All About Psychological Assessments

A Psychoeducational Assessment(also referred to as a psy-ed assessment) is a comprehensive evaluation designed to measure a child’s cognitive processing abilities (including logical reasoning, memory, attention, and executive functioning), his current level of academic knowledge in various subject areas, and to screen his social, behavioural, and emotional functioning.

Professional Perspective

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Dr. Ewa

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This assessment can specifically define both your child’s strengths and his areas of weakness, allowing the strengths to be amplified and the weaknesses to be targeted and overcome. For many children, having a psycho-educational assessment performed is the first step toward not only securing a diagnosis, but also accessing a range of timely interventions and support programs. 

A psycho-educational assessment is an intensive process, requiring interviews, the input of parents, teachers, and the child, one-on-one testing sessions, and observations. Once the assessment has been completed, however, you will be provided with a complete report detailing your child’s abilities and needs. You’ll also be connected with essential services (where appropriate), such as occupational therapy (for improving coordination and motor functioning), speech therapy, and academic support.

Parent/Caregiver Tip

Psychological Assessments can be very useful but if you are faced with a long waiting lest to have one done or are financially concerned or do not have insurance coverage, don’t be discouraged. By implementing the tips and strategies outlined in previous sections, you can begin to help your child right away.

The Words of The Expert

How do i know I should have one done? 

Know the signs that a psychoeducational assessment is needed.

All children have difficulties at school from time to time; it’s normal for an otherwise bright child to, for example, struggle with math. It’s also normal for children to have difficult weeks or months socially and behaviourally.

If, however, your child continues to struggle greatly and consistently in certain areas despite classroom accommodations/additional help being provided, it would likely be valuable to seek out a psy-ed assessment.

Additionally, some signs that your child would probably benefit from a psy-ed assessment include a progressively worsening attitude toward school (e.g. a complete loss of interest in school as a whole or the belief that he is “bad at school”), persistently disruptive behaviour in class, and/or a failure to learn basic intellectual, social, or behavioural skills (as appropriate for his age group).

It’s important to note that a child who is exhibiting disruptive behaviour at school but not at home is likely suffering from a learning disability rather than a behavioural issue.

A child suffering from an undiagnosed LD will often act out due to confusion, frustration, or simply the desire to create a distraction (either to avoid doing work he cannot easily complete or to avoid looking vulnerable in front of his peers).

Understand that the need for a psychoeducational assessment may not become clear until your child is older.

Many intelligent children with learning disabilities learn to compensate for their weaknesses early on in their academic careers and therefore successfully “mask” them for years. As such, it’s only when these children encounter a more strenuous curriculum in middle school or high school that their disabilities really begin to become apparent.

Do not assume that just because your child was very successful in school early on, he is free of cognitive, social, or behavioural difficulties—and do not hasten to judge him as lazy or defiant when he begins to show resistance. If your older child begins to lose interest in school, makes less of an effort to succeed, or becomes increasingly rebellious in an academic setting, it is worthwhile to consider performing a psy-ed assessment. Even an older child or teenager can benefit greatly from the many support programs available for young people with learning disabilities.

Prepare both yourself and your child for the assessment process.

As valuable as psy-ed assessments are, they aren’t a simple process to go through. Expect to provide a great deal of information detailing both your child’s medical and developmental history and his current social and behavioural functioning at the outset of the intake process.

Come prepared with any relevant medical reports and your child’s academic records and be ready to schedule a number of hours for your child to receive one-on-one testing. (It may be necessary for your child to be absent from school during this time and your child may need breaks to rest after each testing session.)

You may also wish to involve your child’s educators in the testing process as they can provide additional insight. In some cases, having a psychologist work directly with your child’s teachers in order to observe your child in class may also be helpful.

Time your child’s assessment well.
Because psy-ed assessments are usually performed with the aim of helping a child access academic support programs at the beginning of the school year, many parents wait until late summer or early fall to have their child’s assessment performed.
Unfortunately, this often means that the school cannot secure a comprehensive Individual Education Plan (IEP) that same year, as these plans generally begin early in the fall (and take a great deal of time to create, as the school board has first to go through a process of review and identification known as IPRC ( more on this below).
Ideally, you should have your child assessed as soon as difficulties become apparent; this will give you and your child’s educators the time you need to develop an effective IEP. It is important that the assessment does not coincide with other significant changes in the child’s life, such as the birth of a sibling, moving to a new place, loss of a family member, etc.
If your child’s assessment coincides with the summer holidays, ask your child’s teacher if he or she would be willing to keep in touch over the summer months and communicate (via phone or email) with the psychologist performing your child’s assessment. This will help to lay the necessary groundwork for your child’s IEP, ensuring that he has access to the support he needs as soon as the new school year begins.
Once your child is placed on an IEP, he will have the opportunity to start the school year off on the right foot, helping him to form more positive associations with the academic environment. Many children with academic, social, or behavioural challenges begin to flourish very shortly after being connected with the support they need to succeed.
By Dr. Tali Shenfield

Professional Perspective

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Dr. Ewa

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Psychoeducational Assessment Components

This following information is taken from Educational care (a system for understanding and helping children with learning differences at home and in school) by Melvin D. Levine, Published 2002 by Educators Pub. Service in Cambridge, Mass.

Learning patterns, which can explain observed behaviors, appear within a battery of tests. For example, a seemingly inattentive child who has problems following directions may also score low on tests of oral comprehension. In Educational Care, Levine has presented tables of evaluation components: Educational; Behavioural & Affective; Cognitive & Developmental; Environmental; and Medical.

Evaluation Component:
General Descriptions of Subcomponents

Educational

Psychoeducational testing — observations of academic performance on standardized testing with documentation of “breakdown points.”

Reading: 

• Decoding accuracy and speed
• Comprehension
• Recall
• Summarization proficiency
• Overall speed and proficiency

Spelling: 

• Accuracy
• Error types
• Spelling in context (during writing activities)

Writing:

• Pencil grip
• Graphomotor fluency, rhythm, ease of output
• Legibility (manuscript and cursive)
• Mechanics (actual use of punctuation, capitalization; recognition of errors)
• Language usage (compared to oral language)
• Ideation (topic selection and development)
• Organization

Math:

• Factual recall and degree of proficiency
• Procedural recall and degree of proficiency
• Understanding of concepts
• Word problem-solving skill
• Visualization/geometric ability

General:

• Patterns of attention during academic work
• Use of strategies to facilitate work
• Level of performance anxiety
• Understanding of learning (metacognition)
• Enthusiasm, degree of interest
• Creativity
• Specific content affinities
• Direct classroom observations and error analyses by teachers
• Interpretations of historical data from parents and interview with the child

Behavioral & Affective

Direct observations, projective tests, and interviewing of the child to assess affect, seek other psychological conditions, determine child’s feelings about school problem(s) 

Use of parent, teacher, and (when possible) student questionnaires to elicit patterns of behavior and behavioral concerns

Cognitive & Developmental

Direct intelligence, neuropsychological, and/or relevant neurodevelopmental testing to detect neurodevelopmental strengths and weaknesses 

Use of questionnaires to document past and present neurodevelopmental function, affinities, and styles

Environmental

Interview with parents to elicit relevant factors in the current and past home environment of the child 

Consideration of cultural, peer-related, and community-based issues related to the student’s performance

Medical

Review of child’s medical history to uncover current or previous factors affecting school performance 

Complete physical examination to rule out any definable medical disorder associated with the child’s learning difficulty

Complete neurological examination to detect any possible central nervous system disorder

How Much Does It Cost?

In Canada, a psychoeducational assessment costs approximately in the $2,500-$3,000 range. In many cases, a parent’s workplace may have a health plan that can pay for at least some of this expense. There are subsidies offered by the government but waiting lists are long.