Navigating educational concerns can be challenging for families, educators, and organizations, particularly when a child is struggling academically, behaviorally, socially, or emotionally. Understanding what a student needs — and determining how to provide the right support — often requires looking beyond grades or individual behaviors.

Counseling Choices provides education consulting services designed to help families and professionals better understand educational needs, identify appropriate supports, and make informed decisions that promote student success.

Our approach brings together extensive experience in school psychology, special education, assessment, student support, and evidence-based educational practices.

Education Consulting with Autumn Robinson

Education consulting services are provided by Autumn Robinson, Ed.S., Nationally Certified School Psychologist, Licensed Psychological Associate #6712, and Education Consultant.

Autumn has more than 20 years of experience working in charter, parochial, and public school environments with children and young adults ranging from approximately two to 22 years of age.

Her professional background provides her with an understanding of both the individual needs of students and the systems in which families and educators must navigate those needs.

Autumn has extensive experience with special education processes and has worked with students presenting with a wide variety of learning, developmental, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive differences.

Her goal is to help families and professionals move from simply recognizing that a student is struggling to developing a clearer understanding of why the difficulty may be occurring and what can reasonably be done to help.

Helping Families Understand Their Child’s Educational Needs

When a child is having difficulty in school, parents may receive a tremendous amount of information from teachers, specialists, testing reports, meetings, and other professionals.

Even when everyone involved wants what is best for the child, understanding all of that information can be difficult.

Education consulting can provide families with an experienced professional who can help them better understand their child’s learning and developmental needs and consider practical next steps.

Depending on the circumstances, consultation may involve discussing concerns related to:

• Academic performance and learning
• Attention and executive functioning
• Behavioral or emotional concerns affecting school
• Developmental differences
• Special education needs
• School-based interventions and supports
• Previous psychological or educational testing
• Communication between families and schools
• Appropriate next steps when a child continues to struggle

Every child’s situation is different. Consultation is therefore tailored to the concerns, information, and goals presented by the individual family.

Special Education Consultation and Support

The special education process can be unfamiliar and sometimes overwhelming for parents.

Families may encounter new terminology, evaluations, intervention plans, meetings, eligibility considerations, and recommendations from multiple professionals. Parents may understand that their child needs help while still feeling uncertain about what questions they should be asking or what information is most important.

Autumn’s extensive experience within school systems allows her to help families better understand the educational processes surrounding students with disabilities and additional learning needs.

She has experience identifying and supporting children with a range of needs, including learning disabilities, ADHD, autism, intellectual disabilities, behavioral and emotional disabilities, and other developmental or educational concerns.

The purpose of consultation is to help parents become better informed about their child’s needs and more confident when participating in conversations about their education.

Understanding Testing and Evaluation Results

Educational and psychological evaluations can provide valuable information, but reports often contain scores, terminology, diagnostic information, and recommendations that may be difficult for families to interpret on their own.

Education consultation can help families put that information into context.

Rather than focusing solely on a test score or diagnosis, it is important to consider how the findings relate to the child’s actual experiences at school and at home.

Questions may include:

• What are the child’s strongest areas?
• Where are the most significant challenges?
• How might these challenges affect classroom performance?
• Are attention, executive functioning, emotional, behavioral, or developmental factors contributing to academic difficulties?
• What types of interventions or supports may be worth exploring?
• Would additional evaluation provide useful information?

Counseling Choices also provides comprehensive psychological, psychoeducational, and developmental testing when further assessment is appropriate.