What we do | Availability & Cost | Contractual Arrangements

Real Psychology specialises in providing child and adolescent psychological assessments as expert witnesses for legal proceedings.

As Expert Witnesses, we offer psychological assessments of the needs of children
and young people involved in Family Law proceedings. We also undertake educational assessments, including work for the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST).

We are highly skilled in talking with children, as well as in using psychometric assessments and projective assessments to triangulate information.

Our expertise lies in our ability to assess children and young people and to communicate our understanding to others.

Our work will typically involve an analysis of:

Developmental progress

• social, emotional and behavioural skills
  
• functional language skills
  
• self-help and independence
  
• an assessment of self esteem

Abilities and Attainments

• cognitive skills and abilities
• assessment of current curriculum skills and attainments, including literacy
  and numeracy skills
• identification of special educational needs and appropriate interventions to support the development of new skills and successful outcomes

Attachment

• the pattern and quality of a child or young person’s attachments and relationships to significant care givers
• the child's perceptions of family relationships
  
• likely impact of past experiences on current presentation
  
• identification of the extent to which the significant adults in the child’s
  life are able to understand and meet the child’s needs
  

Resilience

• the impact of previous loss, separation and trauma experienced by a child / young person
• the nature and extent of the child's individual psychological resillience and coping strategies
  

It is central to our work that the child or young person feels relaxed, secure, comfortable and confident during assessment. Consequently, we do not use clinic based settings and we always travel to the environments familiar to the child.

Typically, we see the child / young person in  their pre-school / school setting,  we undertake classroom and playground observations  as well as discussions with teaching staff. Where instructed, we also see children in contact with their parents/carers in other familiar environments.