What are the roles and limitations of an educational psychologist in special education?

Question

What are the roles and limitations of an educational psychologist in special education?

Answer 1

They are an amazing source of information for the classroom teacher, but are not doctors.

Answer 2

The limitation the school psychologist had in our situation was not being able to tell me the TRUE problems my child has. He was mandated by the district sped director to NOT tell me ANYTHING.

When he finally did, he was FIRED

Answer 3

I feel they should be limited, but the high school where my son attended must have felt otherwise.  My son has Epilepsy and when he was having a certain type of seizure, one his neurologist say some psychologist mistake for a suicidal harmful to others episode, they handcuffed him and took him to the fourth floor. Psyc unit.Because of the things going on at the time with kids shooting up their own schools, they would not allow me to take my son out of the hospital until he was seen for four days, in that institition.  When I was able to ask my son why he said the things he did about hurting another student , who by the way was herrasing him at the time and making my sons life a living H---.   He responded that the psychologist kept asking him the same question.  You wanted to hurt someone for the way you were feeling didn't you. You wanted to hit them or worse Right? .   She kept putting ideas into my son's head, not what he was actually thinking.   My son finally said after hours of being kept in that office, that yes he would like to hurt them, because they had hurt him.  

My son had been bullied, pushed around, and at one point held down in the mud with his hands behind his back, he felt like he might die that time.  Did anyone do anything about the bullies, No!  they just gave them a good talking to and told that charges could be brought against them.  My son was the one who paid a week later, after so much stress and tortore, he sat down in the Cafeteria luchroom and put his knees to his chest because everyone that went by kept kicking them, and would not respond for about three minutes.  My son's seizure activity is on both sides of his brain and his doctor says that he could have any one of the types of seizures that some if not educated seems like they are depressed and possibly a danger to others. Simply because they have dark thoughts and if asked could recall them to memory. But never have they acted on these thoughts.  The school in question knew that my son had the Minie mal seizures, but did not care to educate themselve further.   They said he was in a fetal position, which was not true. Before he had the seizure he just pulled his feet out of the way.  Besides aren't you supposed to be laying down with your knees to your chest.

My son is very nice and has never harmed anyone, even the people who hurt him so badly.  Even very small children will pick him out of a group of people to talk to and play with. His own peers are the ones who redicule and make fun of him for his strange ways.  You see he also has OCD and now they want to diagnose him Aspergers.

I took my son out of that school shortly after this incident. I have never had one since.  Later I requested that their staff go to the Epilepsy foundation in my area and educate themselves and especially the Psychologist in their district. Who I felt took care of too many schools anyhow.  So I feel that a school psychologist might have too much power and not enough education.  Sorry about this I needed to vent.

Answer 4

An educational psychologist's role in NYS is to evaluate the child for learning disabilities.  In NYC they will tell you that the child has learning disabilities but NOT what the disabilities are.  IF they did that than the board of education would have to provide specific teachers to address specific problems.  IF they give you a generic "learning disability label" they don't' have to provide specific help.  They can put the child in a resource room for extra help.  Which does not really address the child's specific issues.   The limitations of the psychologist is just that, if they give specific disabilities than the department of education would have to either allow the child to move to a private school with the services that the child needs or to but them in a class with the services that the child needs.  The problem for most public school systems is that they don't' have teachers who know how to teach children who have dyslexia, dyscalcullia, or dysgraphia. These are three of the most common learning disabilities they are problems with reading, math and writing.  The next most common one is autism and asperger'ss syndrome which is a more mild form of autism.   These are presupposing that your child is not developmenatlly delayed.    The psychologist is limited in even if he knows that the child needs more than the public school can offer he's/she's not encouraged to make this known so that the child can truly get the services that they need.

Answer 5

A school psychologist is limited to the scope of practice by his position with the school. He/she is allowed to do testing for academics and LD's, they are not allowed to do diagnose any disorders. To do so would make the school liable for providing treatment and or counselling. They are responsible for staff education relating to the disorders/LD's as the school deams appropriate. Follow-up testing, and reccommendations for learning are also in their realm of responsabilities.

Answer 6

I have never heard of an educatiobnal psychologist in my 16+ years as a public secondary special educastion teacher.  However, if you mean a school psychologist, their primary limitation I see in the 6th largest school district in California is that they basically spend most of their time doing assessments and virtually no time participating in therapeutic interventions.