One may not know it but there is growth in recognizing children with learning disabilities. It takes a lot of effort to determine such findings but through the painstaking efforts of professionals like the educational diagnostician, they have come up with ways and means to help and support such children to give them a much brighter future.
What is an Educational Diagnostician?
An Educational Diagnostician is someone who analyzes and evaluates the learning difficulty of a student.
Duties of an Educational Diagnostician
- This kind of profession is part of a team of professionals of different expertise who gather their skills together to decide on the placement of a student with learning disabilities. This job has lots of responsibilities so it is important that an educational diagnostician be someone who can handle pressure.
- One of the main responsibilities of an educational diagnostician is to administer tests to referred students and the ability to interpret such tests given to parents, teachers, principals and the appropriate people to discuss the test results and evaluation. This job demands that the diagnostician has proper knowledge of individual assessment mechanics and processes. He should also know how to build rapport with the students being observed and understand the developmental steps of a child or an adult. He is careful to note that in assessing tests, the individuality of a child is included wherein culture or ethnic factors should be taken into consideration. Test evaluation and re-evaluation is also conducted to students with continued speech or language problems or difficulties in other learning areas to find out the origin, objective and recommendation to the district assessment team.
- As a professional, it is required that the educational diagnostician performs his duties and responsibilities well. He should follow within the policies imposed according to the Federal and State Law, State Board of Education Law and local board policy among others. He should also attend seminars and workshops in order for growth in his profession take place. He is also updated with the latest trends in special education legal developments.
- It is understood that he practices confidentiality of the interviews and records of clients. He is able to build good interpersonal communications with the school staff and management particularly the special education team that he belongs to.
- As per request by the school, an educational diagnostician is tasked to conduct IEP meetings or reviews and give support and clinical knowledge on speech/language disabilities.
- Holds consulting services to the community, school and families of children with learning disabilities to enlighten them on the educational needs of the student.
Work Condition of an Educational Diagnostician
An educational diagnostician needs to have the ability to work under stress and he should be able to communicate well with the students requiring their assistance in speech/language learning disability. An educational diagnostician is also someone who loves to work with children and has the patience to understand them.
This job requires focus and can demand long or irregular working hours. Traveling within the region is part of the duties of this kind of job.
Educational Requirements of an Educational Diagnostician
An educational diagnostician needs to have a Masters Degree on Special Education and a certification course specific to the state requirements for educational diagnostician licensure. At least three years of teaching experience is required for this position.
Occupation and Progress of an Educational Diagnostician
This kind of occupation is becoming a trend nowadays. A lot of positions need to be filled as the demand is getting higher for an educational diagnostician. Advancement in this kind of work is great as many large districts hire this type of job for Directors of Special Education.