As a parent, you do everything you can to support your child, including their learning. Yet, when a teacher or the school suggests your child get “evaluated,” it can lead to uncertainties and questions.
Many parents are left wondering:
- How will this really help?
- Will it stress out my child?
- Why is it needed now?
The hesitancy and questions are understandable, especially given the emphasis on testing and assessment in the educational system.
Additionally, students recommended for a psychoeducational, ADHD, or behavioural evaluation often already dislike formal testing or find it stressful.
But learning and behavioural assessments are different from standardized testing in schools.
These evaluations aim to provide insights into how your child thinks and learns, so the school and others in their life can best support them.
But understanding how your child learns is only one of the many ways a comprehensive learning evaluation by a professional can help. In this article, we explore the purpose and 6 benefits of psychoeducational assessments. So you can decide if an evaluation is the right choice for your child.
What is the purpose of learning or educational assessments?
Teachers and schools recommend evaluations for various reasons. For instance, your child may struggle to:
- Make academic gains as expected for their age
- Maintain their attention
- Retain concepts from one day to the next
Psychoeducational evaluations can identify:
- Learning difficulties with reading, math, spelling, problem-solving, visual-spatial skills, memory, and more
- The function of potential behavioural problems
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Anxiety Disorders
- Speech or language difficulties
The specific types of activities performed will vary based on the reason for the evaluation. While some tasks may be similar to school work, the assessment tools are designed to understand how your child learns — not receive a grade.
The purpose of psychoeducational assessments is to:
- Identify learning, emotional, or behavioural problems that may be negatively impacting your child
- Understand how your child learns best by identifying strengths and challenges
- Develop personalized strategies and interventions that support your child’s learning needs at school and home
Ultimately, psychoeducational evaluations can provide the insights you, the school, and your child need to better understand their unique learning and emotional needs. So they can work through the challenges they are currently facing and thrive.
What are the types of assessments for children and teens?
There are many types of assessments designed to help children and teens facing problems with learning, speech and language, behavioural functioning, developmental issues, and more.
For instance, preschool-aged children may need a developmental assessment to assess their cognitive, adaptive, behavioural functioning, or school readiness.
Students in elementary school through college could be referred for a psychoeducational evaluation for:
- Learning difficulties
- Developmental disabilities
- Intellectual disability
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Giftedness
At North Shore Psychological Services, our expert therapists provide comprehensive psychological and learning assessments including:
- Developmental assessments for preschool-aged children
- Psychoeducational assessment services for school-aged children, young adults, and college students
- ADHD assessment for children, young adults, and college students
- Functional behaviour assessments for children ages 3 – 12
- Speech and language assessments for children, teens, young adults, and college students
We work with you, your child, and the school system to develop strategies that support your child’s learning and functioning so they flourish.
6 Benefits of a Learning Evaluation for Children and Teens
Understanding the purpose and benefits of the recommended assessment can make it easier to decide if a comprehensive evaluation is the right choice for your child or teen.
Additionally, this information can help you prepare your child for an assessment so the day is less stressful.
Here are some of the primary benefits of a comprehensive evaluation.
1. Identify the underlying difficulties impacting your child
Most students are referred for an evaluation because they struggle in some aspect of school.
The teacher may have noticed problems with learning, maintaining focus, getting distracted easily, or getting overly frustrated compared to their peers. You may have noticed related issues at home. Sometimes, you’ve even had a brief screening performed by your child’s pediatrician or other medical professional.
But many factors can contribute to school challenges. And screening tools or observations don’t provide the detailed insights and information required to understand what factors are impacting your child’s learning or behaviour.
A more comprehensive evaluation is needed to assess each area of learning and functioning. So you, your child, and their teachers understand how these factors contribute to their difficulties in school.
2. Gain a comprehensive understanding of your child’s strengths, challenges, and best learning environments
Psychoeducational assessments don’t only focus on uncovering difficulties. These tools also identify your child’s learning and functional strengths.
As a result, you, your child, and their teachers receive a clearer picture of your child’s strengths, challenges, functioning, and learning style.
This information provides a better understanding of your child as a whole — not just as a student. So you can understand how their struggles and strengths may show up in different situations and environments.
These insights provide guidance on ways to emphasize and lean into your child’s strengths, support areas of challenges, and create learning environments that allow them to thrive.
3. Develop strategies, plans, and routines tailored to support and meet your child’s unique needs
The insights from the comprehensive evaluation are used by the professional to create strategies, routines, and plans tailored to your child’s needs at school and home.
The recommendations will address the reason for the evaluation and any other concerns, like stress or frustrations with homework or difficulties getting routines in place. Recommendations also may include in-school interventions like assistance with organization, changes to the learning environment, extra testing time, or other accommodations. Additionally, findings may provide insights into specific learning strategies that can help your child.
4. Understand your child and their needs better, which can reduce stress and conflict
It can be stressful for the whole family when a child struggles to learn or acts differently than expected.
For instance, homework can become a source of frustration and stress that impacts everyone, leaving you and your child feeling overwhelmed, hopeless, or defeated. Routines and expectations can be difficult to maintain. And as a parent, you may struggle to find resources that can help you find solutions that work for your child.
Sometimes the tension and conflict can make it hard to fully connect as a family.
But psychoeducational evaluations can provide information on how your child learns, thinks, and problem-solves. So you can develop strategies and routines that adapt to your child’s needs.
5. Enhance your child’s self-confidence and resilience
Children know when they struggle, even if they can’t always express it. Sometimes, these difficulties can cause feelings of self-doubt, feeling like they can’t learn, or that they aren’t “good enough.”
But an evaluation can help your child better understand themselves. The results can show them that they can learn and succeed — they just may need different supports or ways of doing things. They can learn about their incredible brain and personal strengths.
The results can help them move past negative self-thoughts and beliefs they may have held and help them develop more self-confidence and resilience.
6. Set appropriate academic expectations
School can be a source of stress and frustration for children who struggle at school.
But children who face school challenges can learn, thrive, and meet expectations. They simply may need adjustments to the standard expectations or accommodations that build on their strengths and adapt to the challenges they’re working through.
Learning evaluations can provide schools and teachers with clear guidelines on the right level of expectations.
For instance, if the assessment reveals it takes your child longer to work through tasks due to how their brain works, we can recommend that more time be provided or that fewer problems be assigned to homework. This can remove time pressures, result in fewer struggles when doing homework, and help your child stay on track at school.
