Psychologist's Goals
A psychological assessment is a comprehensive process that can answer questions about a person. It involves integrating information from multiple sources, such as standardized tests of intelligence, achievement, and personality, personal interviews, and a thorough review of records. Typical areas of focus are to clarify the diagnosis, assess a particular area of functioning or disability and make treatment recommendations. A psycho-educational assessment focuses on using standardized tests to identify a person’s strengths and weaknesses across many areas of functioning, such as cognitive development, academic achievement, adaptive functioning, visual perceptual, motor coordination, behavior, and social-emotional development. The main goal of a psycho-educational assessment is to provide the best estimate of a child’s skill level and make recommendations to improve a child’s overall functioning. This assessment can help diagnose ADHD, Autism, executive functioning problems, learning disabilities, or unidentified emotional difficulties that may impede development. Results from the evaluation are used to provide recommendations for intervention, accommodation, and remediation.
What should I expect?
In most assessments, you will complete between two to three appointments: one or two appointments are scheduled during the evaluation, along with a final meeting that will focus on providing you with feedback: testing results, treatment recommendations, plan, and referrals, as needed.
Steps for Testing:
Collateral
Information and prior medical information such as neurology notes, brain scans, lab results, and previous assessment reports is often gathered and provides essential background details. Depending on the needs of the assessment, interviews with parents, spouses or partners, primary providers, therapists, and other professionals may be included.
Biopsychosocial Interview
Various questionnaires are administered, along with a thorough interview with the client. The interview covers areas such as chief complaints, medical and psychological history, family and current functioning histories, social and adaptive functioning, academic and employment history, substance abuse and legal histories, and others.
Psychological Testing
A comprehensive battery of psychological and psychological instruments, carefully selected by the psychologist, is administered. It includes norm-based standardized measures that cover a wide array of cognitive, psychological, emotional, and behavioral areas of functioning. Functions such as motor and sensory, memory and learning, attention and concentration, and executive are tested and assessed. Other areas include motivation and effort, emotional state at the time of testing, global level of functioning, and the presence of primary mental health disorders, developmental disorders, and personality disorders.
Results Scoring, Analysis, Diagnostic Formulation, and Report Writing
This is an important phase of the process. The psychologist will analyze testing results while incorporating all the information available: collateral information, interviews, and testing results, to arrive at a diagnostic determination of the current diagnoses, their salient features, and what they mean to the client’s functioning and rehabilitation plan. A good assessment will lead to a carefully designed and personally catered treatment recommendations, considering the client’s unique circumstances and addressing both short-term and long-term goals.
Patient Feedback
The psychologist meets with the client, and at times with family members or other authorized individuals, to provide the client with a summary of assessment findings and diagnostic impressions and review the rehabilitation plan and treatment recommendations in great detail. To the client, this is the most crucial step in the assessment process. To make an appointment and begin your process, please contact us at 888-662-9378