Psych-Ed Assessments for Children and Adolescents
What is a Learning Disability?
Students and adults who had challenges with learning in school often share a common story; they are hard working and curious, but they aren’t doing as well as expected academically. A psychoeducational assessment looks for the underlying reasons.
A psychoeducational service involves assessment and interpretation of psychological tests focused on cognitive abilities and specific skills needed for learning. Psychoeducational assessments often include measures of cognitive abilities such as memory, attention, executive functions, and adaptive functioning in different environments.
It is designed to answer the following questions:
Does the student have a learning disability, developmental disability, attentional problems?
What are the student’s academic and cognitive abilities, strengths, and weaknesses?
Psychoeducational and ADHD Assessment for School Aged Children
A psychoeducational assessment evaluates a student's intellectual and academic skills and processes related to learning (memory, processing speed, fine-motor control) using a standard battery of tests. As part of our comprehensive psychoeducational assessment, ADHD will be assessed at no extra cost if attention problems are present.
What is the process of a Psychoeducational Assessment?
Prior to the first session, we will send you a background questionnaire to complete before your child's assessment. Other elements of the assessment include:
Interview with parents to collect developmental history and review the child’s academic functioning through every grade, their current functioning at home, and their strengths and areas of need according to the parent(s).
The psychologist may ask the child’s teacher to complete questionnaires and to speak to the psychologist about their observations of the child at school.
Six to ten hours of in-person testing with the child. Cognitive and behavioural testing will examine how your child reasons and solves problems and test their memory, information processing, attention, and organizational skills.
Academic testing is designed to examine academic skills such as reading, writing and math compared to other students of the same age.
What is the outcome of a Psychoeducational Assessment?
A clear understanding of your child’s academic strengths and challenges relating to learning aptitudes, information processing, and academic skills.
The diagnosis of a learning disability, ADHD, or developmental disability if present.
An action plan for improving academic performance.
A list of recommended accommodations that are based on the child's strengths and needs to seek from schools, colleges or universities (please note that post-secondary institutions often require a recent assessment) such as:
More time to complete tests and exams.
Access to a laptop and specialized software, e.g. Word to Text.
Access to audiobooks for course texts or material.
The option of having multiple-choice tests or exams.
Taking tests or exams in a quiet, supervised environment.
More frequent breaks from class.
Following the assessment, the psychologist meets with parents to verbally review the results, recommendations, and next steps. This meeting typically lasts one hour. Parents are also provided with a detailed, comprehensive report outlining all the results and recommendations. These recommendations are usually used by the child’s school to put together a plan (Individualized Education Plan – IEP) that helps the student reach their potential at school.
Our fee for a psychoeducational assessment is $4000 (ranging to $4500 depending on complexity).
If you need additional help after sharing the report with your child's school in advocating for your child at the school meeting or an IPRC (for identification or placement), you can request consultation support from our school psychologist.