What is a Psycho-Educational Assessment?

Psycho-educational assessments are provided for a wide range of presenting problems for children, adolescents, and adults (e.g., concerns regarding: social skills; activity level; attention; emotional self-control; delayed cognitive or daily life skills; difficulties learning subjects at school; organization skills; difficulties with navigating social situations).

We strive to identify areas of strength as well as examine areas of challenge or difficulty.

Children & Adolescents: Parents may be concerned about their child’s emotions, behaviours, social skills or difficulties with learning. Sometimes parents want to know if diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Learning Disability, or Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are appropriate for their child. We take care to provide an extensive assessment that includes individual testing and self-report measures with the child/adolescent, interviews or input from parents, teachers and other relevant sources, as well as gathering historical information. We want to work with you to provide the best outcomes for your family.

Adults: Adults may be concerned about difficulties with learning, attention, or navigating social situations (e.g., socially related anxiety, not understanding social nuances or expectations). Assessments include individual testing, self-report screening and diagnostic measures and when appropriate collateral information from family members or other health professionals (e.g., medical doctor, therapist, past reports).

Assessment Process:

• Assessments begin with an initial meeting between the therapist and parents or adult client. We want to understand your concerns so we can build an assessment plan.

• Testing sessions: Assessments are conducted over two to five sessions depending on what needs to be assessed (sessions range from an hour to three hours in length).

• Questionnaires may be completed by: children/adolescent or adult clients; parents of child/adolescent clients; and teachers (for people in a learning situation) or spouses/partners for adult clients (if appropriate).

• Feedback session: A feedback session is provided for adult clients or parents of children/adolescents. We go over the assessment measures, scores, and provide results, discuss diagnosis, and suggest recommendations.

• Scoring and Report: A report is written which includes background history, the extensive assessment results, diagnosis (if applicable), summary, and recommendations. For adults, we have the option of providing a letter (for school or employer) or an executive summary in addition to the extensive report.

• A typical assessment will include a minimum of 10 hours (initial meeting, testing sessions, feedback session, and the scoring/report) but may be shorter for adult ADHD assessments, or longer for complex assessments where there are many presenting issues and/or diagnoses that need to be ruled out.