NEIC MDT – Multi Disciplinary Team
We are part of the NEIC (North East Inner City) Multi Disciplinary Team project (MDT) where a NEPS psychologist and speech & language and occupational therapist work in the school one day per week. The NEPS psychologist is employed by the Dept of Education and the SLT & OT are employed by the HSE. This has been a very successful pilot project which has made a big difference to the lives of the children. The MDT staff provide both guidance, support and advice to both teachers and parents whilst also undertaking work with the children. The staff are shared across the ten NEIC primary schools and cluster meetings are held for the staff of the schools. There is an overarching HSE psychologist who works primarily with parents & guardians and runs a parental advice clinic on the first Tuesday of each month.
NEPS
The NEPS (National Educational Psychological Service) psychologist offers advice and support and does assessments with children. She also facilitates programmes such as the Friends resilience building programme and introduced the Words Their Way spelling programme, which has seen considerable gains in spelling.
SLT
The Speech & Language Therapist (SLT) introduced us to Talk Time, an oral language development programme which has made huge inroads into oral language development. She takes children individually and in small groups for speech & language therapy and sometimes parents attend sessions with their child.
OT
The Occupational Therapist (OT) rolled out the Zones of Regulation across different classes to help the children develop and improve their self regulation skills. She takes children individually and in small groups for fine motor skills development and sometimes parents attend the sessions
