Child assessments: scheduling parents and child sessions

Start with a parent interview that parents book online, then schedule the child's sessions and the feedback yourself, at times that fit school and family life. Each step is its own service with its own slot length. Bookings are made in the parent's name, with the child's first name and age in the note, and you book the rest of the series from your calendar at the end of the parent interview, so the family leaves with every date in writing.

The steps and lengths are examples: adapt them to the child's age and the assessment you choose. On Book, each service has a name, an optional description and a price, and each slot belongs to one service with its own start and end. With a young child, you may prefer shorter sessions; you decide how to split the work.

Parents are the ones who book. Open slots for the parent interview on your page and describe it clearly: the child doesn't come, it lasts about an hour, and the next steps will be planned together at the end. Ask parents to bring school reports, previous assessments or letters from other professionals, if they have them.

The booking form asks for one person's first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note. Ask parents to book in their own name and to write the child's first name and age in the note, for example "for Léo, 8". If both parents come, one booking is enough; they simply come together.

Children's sessions compete with school, activities and a parent's work. A few ideas for your week:

Book has no hidden services, so the simplest approach for child sessions is to create the slots you agree with the parents and book the child into them straight away. A slot with one place disappears from your public page as soon as it's booked. If you enter the parent's email, they get a confirmation for each session with a calendar file.

The booking note appears in the email you receive and in the calendar file the parent receives. Use it for planning only: "Léo, session 2 of 3", "feedback to parents". Keep observations, results and the reasons for the assessment in your records. In the description of the parent interview, ask parents not to write details about the child's difficulties in the booking form, and to keep them for the interview.

When parents live apart, each may need to receive the dates. The booking holds one email, so agree with the family who receives the confirmations, and share the dates with the other parent by your usual means. If each parent comes to a different session, you can book one in each parent's name.

An assessment may need input from a teacher, a speech therapist or a doctor who already knows the child. Book doesn't collect documents, so tell parents in the interview description what to bring on paper, or how to send it to you by your usual secure means. Leave enough days between the parent interview and the first child session to read what they give you. If you want to call a teacher, keep that time free in your own calendar rather than as a public slot.

Book the feedback with the parents at a date that leaves you time to score and write. If you want the child to join for part of it, plan the length accordingly and say so in the note. If a session has to move, because the child is ill or the report takes longer, reschedule it from your bookings list and tell the parents yourself: Book doesn't email clients about changes, and clients can't move bookings online.

Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited bookings and services, no commission and no contract. It doesn't handle payments or store reports.