Why do people get psychological assessments?

There are many reasons to seek out a psychological evaluation. The purpose of an evaluation is to help you find answers so you can move forward with a clearer understanding of your individual strengths and areas for growth. Here are some common reasons people seek out psychological testing:

• You want to learn more about yourself. This process will give you a greater understanding of your personality patterns and your strengths and weaknesses. It will help you learn more about your own behaviors and emotions, and how to move toward being your best self.
• You have been in therapy, or on medication, for some time and are not making progress. An evaluation can help gather more information about the underlying symptoms that you are experiencing. The resulting objective data can help to determine an accurate diagnosis and better inform future treatment.
• Your child is struggling in school. Parents, teachers, school administrators, and health care providers often work together to support children who are struggling with attentiveness, processing information, demonstrating mastery of academic content, and displays of rule-breaking behaviors. In addition, many students experience emotional distress, anxiety, or depression. Children, and even teenage students, struggle to decipher and articulate their symptoms. This is where we can help. An evaluation will help to determine the appropriate diagnosis and chart a clearer path forward for your child in the academic environment and at home or work.
• You worry your child is delayed. An assessment with a developmental lens will assist in providing information about your child’s development, when compared to other same-aged peers, in several areas including: cognition, adaptive skills, speech, social skills, emotions, and behaviors. Early interventions have shown to be beneficial, and an assessment will help to inform any recommended interventions.
• You need accommodations at school or for standardized testing. Academic accommodations are commonly provided to students who are diagnosed with anxiety, a learning disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and similar diagnoses. Schools, universities and testing organizations rely on evidence-based diagnoses to provide reasonable accommodations to qualifying students. All people are unique, and we can support students by providing/confirming diagnoses, and by providing recommendations for academic/testing accommodations as needed.

Different Types of Assessments

• Developmental Disability/Delays Assessments
• Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Testing
• Autism Spectrum Evaluations
• Learning Disorder/Psychoeducational Evaluations
• Early Childhood Developmental Assessments
• Personality Assessments
• School Admissions Testing
• Early Entry Kindergarten Testing
• Intelligence and Gifted Testing
• Differential Diagnostic Assessments

How does the process work?

There are several steps involved in this process.

1. Intake session –This initial appointment will include information gathering regarding medical, social, emotional, behavioral, and overall functioning history. This information helps the psychologist to determine which assessments are most applicable so the testing can be tailored and specific. The paperwork and payments will be reviewed. Any questions or concerns can be asked during this time. At the end of this session, the psychologist will schedule the testing appointment with you.
2. Testing session – Testing sessions vary in length, and are generally between 1 and 4 hours. Many times, only one visit is required. However, there are other times when multiple testing dates may be needed.
3. Feedback session—You will be provided a copy of a cohesive report including information gathered from the assessment. This includes subjective and objective data from reliable and valid sources. Your psychologist will review this information with you, provide testing results, diagnoses, recommendations for next steps, and try to answer any questions you might have.
4. Post-Assessment Services—Our testing clients often seek additional clarification a few days after a feedback session. Feel free to contact your psychologist with any further questions. Also, if you need additional counseling or testing, we would be happy to help you find a provider who can help. We have a great team of therapists and psychologists, or can help refer you to other local providers.

Other tips:

• If you have had any previous evaluations or have any records to share, please do! These can be a very useful tool for the psychologist in analyzing the problem from multiple angles.
• On the day of testing, the client is encouraged to be well-rested and to have had a healthy meal. The evaluation can feel draining for some people.
• Please tell your psychologist if there are other important people to gather information from. After you provide written consent, we are happy to gain additional perspectives.