a possible diagnosis on his education.  DP and I said that we would like to pursue an official diagnosis so that T1 could be as supported as he needed to be in primary school.  I let the school staff and Educational Psychologist know that I would be seeing my GP to ask him if T1 had been referred to the Child Development Team and if not, that I wanted him to be.  During the meeting we also discussed practical things that might help T1's tranisition to Primary 1 such as practicing the lining up process, meeting his teacher a bit more than the other children and having his own space at the edge of the changing room to get changed to avoid the bustling about of other children when he had to concentrate on getting changed.

I feel that nursery and school staff were very supportive at this stage.  He recieved a good report from nursery at the end of the year and this was due to their patience and effort at helping him in areas where he was struggling.  One example of this was when they sent T1 home with the nursery camera to take some pictures of his favourite toys so that they could use them on a chart to encourage him to get himself changed at the start and end of nursery.