It is common for parents to be concerned about their child’s struggle with reading, writing, or mathematics as they progress through elementary and high school. Their classroom teacher may express concern that your child is falling behind and would benefit from more support. This may be an appropriate time to consider a psycho-educational assessment.
Depending on the type of psychological assessment, an assessment may examine a student’s thinking, learning, attention, and/or their social-emotional functioning. An assessment can help us understand a student’s strengths, areas of need, and provides recommendations for support at home, school, and in the community.
For example, a psychoeducational assessment involves a standardized assessment of a child’s intellectual abilities and academic skills. The assessment includes: clinical interviews with your child and parents/guardians, a review of their report cards, administration of standardized tests and completion of parent/teacher questionnaires. Once completed, the results of the assessment are integrated to provide an understanding of the student’s strengths and areas of needs in a written report and verbally communicated at a feedback appointment.
During the intake appointment, we decide together what type of assessment is appropriate given the scope of your referring clinical questions. In general, If we start with a psycho-educational assessment but determine along the way that attention, autism spectrum, or social-emotional functioning should be assessed, the assessment can be customized for an additional fee.
What types of assessments do you offer?
Psycho-educational Assessment: This type of assessment identifies areas of strength and weakness in a child or teenager’s academic learning profile. It provides an understanding of their intellectual (cognitive) abilities and current academic skills (reading, writing or mathematics). It may also highlight whether or not a diagnosis of a learning disability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or an intellectual disability is present which can interfere with learning.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Assessment: This type of assessment includes a discussion about your child or teenager’s developmental history, social communication, restrictive and repetitive behaviours using a clinical interview, questionnaires, or ADOS-2 when indicated. It may also indicate whether or not a diagnosis of ASD is warranted.
Social-Emotional Assessment: This type of assessment, sometimes referred to as a mental health or psycho-diagnostic assessment, includes a discussion about your child or teenager’s anxiety or mood related concerns. It may provide diagnostic clarification in determining whether or not a student meets criteria for Anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Social Anxiety Disorder, Phobia), mood (Depression, Dysthymia/Persistent Depressive Disorder), or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
Please Note: We do NOT provide any of the following types of psychological assessments: custody/access, parenting capacity, parenting alienation/reunification, WSIB, motor vehicle accident (MVA), medical-legal, French-immersion, or immigration/citizenship assessments. We suggest using the Ontario Psychological Association (OPA) directory to contact another private practitioner that focuses on these types of assessments.