Adrian Gavin, senior educational psychologist with the National Educational Psychological Service in Co Mayo, gets great satisfaction from helping children reach their potential
Most of Adrian Gavin's work as an educational psychologist involves visiting schools and helping pupils who experience learning difficulties and talking to their teachers.
A problem is usually identified firstly by the child's parents or teacher and the school's learning support teacher will also have tried to help before the educational psychologist is consulted.
As one of four educational psychologists working with the National Educational Psychological Service (Neps) in Co Mayo, Gavin has 30 schools to cover, of which about 25 are primary schools.
Dealing with individual children, or casework as it is called, takes up some 65 per cent of his time.
In assessing a case, he meets a child's teachers and parents, and often observes the child in the classroom. He usually meets the child, sometimes carrying out formal tests of the child's abilities, but this isn't always necessary.
He stresses that his role is not about telling parents or teachers what to do.
"Often it is not about giving advice - the solution has to come from people on the ground - there is no point in me going out and saying 'do this, this and this, and it'll be okay'. It is important to stress to parents the role they can play in finding a solution," he says.
While the parent and teacher will always know the child better than the psychologist, he says he can bring "models of practice that have worked elsewhere", and can also carry out standardised tests that give a full picture of the child's abilities.
Even if a child has learning difficulties, it is also possible to highlight their strengths.
"Progress is often made by highlighting these strengths," he says.
The aim is to draw up an "individual education plan" for the child. He says it is important to draw up a plan that is realistic and in which roles and responsibilities are clearly spelled out. Targets can be very varied, dealing with issues from self-esteem to literacy skills.
While 65 per cent of his time is concerned with casework, the other major part of the job is "support and development" of schools.
For example, if a school has a number of children with literacy difficulties or dyslexia, he will give a presentation on dyslexia to teachers during an in-service day, outlining strategies that can be used and resources available to help children with dyslexia.
The job also involves liaising with other agencies and professionals, including the Health Service Executive, special needs organisers - who can arrange for extra resources for schools - and speech and language therapists.
As the senior psychologist in the Mayo service, he also has administration work to do.
After a day spent in a school, he then returns to the office to write up reports.
"A day's work in a school nearly always generates another day's work in liaising with other professionals who may be involved with the child, in providing feedback to parents and teachers and in writing up a report based on the discussion and assessment findings."
A former principal of a primary school, he says he enjoys working with schools, where he finds "a great spirit, not driven by numbers or commercial targets" and the main satisfaction he gets from the job is in helping children to reach their potential.
(In interview with Theresa Judge)