Why is Psycho-Educational Assessment So Important?

If your child has a diagnosed learning or attention problem, or if you believe he or she may have a learning or attention disorder, then high-quality, up-to-date psycho-educational assessment is a must for your family.  Firstly, most school districts and private schools have toughened their rules for the acquisition of accommodations like extra time for tests and assignments, large print texts, the use of laptops for note-taking in class, or use of teacher prepared notes. Generally, schools require a psycho-educational assessment by a licensed psychological tester completed within the last 3 years as their minimum documentation for accommodations.

The standardized testing organizations are even tougher with their demands; the SAT and ACT not only require psycho-educational testing newer than 3 years old, they also require that accommodations have been used in school for the previous school year and documented by a 504 or IEP plan.  If your child does not have a historical record of accommodations being granted and up-to-date psycho-educational assessment, then your son or daughter will not be eligible for extra time or other accommodation on the SAT or ACT (see here for ACT documentation rules).  Further, the standardized test organizations have very high and exacting standards with regards to the psychologist’s diagnostic assessment report.  Many psycho-educational testers write reports that do not clearly connect the assessment results, reason for diagnosis, and the accommodations that are required to offset the disorder.  Families that have spent thousands of dollars on assessment are rightly upset when they find that their testing does not qualify their child for the needed accommodations on standardized tests.

Assessment is Needed for More Than Accommodations

Beyond accommodation, quality psycho-educational testing uses the tests and measurements that professionals need in order to advise your family about how to help your child.  Without robust evidence and a solid understanding of what exactly is going wrong in the process of cognition, your child’s struggles may continue.  On the other hand, good assessment provides accurate measurement of processing speed, working memory, verbal fluency, spatial reasoning ability, reading comprehension and other crucial elements of learning.  Acquiring the exact plans to attack your child’s weaknesses is possible only when proper assessment has been completed. And yet, assessment is but one of several steps required in creating a customized plan for your child’s learning needs.

Diagnosis is Only the First Step

Many professionals complete their service with assessment, a diagnosis, and a set of recommendations.  The best learning support professionals take the diagnosis and dig deeper to find exactly where the learning process is obstructed.  In addition to psycho-educational diagnostic assessment, interviews of parents and students, observation of student problem solving in grade level academic problems, and an abbreviated set of standardized test problems give learning support pros the information necessary to develop the exact plan for your child’s needs.  No learning or attention disorder is so severe that it cannot be overcome with appropriate accommodation and the learning skills and techniques that are helpful to in the given area of the curriculum. Furthermore, many students have found that using medicine can be very helpful in dealing with attention difficulties. High quality psycho-educational assessment is especially useful in guiding psychiatrists to choose the right medicine for the specific problems at hand.

For further information on our services for students with attention problems, learning disorders, and Autism spectrum disorders, please click here.