Educational psychologists use psychology techniques and research, alongside assessment and monitoring of children and young people. They do this to help schools and other education providers to improve teaching and behaviour [1].
Most are employed by local authorities, although more are starting to work for themselves [2]. They will usually get involved when a school needs help with a pupil’s behaviour, learning difficulties and emotional well-being [3].
As well as working with individuals, they will work with schools to provide training, develop long term plans and do research to improve behaviour [4].
How do you become an educational psychologist?
They are trained health professionals, usually with a psychology degree and some experience working with children and families. They will then do a further three years of training to be given the title of doctor [1].
There are only a few hundred employed across the UK. Government research in 2019 suggested that the demand for educational psychologists was much bigger than the number of people joining the profession [2].
Why are they important?
Every young person is different, and so will be the problems they will face during their education. Understanding that diversity, and making changes to address these different needs, is a very important point.
The use of educational psychology recognises that diversity by taking a child-centred approach, in other words it focuses on a child’s specific needs.
At Say It with your Chest, we believe that you can’t treat all young people the same and expect to get the best of everyone. The individual needs must be taken into consideration. This is why we tailor all our programmes and material.
The different programmes that we deliver to support young people are:
If you want to find out more about what we do then get in touch.
References
[1] https://www.aep.org.uk/training/want-to-be-an-ep/
[3] O’Hare, D.P. (2021, October 22). Educational psychology. edpsy. https://edpsy.org.uk/about/educational-psychology/
[4] https://teaching.blog.gov.uk/2017/11/03/educational-psychology-in-a-multi-academy-trust/