Psycho-Educational Testing
General Psycho-Educational /Gifted Evaluation /Dyslexia Evaluation
General Psycho-educational Evaluation
A Psychoeducational Evaluation is often conducted in order to determine whether a specific learning or other disability may be impacting significantly on a student's academic performance. For instance, the presence of a learning disability, attention deficit disorder, or emotional disorder can result in a great deal of academic frustration and inability for a student to perform at his/her level of innate potential. A learning disability is diagnosed when assessment results reveal a significant discrepancy (difference) between a student's scores on achievement tests (in reading, mathematics, and/or written language) and his/her educational expectancy range (based upon age, educational background, and intelligence.)
In addition to determining whether a student has a specific disability that impacts upon learning, a psychoeducational evaluation gives a good indication of how a student learns best (i.e., his/her learning style). Often when students can learn to understand their strengths and weaknesses as opposed to global assessments they may have internalized regarding their learning abilities (e.g., dumb, smart, average) they can be able to reduce feelings of academic frustration, while improving self-esteem.
- Tests of Learning Aptitude - (also called intelligence (IQ) tests, cognitive processing tests investigate a student's abilities on measures of verbal-linguistic skills (long-term memory, abstract reasoning, vocabulary development, comprehension, and auditory short-term memory) as well as non-verbal skills (visual organization and memory, nonverbal reasoning, planning ability, visual motor coordination, spatial visualization ability, and short-term visual memory). Supplemental cognitive (aptitude) tests are given to further investigate any problem areas based on in-take information and observations (e.g., attention, organization, visual-auditory associative memory, processing speed, auditory (phonological processing), long-term retrieval, visuo-spatial memory and fluid reasoning, etc.)
- Tests of Academic Skill Development - investigate a student's skills in the areas of reading, written language, and mathematics. Within each of these academic domains, the student is tested on measures of basic skills development and higher level application and reasoning skills. For example, reading tests assess word decoding, phonetic skills, word identification, fluency/rate and comprehension.
- Test of Personality/Adjustment Factors - investigate a student's functioning with regard to the development of his/her academic coping strategies. One's functioning in this regard is sometimes affected by self-esteem, anxiety, internal pressure, motivational levels, etc. that are that are assessed during psychoeducational evaluation. Students are also screened for emotional distress(e.g., anxiety, depression) during this portion of the test.
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Gifted Evaluation
Children with advanced development require comprehensive diagnosis and early intervention in order to develop all of their capabilities. This is the primary purpose of the gifted evaluation. A gifted evaluation can verify cognitive strengths, assess academic achievement, and recommend specific strategies to meet a child's needs at school. It can document the need for advanced work and less drill and practice.
This evaluation includes the Wechsler Intelligence Test IV (WISC-IV), the standard in assessing IQ, which will provide in-depth information on several factors of intelligence (such as factual knowledge, short-term memory, abstract reasoning, visual-spatial abilities, and common sense), and on academic strengths and weaknesses.
It will also include the Weschler Individual Achievement Test which will provide in-depth information on a child’s mastery of specific subjects and on academic strengths and weaknesses.
Creativity will be measured by the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking which measures creative thinking using three picture-based exercises to assess five mental characteristics: fluency, originality, elaboration, abstractness of titles, and resistance to closure.
Critical Thinking will be measured through the Cornell Critical Thinking Test. This test measures Induction, Deduction, Credibility, and Identification of Assumptions.
Dyslexia Evaluation
When a child is having difficulty with reading, spelling or writing, parents or teachers may refer a child for testing to determine whether there is a learning disability. Dyslexia is one of the most common types of language processing learning disability. There is no single test to determine if a child has dyslexia. Instead, testing includes an evaluation in a number of different areas including background information, intelligence testing, oral language, word recognition, decoding, spelling, phonological skills, reading fluency, reading comprehension
The evaluation includes compiling background information on the child. This includes information on early development, family history and educational history and is provided by both parents and teachers.
Intelligence testing is completed to determine that the student is average or above in their intelletual functioning.
Oral language skills include listening, understanding speech and being able to express thoughts orally. Children with dyslexia normally have adequate higher-level oral language skills. They may have difficulty with lower-level skills such as recognizing or creating the sounds of letters in speech.
Word recognition is evaluated by asking a student to read single words without the ability to use context clues. Accuracy in reading the word and the amount of time it takes to read the word (fluency) are important in this test.
Children are also evaluated on their ability to read words they are not familiar with. This is called “decoding” and the test includes nonsense words (strings of letters that may look like real words but are not).
Students are evaluated based on spelling skills. Children with dyslexia often have a very difficult time with spelling and often spell words exactly as they sound, leave out letters, or include additional letters in words.
Phonological skills include breaking words down into syllables and individual sounds. Students with dyslexia have trouble identifying and pronouncing the individual sounds. An evaluation for dyslexia would include testing on phonological processing.
Reading fluency is also tested. This includes how quickly a person can process information and read words.
Reading comprehension is evaluated. Comprehension of oral stories is often higher than written stories. For some students with dyslexia, reading comprehension scores are average or above. This can be contributed to the short passages and the ability to find the answer in the passage. Reading comprehension when reading books or longer passages may not be as high.
Functional Assessment of Behavior
When a child with autism or other disabilities is struggling with challenging or maladaptive behaviors, a functional assessment of behavior may be need to help the child and his or her caregivers or teachers find of more adaptive set of behaviors. A functional assessment of behavior breaks down possible causes or reasons for a maladaptive behavior and what the child is attempting to gain from the behavior. Essentially, the assessment asks what is the "function" of the behavior. The assessment will include:
- Direct assessment through observations to gain baseline data,which lists the frequency of the targeted or problem behavior
- Structured indirect assessments of behavior such as student questionnaires, motivational scales, checklists and interviews
The assessment will result in a written report that will provide recommendations for developing a Behavior Support Plan (BSP) , training needed for family, direct staff, or team members on positive ways to prevent or minimize the likelihood of behavioral issues and also ways to address behavior issues effectively when they do occur.