Psychoeducational Assessments for Children and Teens

Is your child struggling in school or missing important milestones? If you or a teacher feels like your child is not making the progress you would expect or is behind in cognitive, behavioural or emotional functions, you may want to speak to a psychologist about a comprehensive psychoeducational assessment.

What is a Psychoeducational Assessment?

A psychoeducational assessment involves a standardized assessment of your child’s cognitive, academic, developmental, social, emotional and behavioural functioning. An assessment is administered by a registered psychologist who uses interviews, observation, academic achievements, and historical records to fully understand the way in which your child learns, and processes information. An assessment helps determine an individual’s areas of strength and potential areas for growth.

What does an Assessment Measure?

Cognition & Intellect

An assessment measures your child’s ability to use their senses, experiences and thoughts to acquire, process, and use information effectively.
Learning & Academics

An assessment measures your child’s academic aptitude and achievements in core school skills, such as reading, writing, comprehension, and mathematics.
Social-Emotional

An assessment measures your child’s ability to understand the feelings of others, manage their own emotions, and understand their identity. It also provides an insight into the factors which may motivate or cause distress for your child.
Behavioural Functioning

An assessment looks at your child’s behaviours. This includes emotional regulation, anxiety, mood concerns, and behavioural changes.
Executive Functioning

An assessment can also explore a variety of processing skills. This includes working memory, flexible thinking, planning, self-control, attention, concentration, time management, and organization which are often challenging for individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Signs That Your Child Needs a Psychoeducational Assessment

**Does Your Child:**
Miss important milestones that other children of the same age already achieved?
Study hard, yet fail to see their marks reflect the effort that they have been putting in?
Display behaviour issues and resist parenting attempts?
Express their dislikes for school related activities, notably studying?
Procrastinate and display poor planning which affects their performance?
Get recommendations from teachers, school counsellors, or physicians? (Note: Referrals are not required to schedule an assessment).
Frequently hear from teachers that they don’t pay attention in class?

Why Get a Psychoeducational Assessment?

A psychoeducational assessment provides insight into your child’s emotional, behavioural, cognitive and academic proficiency. It helps determine if your child’s needs are consistent with a diagnosis of a learning disability, developmental disability, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, or any other social, emotional, behavioural or cognitive concerns.

Receiving a proper evaluation will help the parents and teachers better understand the needs of the child, as well as help the child qualify for additional resources and support in all educational setting throughout their life, as early as pre-school all the way to post-secondary education. These assessments are essential in developing an Individualized Program Plan (IPP) or Learner Support Plan (LSP) for students so that they can keep up with educational material and feel proud of their achievements.

What to Expect

Psychological Testing

The child will complete a series of tasks to assess their cognitive and academic skills including their reasoning skills, information processing skills, intellectual abilities, memory, and attention. This part of the assessment usually takes 4-6 hours, across 2-3 sessions.
Social-Emotional & Behavioural

This part of the assessment is meant to help the psychologist understand the child better. It involves conducting interviews with the parents and teachers of the child, as well as providing questionnaires to the parents, teachers, and child to complete.
Parent Feedback Report & Recommendations

The assessment will conclude with a 1.5-2 hour parent feedback session to go over findings, impressions, and recommendations. This will be followed the session with a comprehensive psychoeducational report.
Educational and Community Records

Parents are encouraged to share previous evaluations, formal evaluations, and informal assessments of skills, along with recent report cards and IPPs/LSPs, as appropriate. The psychologist may also request a classroom observation in the school setting (prior to starting the assessment sessions), a phone call with the classroom teacher or other community members in order to provide a unique insight into the strengths and challenging areas of your child.