Psychoeducational assessments: Answering important questions
As much as we may support our child, the obstacles they sometimes face seem bigger than us; this can lead us to feel frustrated, helpless, and alone. These obstacles may be noticed early in their development (difficulty understanding instructions, difficulty socialising with others) or later as the child progresses in school (reading, completing tests on time, organising tasks). This is when a psychoeducational assessment is important. It can provide a light in a long and dark tunnel, by shedding understanding of your child’s obstacles, leading a path towards solutions. Such assessments can help identify learning, neurological, developmental, or emotional disorders, as well as accommodations and support necessary in school and in life.
What is a psychoeducational assessment?
A psychoeducational assessment evaluates a child’s cognitive, academic and emotional abilities and needs. The goal of an assessment is to enhance the understanding of your child’s strengths and weaknesses, and help him/her to be as successful as possible.
An assessment can help answer questions such as:
Why is my child struggling in one subject but not others?
Why does my child cry at the thought of school or homework?
Why have my child’s grades declined?
Why must I repeat my instructions constantly to my child?
Why is my child struggling to make friends?
Why is my child anxious about school?
What is the process?
While each psychologist is different, psychoeducational assessments typically involve the following areas:
Background information: A clinical interview is conducted with the parents and teachers, where the psychologist is given information regarding the child’s development, aptitude, and difficulties.
a. This includes birth, developmental history, family history, medical history, academic history, social and emotional history. Your areas of concern will also be addressed, as well as your understanding of your child’s strengths and weaknesses.
b. For your information: This information does not guide the outcome or bias the psychologist’s view of your child. We are effectively trained to utilise the information you give us to help us create a diagnostic formulation of your child, as well as the appropriate intervention plan.
Cognitive functioning: The first stage of testing is done on a one-to-one level with the child, where cognitive standardised test is used. This helps determine how your child learns best, how they process information, their language abilities, concentration and attention levels, visual-spatial capacity, and memory.
a. In addition to their performance, the psychologist gains a lot of information from clinical observations from how your child approaches and solves problems. Do they talk through their problem? Do they work at their own pace? Are they impulsive in their responses? Are they weighing all possible options before answering? Do they have difficulty with complex instructions? Are they anxious about being timed? Do they become overwhelmed when a task seems too difficult?
Academic functioning: The second stage of testing involves academic testing. This provides a general image of your child’s academic knowledge, weaknesses, and strengths. It typically refers to reading, spelling, writing, and mathematics.
Social/emotional functioning: It is vital to look beyond merely your child’s cognitive and academic functioning, and also examine their social and emotional world. This can be done in many different ways depending on your child’s age and developmental level. Parent and child questionnaires as well as clinical observations through play, drawing, or role-play are the tools most often used.
When all the testing is complete, and the therapist has gathered adequate information, the results are put together in a thorough report. The parents are brought in once more to go over the report, and discuss the findings; this includes both the child’s strengths and weaknesses. Recommendations are given at the end of the report and the psychologist discusses if their services are needed further, and create an intervention plan.
How do I get my child assessed, and how long does it take?
In public schools within Cyprus, government-funded psychologists can carry out assessments. Due to the increasing need, however, be prepared for a long waiting period. Alternatively, a family can decide to carry this out privately. This will be done faster with a cost.
Who can do these assessments?
Psychoeducational assessments should be done by a licensed psychologist who has had adequate training and experience. While there are programs and specialists who can carry out some evaluations, they are not explicitly trained to conduct a comprehensive psychoeducational assessment.
How can I find a licensed psychologist who can do this?
Teachers tend to provide recommendations for psychologists, as do pediatricians or other parents. You can also turn to a psychological association that has a list of its members and their specialties.
When looking for the right psychologist to conduct the assessment, these are useful questions to ask:
What is your experience assessing children at this age?
What is the cost of the assessment?
How long does it take and how are you using that time?
What is included in the assessment?
How long after testing will I wait for the results and the report?
Will I receive a copy of the report?
What will be included in the report?
What is the process after?
Do you collaborate with the school and/or other specialists if needed?
How long does it take?
A comprehensive assessment typically takes an overall of 6 hours, but often more. As you can imagine, this can be tiring for a child or teenager to complete in one day, so it is often separated into several sessions. The overall time to complete the testing depends upon the child’s developmental level, age, concentration, and motivation.
What should I expect during the assessment sessions?
The amount of time necessary varies according to the child’s developmental level and age. It can be done all in one day, or over several sessions on different days. In the first session, the parents come in on their own without their child and have a conversation with the psychologist about their concerns. During the testing sessions, the child comes in without the parents and completes some activities
Shall I share the assessment report with my child’s school?
Every case is different. It is natural for the school to expect or ask for a copy of the report, in best collaboratively creating a support system for your child. It can ultimately help your child’s teachers to know where your child is flourishing, and where he/she is struggling, and how to best support them in their learning.
Did the assessment - now what?
Each psychologist works with their own style. Some provide more in-depth recommendations and interventions, and others are more general. In the final session with the parents, you are given the opportunity to not only hear the results of the assessment but also ask questions.
Depending on your child’s age, specifically, if they are in high school, they are often curious regarding their performance, so they may wish to join that session – and that is encouraged! It may help them from hearing that they are indeed capable individuals, but simply need some extra support or certain interventions to help them be as successful as they possibly can.