Hello my name is Hannah and I'm an educational psychologist

EducationalPsychologist

Hello my name is Hannah and I'm an educational psychologist. My role involves helping parents and schools understand a child's needs and giving recommendations for ways they can help promote learning and development. I also carry out school staff training and consultations relating to the psychology of teaching and learning.
If you have concerns or worries about how your child is progressing at school - including learning, concentration, behaviour or social and emotional development - I will try and help. I can answer questions and offer advice relating to a variety of needs including; learning difficulties, the education of children in care, preventing bullying, gifted and talented children, emotional literacy and resilience, preschoolers, ADHD and Autism.

Please note that I work part time so it may take a couple of days for me to respond to questions.

Ask me a question.

chakri

I have a son nearly 10 years old now(year 5 at school).He was diagnosed with right side hemiparesis, when he was 10 months old.He has achieved most of his physical milestones with physio.He has had speech issues too but he is not in a bad state.He is not very verbally active at discussions in the class.He always has found creative writing challenging.He is doing alright in maths and other things in literacy.I need advice on,could his medical and speech issues be a reason to be not able to process information and put things on paper.I am really worried and need to know, what can be done to help him as this one area is holding him back to achieve his potential academically. We want to help him now, rather see him struggling in higher classes.

Thanks,
Awaiting for a reply with some useful guidance

chakri

EducationalPsychologist

See my reply on the other thread.

Fundamentalist

Hi Hannah, from Fm. I'd like to ask do you know about conditions like misophonia and severe heat intolerance? These can affect children as well as adults and they can absolutely ruin a person's entire life and make them totally unsociable and can cause them to always need the complete opposite of what everyone else needs or wants and of course this can lead to appalling conflict and serious incompatibility, I know, I speak from over 50 years of long, hard and brutal experience. I had been to no less than seven primary schools by the age of nine and then I was forcibly extracted from primary school and put in a so-called "special school" which was like prison and I was treated like absolute dirt by both other inmates and staff there alike for seven long, hard years and now more than 37 years after being let out of the place it's just like I'm still there even though I live alone and have done for decades and in all that time I have never had any personal company and I'm unable to find any because it looks like no-one wants anyone disabled like me. I also of course cannot work and I'm confined to welfare. This is what can happen to anyone born like I was and this of course is only the very tip of a very large and very ugly iceberg. Fm.

npatch

Hi Hannah. I have a 3.7yo son in nursery.  We have just been told by the school that he is not attached to a specific teacher in nursery. Another issue is my son does not interact with other kids in nursery.  I was also brought up to my attention that my son does not pay attention in group time.  He does not sit with the group and and he is distracting other kids. We have not noticed this behavoir from our son eventhough he is an only child. We take my son to the park and noticed he plays with children he hasn't even met. He interacts with my friend's older kids and adults more. My son can also count from 1 to 30. He is very good with his sight reading. He has even practiced writing his name and abc on paper but he still need to work on his fin motor skills. He loves books and can sit down while he asked me to read 3-5 stories.  My son is also strong willed. He insists what he wants to do thus we set limitations and boundaries when he does not follow instructions.  Our relationship with the key person and academic teacher is strained at the moment. We have been trying to get more information why it took them 3 mos before this concern was discussed with us. The teachers are also very defensive and not very forth coming when we ask why and how they conclude my son needs help. We are very concerned parents and have loads of questions from them. The situation was upsetting and we were not given reassurance from the teachers. I feel they have not asked us how my son is at home and if we can work in partnership with them. Can you please share your thoughts.