When to Pursue a Psychological Assessment for Your Child
The idea of a “psychological assessment” can sound daunting. It may feel vulnerable to have your child evaluated by a psychologist. Can you trust their expertise? What will they find? What will the findings mean?
When done by a qualified professional in a therapeutic way, a psychological assessment (also called psychologist testing or “psych. testing”) can also be extremely valuable in gathering pertinent information to create a helpful plan.
Not sure whether a psychological assessment might be helpful? Here are some situations when you might consider pursuing psych.testing:
Your child is struggling emotionally: they appear nervous, have a low mood, or seem numb/checked-out.
Your child is struggling behaviorally: they are unable to abide by family or classroom rules, they have trouble controlling their reactions and are destructive or forceful, or are impulsive in decision-making.
Your child struggles with attention: they appear hyperactive, have difficulty focusing, or difficulty listening.
Your child dislikes school or has academic difficulties: they may complain about attending school, struggle with grades, or aim for perfection and be disappointed with any grade that is less than an A.
Your child is struggling socially: they have trouble making friends, are often abandoned by peers, or are observed excluding friends.
Your child acts older or younger than their age: They may seem “wise” for their age but be struggling to be a kid in some aspects of life, or appear emotionally immature.
A sudden change in your child’s behavior occurs: they start to withdraw, have uncharacteristic outbursts, or engage in another type of concerning behavior (e.g., stealing, lying, unprecedented substance use, sexually promiscuous behaviors).
With all of the above situations, one of the key things to look for is whether the struggles are having a notable impact on your child’s life. For example, are they having trouble attending school, passing their classes, completing chores, doing age-appropriate self-care activities (e.g., making their bed, helping set the table, etc.), participating in extracurricular activities or getting along with family members? When emotional, behavioral, or academic or social struggles start to impede daily life activities, an assessment can be a smart place to start in getting help.
What does an assessment entail?
A psychological assessment can come in various forms. Some are brief and may only entail a clinical interview with you and your child, as well as a few questionnaires that you both (and sometimes teachers or other adults that know your child) complete. Others are more in depth (for example, your child may spend several hours on 1-2 days with the psychologist, answering questions and completing various activities) and involve formal assessment measures. These measures often give information about functioning in the following areas: cognitive, social, emotional, attention and behavior. They can also tell you more about your child’s innate temperament/personality. Some measures are designed to produce specific data that will allow you to see how your child compares to other children his or her age in a given area. Other times the “tests” are less concrete but a qualified psychologist can interpret them to gain information about how your child is thinking, feeling and operating in the world. However brief or thorough, most assessments will include some sort of written report or letter summarizing what was found and what is recommended.
What information might you get from a psychological assessment?
Understanding whether your child meets criteria for a diagnosable mental health or neurological condition: Some examples might be an Anxiety Disorder, Attention-Deficit Disorder, a Depressive Disorder or Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Understanding how past traumas or adverse experiences might be currently impacting your child: For example, if you and your spouse divorced when your daughter was a toddler and then in 3rd grade she starts struggling with separation anxiety, not wanting to go to school, etc., the assessment results may offer insight into the impact that experience is having on her now (even if in the past it did not appear to affect her). While reactions to past experiences might not result in an official diagnosis, an assessment can still shed light on how your child’s life experiences are contributing to current behaviors, struggles, and emotions.
Knowing your child’s cognitive and learning strengths and areas of difficulty: An assessment will often include a summary of how your child processes verbal, visual, and auditory information, as well as how they approach critical thinking tasks. Depending on your presenting concerns (wondering about a learning disability vs. an emotional/behavioral issue), an assessment might be designed to provide more or less information about cognition and learning.
Getting recommendations for how to best support your child: A skilled psychologist is adept at taking information from an assessment and translating it into tangible action steps that will improve quality of life for you and your child. Recommendations might include ways to interact with your child that take into account their personality, thinking style and any learning or emotional diagnoses. Other recommendations might be for specific treatment approaches that would benefit your child (e.g., a specific therapy modality, OT, social skills groups, neurofeedback, medication, etc.). These recommendations will often also discuss what can be done at school to support your child (e.g., a 504 plan, suggestions for accommodations, etc.).
Once the assessment and written report are completed, a meeting to review the results and discuss the recommendations with the assessing psychologist is typically scheduled. This can be extremely beneficial in being able to ask questions and make a targeted plan for how to move forward.
Curious to learn more about psychological testing? SageWell Health provides some types of assessments and if outside of our scope, we help clients get connected with highly trained assessment psychologists in the community. Contact us to learn more.