Parents usually reach the idea of a psychoeducational assessment after a long stretch of something not adding up. A bright child who is failing. A child who works twice as long as their classmates for worse results. Years of being told they will catch up, and no catching up.
An assessment is the process of finding out what is actually happening, rather than continuing to guess.
It is not a single test. A full assessment usually includes a detailed interview with parents about developmental and family history, standardised cognitive testing covering reasoning, working memory and processing speed, academic achievement testing in reading, writing and mathematics, and questionnaires completed by parents and teachers.
Depending on the referral question it may also include measures of attention, executive function, or emotional and behavioural functioning.
Testing is typically spread across one or more appointments and involves a lot of working directly with your child. Most children find it more tolerable than expected, and it is worth telling them plainly that there is nothing to pass or fail.
Specific learning disorders in reading, written expression or mathematics. Attention difficulties including ADHD, though this is diagnosed from multiple sources rather than from testing alone. Intellectual giftedness, which is a frequent and under-recognised cause of disengagement. Intellectual disability. Discrepancies between ability and output that point toward processing or executive function difficulties.
It can also rule things out, which is genuinely useful. Sometimes the finding is that learning is intact and the difficulty is anxiety, and that redirects everything.
A report is only worth what gets implemented. The assessment's real value is that it converts a vague sense that your child is struggling into specific, documented needs that a school can act on.
In Alberta that typically means a conversation with the school about accommodations and, where appropriate, an individualised program plan setting out goals and supports. Accommodations might include extra time, access to assistive technology, scribing, a reduced-distraction setting for tests, or adjustments to how work is presented and assessed.
A good report is written to be usable, with concrete recommendations rather than only scores. When you receive one, read the recommendations section first, and ask the assessor to explain anything you would not be able to explain yourself to a teacher.
Schools are not obliged to implement everything in a private report, and the process goes considerably better when the school has been part of the conversation from the start rather than handed a document.
Tell them you are pursuing an assessment. Ask what information would be useful from their end. Then book a meeting to go through the findings together rather than emailing the report over.
Assessments are available through school divisions at no cost, but access is typically prioritised and waits can be long. Private assessment costs money and is usually much faster.
Many extended health plans provide some coverage for psychological services that can be applied to assessment, and psychologist fees are generally eligible under the medical expense tax credit. It is worth checking both before assuming the full cost falls to you. Our direct billing and insurance page covers how that works.
Assessments are a snapshot. Schools and post-secondary institutions generally want relatively recent documentation, and for post-secondary accommodations the assessment usually needs to have been completed in the later teenage years or after.
If your child is heading toward college or university and their last assessment was in primary school, expect to need an updated one. Worth planning ahead rather than discovering it in the first term.
Supporting Wellness provides psychoeducational assessments in Calgary, Red Deer and Cold Lake, alongside ADHD assessments. If you are not sure which is the right starting point, ask us and we will tell you.
Related reading: CNS Vital Signs cognitive testing, Autism assessments and 7 signs your child might need a speech therapist.
