Having your child evaluated can help identify learning styles, special education needs, giftedness, school readiness, and emotional concerns. You will gain a fuller understanding of your child’s unique intellectual and emotional functioning.
Parents seek meaningful and effective treatment recommendations. When you know more about your child’s intelligence level (IQ), coping skills, executive functioning, and social and emotional development, you can be a better advocate for his or her academic, emotional, and social needs.
When I consult with your child’s teachers, I strive to optimize your child’s success and build his or her confidence level. Working together, we can develop strategies to solve your child’s problems both at school and at home. Sharing results of an evaluation with teachers helps the team construct a framework for understanding your child’s cognitive strengths, weaknesses, and learning style. This information is important for your child’s progress through school and various educational and social challenges.
Standardized Intelligence Test
Standardized intelligence tests measure general and specific aspects of intelligence or aptitude. Related cognitive processes such as memory, attention, visual-motor processing skills, executive functioning and non-verbal spatial abilities can be evaluated. School programs often require some testing for eligibility into a variety of programs such as special education, gifted enrichment classes, and entry into kindergarten. Assessing school readiness combines standardized intelligence testing and a brief assessment of your child’s socio-emotional development. If warranted, measures of psychological resiliency are included. Executive functioning is assessed using standardized measures, observations, examination of work products, and interviews.
Tests are chosen specifically to meet your child’s needs: what information would be most helpful for educational and/or treatment purposes?
Personality Test
Personality tests are used to evaluate emotional development, personality style, and coping resources. They provide essential information for diagnosis, too.
You, your child’s pediatrician or psychiatrist, or other service providers may recommend your child undergo a comprehensive psychological evaluation. This includes the examination of personality functioning and emotional development, as well as some intelligence testing. Perhaps there is concern about mood shifts, irritability, sadness that is unexplained, lack of interest in activities and friends, nervousness, or habits that occupy a lot of your child’s time. A fuller diagnostic understanding of your child can assist physicians when they select medication, help schools craft effective accommodations for students, guide the development of IEPs, and produce key treatment recommendations for psychotherapy. Depending on the referral question and your child’s needs, this type of psychological evaluation consists of personality testing (ranging from projective drawings and stories, personality inventories, inkblots, interviews, behavior checklists and possibly school observations) and intelligence testing. A written report and feedback session with the parents is always provided. If requested, I can consult with other service providers to share information about test results and recommendations.