You may be wondering what Psychoeducational Assessment is all about and what you (and your child) might expect from it.  The assessment procedure need not be a mysterious process and hopefully this letter will help you to understand what your child will undergo, and why that is.

First, all children develop at different times and in different ways.  As educators we have a good idea regarding what an “average” child should be achieving at different times in their educational career.  However, we are also cognizant that children develop at different rates and meet certain learning milestones at different times.  Sometimes the hard part is determining if a child’s difficulties are developmental, learning or something else.  That is where a Psychoeducational Assessment can help.

What a Psychoeducational Assessment IS

While each of the above areas may be looked at, there is no guarantee that all will.  I try to talk to the teacher and determine where they are seeing difficulties. From there I try to develop a game-plan to assess areas where I think further information will be useful.  To do this I have a number of tools that assist me.  No one tool acts as a singular indicator.  Instead, I use them in conjunction with interviews, observations, history reviews and any other information I can find that might help me to understand your child.

I will make contact with a child’s family during the process to talk about what I am doing (the game-plan) and try to gather further information.  This is done in the form of a Client History Questionnaire.  The information you provide is only utilized to help me determine possible reasons for your child’s difficulties in the school setting.  The reason information regarding a child’s home situation is extremely useful is that it is very important to determine if certain problems/ behaviors are seen across settings.  That way I can determine if a problem might be only school related (we might need to change something in the classroom), or in both settings (we might have to work together to try some possible solutions to help your child).  As well, a thorough history helps determine if there is anything that might be affecting a child’s progress that may not be initially considered. These kinds of things (such as sleeping, diagnosis, medical conditions, medication, etc.) may seem like an intrusion on the home setting but I can ensure you that each helps either rule something out, or identify an area where further exploration may be warranted. The goal is to identify the cause of the challenges that your child is having in the school setting.

Determining emotional/ behavioral issues that might be getting in the way of your child’s learning is not an exact science and I utilize several different techniques in order to attempt to do this.  One of the tools I use is called the BASC II (Behavioral Assessment Scale for Children Version II).  This is a questionnaire filled out by the teacher and parent that looks at similar behaviors across both settings.  While some of the questions may seem irrelevant, they are important as we look at things that may be standing in the way of your child’s learning.  The questionnaires are not designed to act as a judgment of parenting or teaching skills.  Instead, they are just designed to act as a possible guide for me to determine what is present and what is not.  Again, my goal is to help your child to achieve, not judge parenting or teaching.

What a Psychoeducational Assessment Is NOT

A Psychoeducational Assessment is not designed to do the following:

1. Diagnose a medical condition
2. Act as the only form of information that can help your child.
3. Pry into your family’s personal life or judge in any manner

An assessment is only attempting to gather factual information and then, based on this information, make recommendations regarding how your child might best be helped to achieve in the educational setting. I try to make this an open process and have the family involved.  At the end of the process we will meet, we will go over the results; we will talk about them and then discuss recommendations.  A formal report will follow with the results and recommendations presented in greater detail.  A copy of the report will be sent home and will become a part of your child’s cumulative record, to hopefully benefit your child as class, level, or potential school changes occur throughout the years.

I welcome questions and look forward to speaking with you as we undertake this process together.  Please do not hesitate to contact me at 403-934-7721 to discuss this further.