When Should Your Child Have a Psycho-Educational Assessment?

Every teacher, educator, and parent shares at least one common goal — that every child comfortably and confidently achieves their highest level of academic success. There are myriad factors — personal, social, psychological, emotional, economic, health-related, and behavioural — affecting a child’s educational experience. A student who struggles does not need to struggle without support. One tool in identifying the supports needed to improve a child’s chance of success is a psycho-educational assessment (sometimes called a psych-ed assessment).

What is a psycho-educational assessment?

Psycho-educational assessments are a comprehensive evaluation of your child’s:

● Cognitive skills (logical reasoning, memory, executive functioning, and attention)

● Academic knowledge in specific subject areas

● Social, behavioural, and emotional functioning.

A psychologist in Calgary will perform a psycho-educational assessment by conducting interviews with the child, his parents, and his teachers. The psychologist will ask you for a lot of information about your child’s medical history, developmental history, behaviour at home and elsewhere, and family relationships and dynamics. The assessment will also include one-on-one testing sessions between the psychologist and the child, as well as discrete observations of the child. The assessment will also include a review of academic and appropriate medical records.

At the end of the psycho-educational assessment in Calgary, the psychologist will produce a detailed report that describes your child’s weaknesses and strengths. It will include recommendations for building upon and taking advantage of your child’s strengths, and recommendations for addressing the areas that require improvement.

Psycho-educational assessments are often an early step in developing an Individual Education Plan to accommodate your child’s strengths and weaknesses in the classroom, and for securing referrals to additional supports and resources such as occupational therapy, speech therapy, tutoring, and the like.

How do you know your child might need one?

Struggling with school — or particular subjects in school — is not, alone, an indication that your child requires a psycho-vocational assessment. Not even social or behavioural problems, alone, suggest such a need. You might remember just how hard school, growing up, getting along, and learning to conform with expectations can be for a young person. Struggles — even ones that persist for weeks and months — are normal, common, and natural. Teachers and educational support staff can often help students work through those issues by offering additional support or making specific accommodations.

If struggles are normal, common, and natural, what then is the tipping point that would warrant your child undergoing a psycho-educational assessment? There are three common indicators that your child may need to be assessed by a psychologist near you:

● If your child continues to struggle despite additional help and classroom accommodations by teachers and staff

● A continuously worsening attitude toward school, including complete loss of interest and insistence by your child that he is bad at school

● Persistently bad behaviour in school, especially if your child is disruptive at school but not at home, which may indicate your child is experiencing a learning disability and not a behavioural challenge

● Other indications of a possible learning disability, including acting out as a result of confusion, frustration, or in an effort to create a distraction from work or his struggles with it

● Inability to learn age-appropriate intellectual, behavioural, or social skills

The process of obtaining a psycho-educational assessment can be activated at the recommendation of your child’s school, or by you out of a concern for his level of success or interest in school.

Psycho-educational assessments are a tool to identify your child’s skills and struggles in relation to school. The goal is not to label or stigmatize your child’s experience, but to determine the best resources to apply in your child’s learning environment to maximize their chance of success. The process can be lengthy and, truth be told, stressful. It is, however, an investment that psychologists in Calgary recommend to try to alleviate the acute stresses of persistent academic, social, emotional, behavioural stress and anxiety in school.

Are you concerned about your child’s struggles at school, or has your child’s school recommended the development of an IEP or the conduct of a psycho-educational assessment? We encourage you, in either situation, to reach out to a psychologist in Calgary with experience in conducting psycho-educational assessments as early as issues of concern arise. They’ll be able to answer all your questions and ensure that your child benefits from an assessment as quickly and effectively as possible.