Psychoeducational Assessments:
(Age 6-18)
The goal of a comprehensive psychoeducational assessment is to help to identify your child’s strengths and weaknesses with respect to their problem solving and academic abilities. In addition to assessing your child’s eligibility for educational services/ programs, your psychologist can give you practical tools, strategies, and recommendations that may help your child achieve their fullest potential.
All assessments are tailored to the unique needs of each child, but may include an investigation of some or all of the following:
Intellectual Functioning:
A child’s intellectual functioning is assessed using what is commonly called an ‘IQ’ test. These are tests that are designed to measure children’s verbal problem solving skills, non-verbal problem solving skills, working memory, and the speed in which they can process routine, new information. These test results offer important information about how your child is best able to learn and demonstrate their knowledge. Psychologists can use this information to offer practical suggestions to help you and your child’s teacher adjust your child’s learning environment.
Academic Achievement:
An academic assessment provides information related to your child’s fundamental skills in reading, writing, and mathematic achievement. Psychologists use this information to determine your child’s areas of academic strengths and weaknesses, and to provide useful strategies based on your child’s unique learning profile. These recommendations can help to inform the goals in your child’s individualized program plan (IPP).
Focus and Concentration:
A child’s ability to sit for extended periods of time, listen, and follow instructions have strong implications for their ability to learn. Measures of a child’s ability to sustain attention, shift attention, and filter out distractions, as compared to the typical child at the same level of development, will help parents understand if their child is having difficulty in these areas. Suggestions of various environmental modifications/ teaching methods can then be offered.
Restlessness and Impulsivity:
A child’s ability to remain seated without fidgeting and inhibit impulsive behaviours is important for learning and social success. Information gathered through clinical observation, standardized testing, and parent/ teacher report are carefully compared to the typical child at the same level of development.
Emotional Functioning:
Assesses children’s anxiety (performance, separation, coping), mood fluctuations, and self-esteem through interviews, observations, and standardized measures.
Behavioural Functioning:
Assesses children’s behaviour through parent/ teacher interviews, as well as clinical and naturalistic observation. The goal of such assessments are to determine the triggers for a child’s behaviour and the environmental factors that may be inadvertently reinforcing these behaviours.
Social Functioning:
Assesses children’s ability to make friends, keep friends, understand social cues, and understand other’s perspectives. This is achieved through interviews, naturalistic observation, and standardized measures.
After the assessment process is complete:
Upon completion of the assessment, a feedback session will be scheduled with you to discuss the results of your child’s assessment, and the implications. Your psychologist will strive to deliver the results in a family-friendly manner. You will be encouraged to ask questions and share freely. Your psychologist will share with you the functional implications of the results (i.e., ‘what does this mean for my child in the classroom, what does this mean for my child at home, what does this mean for my child socially’). Strategies and recommendations will be discussed. At the end of the feedback session, you will have a clear understanding of your child’s functioning, and the goals of your assessment will be reviewed to ensure that they have been adequately addressed.