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Southampton Psychology Service: Emotional
Literacy Support Assistants
Since April 2001 there have been five
Emotional Literacy Support Assistants
(ELSAs) working within Southampton Psychology
Service. They offer peripatetic support
to children in Southampton Pre-schools
and Primary Schools who, in the view of
the referring educational psychologist,
would benefit from a period of individual
support to develop specific skills within
the area of emotional literacy. This may
be at the level of recognising and labelling
emotions, developing social/friendship
skills, raising self-esteem or managing
anger/conflict. The priority targets are
agreed by pre-school/school staff and
the referring EP.
The ELSAs have all had
extensive experience working within schools
as LSAs, supporting pupils with a range
of learning or emotional difficulties.
They each have relevant qualifications
and receive continuing professional development
appropriate to their new role. The ELSAs
receive regular supervision from the EP
co-ordinating the project.
One of the aims of this
service is to cascade skills and knowledge
of useful resources to LSAs working in
schools. In this way, other children who
do not receive direct support from the
ELSAs may nevertheless benefit from the
interventions modelled. There is an expectation,
therefore, that the school will nominate
one of its own LSAs to shadow some of
the sessions delivered by the ELSA so
that the school LSA may offer on-going
support to the target child (as well as
other children with similar needs) once
the ELSA's involvement ceases. ELSA support
may normally be expected to last between
five to eight weeks. Sessions would usually
be weekly though in some cases there may
be more frequent involvement over a shorter
time period. The length of sessions will
depend on the age and needs of the pupil
but would typically last between 30 minutes
to an hour. The work is on an individual
basis but, where appropriate, peers may
be drawn in for small group activities.
At the end of involvement, the ELSA will
write a short report of their work for
the referring Educational Psychologist.
The ELSAs received an
intensive 3 week training and induction
programme led by educational psychologists,
and had weekly supervision from the project
co-ordinator throughout their first term.
The service has made a very good start
and is being well received by schools.
It is already clear from just one term
of working with this talented and creative
group of people that they have much to
offer Southampton children in the area
of emotional literacy. They are a valuable
addition to the Psychology Service.
Sheila Burton, Educational
Psychologist, Southampton Psychology Service
Added Spring 2002
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