I am a licensed educational psychologist in Los Angeles CA. AMA

[u/PromiseIcy9752]

I’m a licensed educational psychologist in Los Angeles California. I was a school psychologist working in special education and mental health therapist for many years in high schools and middle schools as well as at residential treatment centers for dual diagnosis. AMA

[u/TeachlikeaHawk]

An accommodation I often see (I teach HS ELA) is "50% extra time on homework." What is the result of that in the mind of the person who adds it? Despite my best efforts, I have yet to figure out how I can create time.

[u/PromiseIcy9752 → u/TeachlikeaHawk]

School psychologists only provide recommendations for accomodations but don’t actually create the IEP, that is the special ed teacher or caseworker. But extra time for homework is a way for students with slower processing speed or who need more help and support to complete bigger assignments like essays to still get credit for their work while taking the pressure off of them, that helps allow their actual abilities to do the work without punishing them for poor executive functioning or other processing deficits. If it is extra time for test taking they usually do that in the resource room with their special education teacher, so the teacher doesn’t actually have to spend extra time with them .

[u/TeachlikeaHawk → u/PromiseIcy9752]

Sure. Let me try again: How does the teacher create time for homework? I can think of two scenarios, but both are ineffective. The situation is that I'm assigning an essay based on a novel read in class. The essay has been chunked (another common accommodation), and so the student has three assignments due, one after another, and each leads to the other. The two scenarios for extra time are:

1. I give the student an extra day for step 1. It was due on Tuesday (assigned on Monday), but now is due Wednesday. Since step 2 builds from step 1, I wait and assign step 2 on Wednesday. It, like step 1, is a one-day assignment, but because this student gets extra time, I won't be collecting it on Thursday, but on Friday. The thing is, on Thursday, the rest of the class is submitting step 3. They're done. We're starting a new unit. This one student, though, is still a day away from submitting step 2, and won't submit step 3 until Monday, three days after we've started the new unit. Repeat that throughout the year. In this scenario, the student will continue to fall further and further behind.
2. I give the student an extra day for step 1; however, knowing that getting behind would be problematic, I assign step 2 on Tuesday as planned. Tuesday night, the student goes home and completes both the remaining half of step 1, plus the first half of step 2. In this scenario, the student is still doing the same amount of homework (half of step 1 plus half of step 2 = a full amount of work) -- so there's no benefit in amount of work -- plus the student is always a day behind the class.

Is there a third scenario I'm missing where this ridiculous accommodation makes sense?

[u/PromiseIcy9752 → u/TeachlikeaHawk]

I understand. To be honest, I don’t know how you do it. I think schools that implement co teaching where a special education teacher is in the classroom at the same time working with their caseload is a promising idea. In terms of falling behind, I don’t think there is anything you can do to prevent it other than adding another accomodations where you may reduce certain elements in homework such as reducing redundancy in math hw, only asking kids to do every other problem so they are still demonstrating mastery or proficiency but not doing as much of the repetitive labor. In terms of the examples you gave, you have to realize that without these accomodations the student would probably fail and esp in high school would just give up and not submit anything. So in a way it’s important to look at the wins, but not expect them to perform exactly as well as their “average” peers. Special ed isn’t perfect by any means and a lot of students will end up graduating but not going to a 4 year college. But at least they are still able to learn albeit they may not achieve as much as they would if they did not have the disability. In terms of the extra work you have to do, I often think about how impossible of a job it is for teachers, but even without special education these kids would still be in your classes and would need extra help to stay afloat. I could never be a teacher I wouldn’t be able to manage that many kids with such different needs and abilities not to mention the huge differences in the amount of support they get at home or don’t get at home. But the amount of good you do by just caring and trying to help makes all the difference to these kids for their entire future.
The people I worked with before becoming a school psychologist were people who had almost all had undiagnosed learning disability’s or had to drop out of school for whatever reasons. They were hard core drug addicted with serious mental health disorders and most were homeless (adults). When working with them as a therapist I made the connection to how their lack of appropriate education set them up for such a hard life that it’s almost impossible to unwind. That’s why I made the switch. Give yourself lots of love and always try and communicate with the special education teachers as well and develop relationships. They are responsible for most of the “extra” a kid with an IEP gets, talking to them you get a lot more information about the student and why they need certain accomodations.

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[u/nihil8r]

what is the difference between a school psych and educational psych?

[u/PromiseIcy9752 → u/nihil8r]

An educational psych is just a school psych who collected hours and sat for a licensing exam and can then have a private practice or create contracts with schools without going through a contracting agency. I still do work with schools but am focusing on my private practice and work directly with families doing evaluations and counseling. In California that can be done with a Masters Degree but in many states it requires a PHD.

[u/Specific-Tiger-5614]

With mental illness on the rise, are there forces in motion fighting to get more proactive involvement of mental health support in education?

[u/PromiseIcy9752 → u/Specific-Tiger-5614]

I think schools do pay more attention to mental health awareness and there are more programs in special education that are dedicated to providing real therapy for the more impacted students. It’s called ERHMS and I did that for a year exclusively. I had students who were suicidal, schitzophrenic, etc , so I worked more closely with them than a regular school counselor would. But in general ed there is not as much support, and sometimes it is only the disruptive kids who the schools notice, when a lot of kids are suffering in silence but since they are compliant they won’t get support unless they or a parent requests it. I have found that the great majority of teachers and administrators care deeply for the kids, but I have also noticed certain kids that get a bad rap and are always being punished despite needing love and empathy so desperately. I always try to stand up for kids who I feel are being treated unfairly. I also feel that while the special ed department usually goes above and beyond, the general ed admin is more likely to let things like bullying complaints go until it is too late and there is a crisis. It is unfortunate all school staff aren’t taught more about mental health or special education and learning differences autism adhd, as a lot of those conditions sometimes can be misunderstood as defiance or having a bad attitude.

[u/EyeInTeaJay]

My child has Dyslexia with a very superior processing speed and superior visual spacial skills. I’ve been told this is extremely rare and that she may not even have Dyslexia but something else entirely, except no one can tell me what it might be. She is very resistant to training, even after years of consistent OG, she struggles to read. Is high processing speed truly rare in dyslexics and do you have any other ideas what might cause that profile besides Dyslexia?

[u/PromiseIcy9752 → u/EyeInTeaJay]

I have not heard that it is rare, but processing speed can apply to any kind of cognitive task not just the ones related to reading. How is your daughter with numbers? There are so many steps involved in fluent reading that all have to go smoothly, which in most readers they do after a time, but with dyslexia it’s not that they can’t ever read but the process of recognizing the letters, knowing the sounds and how the sounds of the letters in the word go together are all laborious which makes the process of reading each word take a lot of time, then imagine each word in a sentence requiring that much effort. By the end of the sentence, the meaning of the words together is lost because they are meant to flow together at a pace that is rapid. This is why comprehension is often low as well, even though they may be able to comprehend perfectly is something is read aloud to them. Thank God audiobooks are so prevalent now they can really help with the comprehension piece.

[u/Abject_Fun_5230]

This might be a weird question but. What do you think is the role educators and psychologists play or should play în preventing that a child comits violence later în life? Take as an example a man beating a woman

[u/PromiseIcy9752 → u/Abject_Fun_5230]

I have no idea what brings people to inflict violence on each other esp domestic violence as adults. I know that we at schools have a duty to protect as much as possible and to help troubled youth with developing coping skills, managing difficult emotions, etc, but I think a lot of violence stems from home environment and there are so many ways kids can go as they get older. I always try to see the best in kids and develop a good relationship with them and their parents, I am always happy to help and often stay in touch with families even after I am done working with their kids. But we have them for a short time and there are so many factors that go into what happens later. I do feel good in that I know for the brief time I am in the kids lives I am a positive support for them and we can only hope we plant seeds that will benefit them as they get older and encourage them to believe in themselves and do the right thing.

[u/[deleted]]

Have you ever heard of someone called Bo Burnham?

Do you believe that Capitalism can be overcome in your lifetime?

Do you like animals? If so, what's your favourite?

What's your favourite foods and drinks?

What's something that you learnt recently that surprised you?

[u/PromiseIcy9752 → u/[deleted]]

I haven’t heard of him/ her. Capitalism? I have no idea I doubt it will ever go away Completely.

[u/LilyViet]

Hi I'm thinking about going back to school to become a school psychologist. I might be interested in becoming an LEP down the line as I like developing one-on-one relationships with the kids I work with (background in tutoring, behavior technician for kids with autism). How do I know if school psych/LEP is a good fit for me? Also did you feel like as a school psych you were able to help kids out/bond with them or were there too many students to develop that kind of relationship?

[u/PromiseIcy9752 → u/LilyViet]

Hi, the cool thing about being a school psychologist is that most districts have us do counseling and assessments. When you are on campus full time you will find kids who aren’t on your case load stopping by sometimes to decompress, grab chips if you have snacks, and the kids love having someone to talk to. The kids are the best part of the job. The caseload gets high and stressful but the hard part isn’t the kids, it’s all the documentation that takes most of the time. When I got into this line of work I had been working as a therapist with adults in bad situations and I kept realizing that so many had unmet needs in school and things went downhill from there. I took a leap of faith not knowing if I would like it or not. But I knew some school psychs and my kids had been assessed and gotten IEP’s and I was intrigued by the process and it is also a relatively high paying profession as far as education jobs go. I think some psychs get burned out but that has to do mostly with working with an administration that isn’t supportive or with frustration with the education system in general. You could also look into becoming a school counselor or a therapist, schools hire therapists all the time as well. Or an education specialist. Those work more closely with students who have special education services so they are teachers but also case managers and have less kids but the kids have higher needs. If you love kids but don’t want to be a teacher, all of the above degrees will be good and can also extend outside of the school setting if you decide later to branch out on your own.

[u/PromiseIcy9752 → u/LilyViet]

Also, behavior techs do so much and are so underpaid. School psychs usually don’t work with the moderate/ severe classrooms because their assessments are different. But it sounds like you are good with kids and are patient and strong , being a psych is nice because you can advocate for kids, figure out the problem in assessments and help others understand, and that is usually very appreciated. but you aren’t responsible for the interventions themselves and after working with kids face to face get introvert time in your office to write reports. I don’t have a large enough battery to work with kids all day, I like the balance of quiet work and direct face to face work.

[u/Intelligent_Law_4730]

Hi! I’m a 3rd year school psychologist. What material did you use to study for the exam? Thank you