Click here for a printable version of this document suitable for children Forms of Psychological Assessment Generally, assessments may comprise any or all of the following: Personality measures - relating to patterns of behavior and emotions, including such things as characteristic styles of interacting with people and the world, stress tolerance and coping mechanisms. Cognitive measures - studying strengths and weaknesses of sensory perception, organization, thinking, and output (such as speech, hand coordination, etc.) Educational measures - including academic achievement and the component processes that make up academic skills. Neuropsychological measures - while all assessment involves some cognitive elements, neuropsychology specifically addresses deeper details of attention, memory and other cognitive and perceptual functioning. This is especially important in properly understanding such things as learning differences, head injuries, pre and post-testing for neurosurgery, or Alzheimer's disease. General psychological assessment (sometimes also called an evaluation, or testing) is a method of obtaining a “snapshot in time” of a person’s overall psychological functioning. Neuropsychological assessment is a specialized form of psychological assessment which includes general assessment but also attends more to brain function and process. It is more thorough than many other assessments. For example, most of the information that would be obtained in a school assessment is included in a neuropsych assessment. In addition, other features are studied which are usually not a part of educational evaluations, such as those mentioned above, plus things like social and emotional functioning. Please see the Services page for descriptions of what my evaluations typically cover. Why Assessment? Evaluations may be requested by an individual directly, but often they are recommended by another service provider (learning specialist, teacher, therapist, doctor, etc.) so that provider can give better care to the person being assessed. Reasons for assessment range from determining whether a specific condition such as dyslexia or Alzheimer's may exist, to more generally finding what aspects might be troubling a person or causing them difficulties. With children, assessment can help us better identify and understand such things as learning differences and attention deficits, or emotional factors that may be contributing to distress or behavior problems. Deeper understanding can lead to more efficient and effective treatment. The First Steps Although assessment is sometimes referred to as "testing" - since formal testing is a central component - it actually involves a number of elements, starting with the first phone call to the psychologist. During this call, the psychologist will begin gathering and sorting information. If an evaluation seems appropriate, an office interview will be scheduled to continue the process of assembling relevant history and refining the questions that the evaluation will seek to answer. Testing The testing will then usually be done in up to three (or sometimes more) sessions on different days. Tests generally include a variety of puzzles and problem-solving tasks, sensory-perceptual and simple drawing tasks, and some school-type work. The value of these tests and procedures is that they are constructed based on scientific principles so that when properly administered and interpreted they provide a level of objectivity that interviews and observation alone might not. Some measures are given to most people, while others will be tailored to the particular person's situation. Care is always taken to make the person being assessed as comfortable as possible and to get his or her best responses under the circumstances. With children, additional checklists may be given to parents or teachers to describe the child's characteristics and behavior, and teachers or other caregivers may be interviewed as well. It is important to collect information from multiple sources in order to make the assessment as accurate and objective as possible. After the testing is completed, you will get a detailed report (usually around 15-20 pages) and we will have a final office meeting to discuss the findings and recommendations. At that point I will also provide referrals to other competent professionals for any additional services that may be indicated. Feel free to call with any questions you might have - there is no charge for initial phone consultations.

Website design by HYPERSPHERE ©2004 Robert Solley, Ph.D.