Do you or your child want to clarify the diagnoses to inform accommodations at school or work? Do you or your child want to clarify the accurate diagnosis to better inform therapy or psychiatric medications?
Are you or your child looking for diagnostic clarification after receiving various perspectives on your/their symptoms and diagnoses from professionals? Do you or your child struggle with inattention, hyperactivity, or impulsivity and wonder if you or your child has ADHD or another disorder? Have you or your child struggled with developing, maintaining, or understanding relationships, and wonder if you or your child has ASD or another disorder? Are there difficulties in a particular subject, such as reading, writing, or math that you or your child experience, indicating challenges in academic skills?
What is a Psychoeducational Evaluation?
A psychoeducational evaluation is a comprehensive assessment designed to understand a child’s cognitive, academic, and behavioral functioning. Conducted by a licensed psychologist or a certified school psychologist, this evaluation aims to identify strengths and weaknesses in areas such as learning, attention, memory, and social skills. Through psychoeducational testing, the evaluation provides a thorough understanding of a child’s learning style, academic abilities, and behavioral patterns. This information is crucial for informing educational planning, accommodations, and interventions tailored to the child’s unique needs.
Benefits and Importance
A psychoeducational evaluation offers numerous benefits and is essential for several reasons:
- Accurate Diagnosis: It helps in identifying specific learning disorders, such as dyslexia, ADHD, or autism spectrum disorder, enabling targeted interventions and accommodations.
- Informing Educational Planning: The evaluation provides valuable insights into a child’s learning style, strengths, and weaknesses, guiding effective educational planning and instruction.
- Identifying Areas of Need: It highlights areas where a child may require additional support, such as speech therapy, occupational therapy, or counseling.
- Enhancing Academic Achievement: By pinpointing strengths and weaknesses, the evaluation helps teachers and parents develop strategies to boost academic performance and promote learning.
- Supporting Mental Health: The evaluation can also uncover potential mental health concerns, such as anxiety or depression, informing appropriate treatment and support.
Who Can Benefit from a Psychoeducational Evaluation?
A psychoeducational evaluation can be highly beneficial for children and adolescents who:
- Struggle with Academic Achievement: Those experiencing difficulties in reading, writing, math, or other academic subjects.
- Exhibit Behavioral Concerns: Children displaying behavioral issues like attention deficits, impulsivity, or social skills difficulties.
- Have a Suspected Learning Disorder: Those suspected of having specific learning disorders, such as dyslexia or ADHD.
- Require Special Education Services: Children needing special education services, such as an Individualized Education Program (IEP).
- Are Experiencing Mental Health Concerns: Those facing mental health issues like anxiety or depression.
Do you believe your child may qualify for the gifted program?
Psychological testing can be beneficial as it has the potential to clarify diagnoses, inform treatment, and guide accommodations. The type of evaluation is determined by the referral question. But, common reasons individuals may seek an evaluation are to:
- Clarify current symptoms and diagnoses
- Determine the current presence of previous diagnoses
- Understand comorbid relationships between disorders
- And guide therapeutic interventions
- Determine eligibility for school services
Individuals often seek a psychoeducational evaluation to determine if they have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and specific learning disorders. It is common to need a formal evaluation with these diagnoses to access resources/services like behavior-analytic services and academic accommodations. Individuals may also seek a psychoeducational evaluation to determine if they qualify for gifted engagement in their school. Tests such as these as a measure of cognitive ability are often required for placement. The goal of the psychoeducational evaluation is to answer your detailed questions. Thus, a psychoeducational evaluation is individualized to your unique history and tailored to the identified area of inquiry. But, regardless of the question, the assessment process often includes three major components. These include 1) a clinical interview, 2) formal assessments, and 3) a feedback session.
Clinical Interview
The clinical interview is conducted before psychological testing. This may occur days before the psychoeducational evaluation or on the same day as your in-person assessments. Often, the interviews are 60 minutes in length. During the interview, you will share:
- Your concerns
- Current symptoms
- Family history
- Birth and developmental history
- Medical and psychological history
- Educational and occupational history
- And legal history
The goal of the clinical interview is to become comfortable with the examiner and for the examiner to get detailed information from you about the questions to be answered, your current symptoms, and a broad view of your life’s history. The information obtained during the interview is then used to guide the selection of formal assessments to be administered. So, it is critical in the clinical interview that you and all involved parties are open and honest with the examiner. Doing so ensures the appropriate assessments are selected.
Formal Assessments
The assessment process often involves the administration of formal assessments. These assessments have been scientifically validated through a peer-reviewed scientific process to examine the intended area of inquiry. The assessment experience is dependent on the selected measures. These are chosen based on your self-report during the interview and your identified question to be answered. Thus, the assessment process is individualized and tailored to you and the assessment question.
Two broad types of assessments will be administered: 1) in-person active assessments and 2) online at-home questionnaires. The in-person active administrations are the formal assessments that occur in the office with the examiner. These assessments often include standardized tests, which involve the completion of observed tasks like matching pictures, reading out loud, completing math problems, playing with toys, and many other tasks. These assessments must occur with the examiner and often last between 1 and 4 hours. This depends on the selected measures and the number of questions to be answered.
Commonly used in-person psychoeducational evaluation standardized tests:
- Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence – Fourth Edition (WPPSI – IV)
- Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Fifth Edition (WISC – V)
- Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Fourth Edition (WAIS – IV)
- Wechsler Memory Scale Fourth Edition – Fourth Edition (WMS – IV)
- Raven’s 2 Progressive Matrices Clinical Edition
- Wechsler Individual Achievement Test – Fourth Edition (WIAT – 4)
- Wide Range Achievement Test – Fifth Edition (WRAT – 5)
- Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test – Fifth Edition (PPVT – 5)
- Expressive Vocabulary Test – Third Edition (EVT – 3)
- Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS)
- Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale Modified for Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD-YBOCS)
- Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale Modified for Neurotic Excoriation
- Symptom Checklist – 90 – Revised (SCL – 90 – R)
- Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI)
- Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory – Fourth Edition (MCMI – IV)
- Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory – 2 – Restructured Form (MMPI – 2 – RF)
- Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory – Adolescent – Restructured Form (MMPI – A – RF)
- Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) – Lifetime
- Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) – Current
- Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule – Second Edition (ADOS – 2)
- Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM)
- Pediatric Performance Validity Test Suite (PdPVTS)
These assessments are commonly used psychological tests to evaluate various cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects.
The online at-home questionnaires are the formal assessments that occur on your own time through an electronic device with access to the internet.
They’re administered through secure HIPPA-compliant platforms. These send you an individualized email for completion. These assessments often include questions about your emotions, common behavioral reactions, history of symptoms, and current functioning. They are often ranked on a Likert-type scale, such as 0 (never) to 5 (frequently). A psychological test is typically conducted by licensed psychologists or trained assistants to evaluate your baseline psychological status.
Traditionally, you and an informant will be asked to complete these measures as an important component of the assessment process is gaining the perspective of someone else in your life. Individuals may select to have their parent, teacher, spouse, roommate, friend, and/or other important figure complete these forms as a part of the assessment process. These assessments can occur independently at a time of your convenience. They often last between 15 minutes and 3 hours in duration depending on the selected measures and the number of questions to be answered.
Commonly used online at-home questionnaires:
- Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function – Preschool Version (BRIEF – P)
- Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function – Second Edition (BRIEF – 2)
- Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function – Adult Version (BRIEF – A)
- Conners – Fourth Edition (Conners – 4)
- Patient Health Questionnaire – 9 (PHQ – 9)
- Patient Health Questionnaire – Adolescent (PHQ – A)
- Depression Anxiety Stress Scale – 21 (DASS – 21)
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder – 7 (GAD – 7)
- Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED)
- Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale
- Social Anxiety Questionnaire
- PTSD Checklist for DSM–5 (PCL – 5)
- Post Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI)
- Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC)
- Family Accommodation Scale for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Self-Rated Version (FAS-SR)
- Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI)
- Behavior Assessment System for Children – Third Edition (BASC – 3)
- Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CATQ)
- Social Responsiveness Scale – Second Edition (SRS – 2)
- Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales – Third Edition (Vineland – 3)
These tools are essential for conducting a comprehensive psychological assessment.
Feedback Session
The feedback session is 60 minutes long. It is often conducted 1 to 3 weeks after the completion of all in-person assessments and online at-home questionnaires. Between the assessment and feedback session, the examiner will prepare a detailed report, which includes the information obtained from the interview, your performance on the in-person assessments, and how you compare to individuals your same age/sex on the online at-home questionnaires. The report will provide a summary of this information and the identified diagnoses. Based on the diagnoses, a list of recommendations is provided to assist in managing your current symptoms.
This may include recommendations for therapy, medications, sharing the report with others, and accommodations at home, school, work, and other important areas of functioning. The report is often 15-25 pages single-spaced. It is also accessible online to you on the day of the feedback session in SimplePractice. The report can be used to share the assessment findings with important stakeholders such as physicians, psychiatrists, therapists, and teachers. Individuals often use the report to advocate for accommodations at school, work, and other important areas of functioning.
The feedback session is 60 minutes long and follows the psychological evaluation. It is often conducted 1 to 3 weeks after the completion of all in-person assessments and online at-home questionnaires. Between the assessment and feedback session, the examiner will prepare a detailed report, which includes the information obtained from the interview, your performance on the in-person assessments, and how you compare to individuals your same age/sex on the online at-home questionnaires. The report will provide a summary of this information and the identified diagnoses. Based on the diagnoses, a list of recommendations is provided to assist in managing your current symptoms.
This may include recommendations for therapy, medications, sharing the report with others, and accommodations at home, school, work, and other important areas of functioning. The report is often 15-25 pages single-spaced. It is also accessible online to you on the day of the feedback session in SimplePractice. The report can be used to share the assessment findings with important stakeholders such as physicians, psychiatrists, therapists, and teachers. Individuals often use the report to advocate for accommodations at school, work, and other important areas of functioning.
Preparing for a Psychoeducational Evaluation
Preparing for a psychoeducational evaluation involves several important steps:
- Gather Relevant Documents: Collect report cards, standardized test scores, and medical records to provide to the evaluator.
- Complete Rating Scales and Questionnaires: Parents and teachers may need to fill out rating scales and questionnaires to offer insights into the child’s behavior and academic performance.
- Schedule the Evaluation: Choose a convenient time for the evaluation that suits both the parents and the child.
- Prepare Your Child: Explain the evaluation process to your child, helping them understand what to expect and reducing any anxiety they may have.
What to Expect After a Psychoeducational Evaluation
Following a psychoeducational evaluation, parents can anticipate:
- A Comprehensive Report: The evaluator will provide a detailed report summarizing the evaluation results, including the child’s strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations.
- A Feedback Session: A session will be scheduled to discuss the evaluation results and address any questions.
- Recommendations for Interventions and Accommodations: The evaluator will suggest interventions and accommodations to support the child’s academic and behavioral needs.
- Follow-up Evaluations: Depending on the child’s progress and needs, follow-up evaluations may be recommended to monitor and adjust interventions and accommodations as necessary.
What type of assessments does Wellness Psychological Services offer?
At Wellness Psychological Services, we offer a variety of assessments that are selected to meet your individual needs, particularly for diagnosing various mental health conditions. Common assessments conducted at Wellness Psychological Services are attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), specific learning disorders, gifted, and mood/personality disorders evaluations.
Begin A Psychoeducational Evaluation Or Psychoeducational Testing in Tampa, FL
Undergoing testing can help you better understand yourself and make more informed decisions. Our team of caring therapists would be happy to offer support for our Tampa, FL-based practice across the state. We can meet with you in St. Pete, FL, or via online therapy as well! Additionally, we provide admissions testing, which includes psychological and psychoeducational assessments for youth and adolescents preparing for entry into private schools. You can start your therapy journey by following these simple steps:
- Contact Wellness Psychological Services
- Meet with an informed psychoeducational clinician.
- Start addressing the mental health concerns affecting you most!
Other Services Offered with Wellness Psychological Services
Testing and evaluation services are not the only services offered by our Tampa and St. Pete, FL based-practice. Our team of doctoral-level clinicians knows that there is more than one mental health concern you may experience. This is why we are happy to offer many services. Other services offered include Trauma/PTSD, EMDR therapy, stress management, health psychology, depression & bipolar disorder. We also offer DBT therapy, PCIT therapy, and are available to help couples & families with their marriage counseling, divorce discernment, collaborative divorce facilitation, and online therapy. Feel free to learn more by reading our blog or visiting our FAQ today.
Additionally, we provide medication management to ensure that proper evaluations lead to effective treatment plans, which may include medication as an option for addressing mental health issues.