Psychological Testing
Being a parent today means keeping on top of your child’s education. The days of trusting that your child is doing their homework and meeting expectations until you see their grades at the end of the quarter are over. Today, parents are asked to monitor every aspect of their child’s classwork and homework and communicate with teachers regularly. This can be exhausting and confusing because parents don’t have expertise in education. But it can also be helpful, especially when students start to struggle academically.
All children develop at their own pace and development is not always a linear path, so it can be difficult to determine whether or not your child’s development is on track. And there are so many things to keep track of: academic areas such as reading and math, fine motor skills like handwriting, ability to follow directions, and social-emotional skills to name a few. Many times, children will have strengths and weaknesses that don’t seem to make sense and comparing them to their peers is often a recipe for disaster. But when a weakness in a student’s skills comes to light, what does a parent do?
As parents, we often hope that our child will “grow out of it,” telling ourselves they don’t need any outside intervention. But sometimes it’s a guessing game and if we guess wrong, our child is the one who loses. When a child is struggling academically, socially or emotionally, psychological testing, sometimes called psychoeducational testing can be the key. Psychological evaluations help parents or caregivers understand their child and how their brain works—this includes learning style, emotional functioning, social difficulties, and behavioral difficulties. Gaining this deeper understanding can help tremendously in knowing the next steps in how to help your child succeed, and also can ease some of the stress your family is experiencing.
What is a Psychological Evaluation?
Psychological Evaluations, also called Psychological Assessments, involve the formal assessment of a child’s abilities using a series of standardized measures to gain a more in-depth understanding of the child’s strengths and difficulties. This testing, performed by a licensed child psychologist, can be requested by parents, teachers, or other professionals working with the child such as a pediatrician, therapist, school counselor, speech therapist, or occupational therapist, among others.
What Does a Psychological Evaluation Assess?
Evaluations are specifically adapted to address each child’s area(s) of concern. Some of the measures that are typically assessed during an evaluation for a child or teen include:
Intelligence and general cognitive abilities
Academic skills such as reading, writing, and math
Executive function skills such as planning, organization, inhibition, and flexibility
Different Types of Attention
Learning and memory
Language and communication
Visual-spatial skills
Behavioral and emotional functioning
Social skills
What is the Testing Process?
Evaluations begin with parent interviews and parents completing online measures regarding their concerns for their child. Testing time varies for each Psychological Evaluation but the total time commitment for the both parents and children and adolescents is approximately 6-8 hours of testing. The type of testing will also vary but typically includes a variety of activities such as building designs and completing puzzles, answering questions on an iPad, reading, writing, spelling, math, drawing and memory games. Depending on the testing, it may also be necessary for the psychologist to speak with the child’s teacher. The evaluation then ends with a parent feedback meeting when parents can gain a better understanding of their child, and they are provided with a report as well as recommendations for next steps.
Rising Lotus in West Palm Beach offers Psychological Evaluations and Psychoeducational Evaluations for children ranging in age from 4 to young adults. Some of the testing available that may be helpful for your child is ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Learning Disabilities, and Giftedness. Call or email us today.