Psychoeducational Evaluations
Academic / Cognitive / Achievement Testing
Many times throughout a person's educational career, it may be questioned whether a particular disability or discriminant learning style exists, that either impedes or hinders one's academic performance. This is where psychoeducational testing and evaluation comes into play.
While many public schools offer evaluation services to identify academic disabilities, cognitive impairments, discriminant learning styles, and sensory dysfunction, the process can be lengthy (typically 90-days in the Lehigh Valley). Families have often turned to private psychologists in the community to accelerate the process. By obtaining an outside evaluation, families can approach the school with evaluation results that clinically support implementation of services (learning support, emotional support classroom, autistic support classroom, etc.) should the evaluation deem this necessary.
What is being assessed in these evaluations?
First and foremost, it is crucial to obtain an accurate social and developmental history. understanding the background of the child and his/her family can greatly assist the evaluation process.
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The evaluation then makes use of self-report inventories, adaptive behavior scales, achievement tests, cognitive functioning inventories, sensorimotor tests, memory tests, ADHD rating scales, and possibly mood and personality inventories to highlight certain areas of strength or weakness.
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The results of this comprehensive battery of tests can be used to identify learning disabilities, intellectually-gifted and learning strengths, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, social and emotional functioning strengths and weaknesses, etc. Most importantly, these evaluations are highly useful at identifying specific treatment approaches and recommendations for working with the individual.
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