What is an Assessment and Why Would I Want One?

You’ve exhausted your options as a parent, the school has run out of helpful suggestions, and you deeply want your child to be successful in life, earn a living, have friends, and be happy.  

An assessment may help figure out underlying issues so that a new strategy can be discovered and implemented.  I want your child to be understood, heard, have friends, and be successful, too.  An assessment is a psychological, social, emotional, behavioral, and intellectual evaluation composed from the results of 13 different types of tests or interviews.  Many parents are not aware that this type of assessment exists, but when they hear about what I do, they become excited and want to start the process as soon as possible.  

An assessment can be extremely beneficial for families when there are constant or consistent issues with a child’s or adolescent’s performance at home and at school.  So what does that mean?  Sometimes there are issues that are going on internally with children or adolescents that are tough to discern or to figure out.  What tends to happen is that teachers, principals, or school counselors are often invovled in frequent interactions with your child.  One or all of them tell you that something is going on with your child—they are distracted, they don’t follow instructions, they distract others in school, they are smart, but don’t do well on tests or don’t turn in their homework.  This can be very confusing because this is not solved by disciplining your child, talking with them, or even with incentives or motivational talks (“You can do better” or “You’re so smart, let’s get this homework done”).  This is exhausting for parents, children, and often for the teachers, too. I believe that when people understand someone deeply, they want to help them.  For example, when a teacher identifies that a child learns best auditorily, she can read the instructions aloud to the whole class before they begin to quietly work, rather than simply place it up on the projector screen to be read.  That simple addition to how she instructs can change a child’s ability to perform well in school.  When a parent learns that their child performed highly above average on language and their scores fell within the below average range for processing speed, some things start to make more sense.  And what makes sense is that their child may need a little bit more time taking a test and that an additional 10 minutes may make the difference between consistently earning an A instead of a C in reading/language arts.

The great news is that having an assessment is an option and is a great place to start to get answers and ideas about how to advocate for your child both at home and at school.  I am here to help your child and family thrive, not just survive!