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psycho-educational assessments

When is a psycho-educational assessment suggested or required?

Psycho-educational assessments are typically requested when

  • a child is struggling to learn in school in a particular area, such as reading, math or writing (more or then one area as there are learning processes that can impact more than one area of academic skill development). Due to variability in child development, psyched assessments are usually completed in Grade 2 and up, although a case can be made in individual circumstances to use them before that time, but a Learning Disability diagnosis may not be possible yet. Recommendations for intervention may be provided, even if an LD diagnosis is not applicable.
  • A Learning Disability diagnosis may result from a psycho-educational assessment (Learning Disabilities Association of Canada):
    • if there is a clinically significant discrepancy between abilities essential for thinking and reasoning, and one or more of the psychological processes related to learning such as phonological processing, memory and attention, processing speed, language processing, perceptual-motor integration, visual-spatial processing or executive functions
    • where academic achievement is unexpectedly low relative to the individual's thinking and reasoning abilities OR academic achievement that is within expected levels, but is sustainable only by extremely high levels of support and effort.
    • Evidence that learning difficulties are logically related to observed deficits in psychological processes
    • Learning difficulties cannot primarily be accounted for by other conditions (such as global developmental delay, visual or hearing impairments or other physical difficulties), environmental factors (including deprivation, abuse, inadequate instruction, SES or lack of motivation) and cultural or linguistic diversity.
  • Entry into particular school programs, such as the GATE program in the Calgary Board of Education, requires that a psyched assessment is completed and submitted as part of the application process, and some other schools may also request information from this type of assessment in order to make sure that they can accommodate a child's learning needs.


What is a psycho-educational assessment?

A psycho-educational assessment has two core parts: A cognitive assessment (usually the WISC-V) and an academic assessment. Dr. Hauck uses the Kaufman Test of Educational Assessment - 3 (KTEA-3) to measure academic achievement due to the variety of subtests that can explore different aspects of academic skills (which are not covered by other tests).

If there are concerns related to behaviour that may be potentially impacting school performance, such as attention, anxiety, and executive functioning skills, additional exploration of those difficulties may be completed using online behavioural questionnaires, such as the Conners 3rd Edition, the Conners Behavioural Rating Scales and/or the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Second Edition (BRIEF-2). These are often completed by parents as well as a teacher that knows the child well. A teacher telephone interview may also occur with parental permission, depending on the circumstances.

Direct assessment is typically approximately 1.5 hours for the WISC-V, and 1.5 to 2 hours or more for the KTEA-3, depending on the reason for the referral and areas of academic skills to be explored. Testing sessions are conducted over two different appointments, and feedback to parents is provided on the second appointment after the testing session has been completed and scored.

Costs for an assessment are typically between 8 to 10 hours for direct testing, feedback and report writing.

 


What is measured in an academic assessment?

Dr. Hauck utilises the KTEA-3 which provides three core areas of academic assessment, with two core subtests in each of the three areas:

1) Reading skills, including subtests looking at Letter and Word Recognition (reading grade/age appropriate words), and Reading Comprehension skills, where passages are read with responses to questions about the text. Additional subtests that can be administered depending on the reason for referral included reading made-up or nonsense words (to explore decoding skills) and Reading Vocabulary.

2) Mathematics skills, including Concepts and Applications, which is math problems that are related to real life situations, and Computation, where written math calculations are performed. Additional optional math subtests include a measure of math fluency, to look at speed of completing easy calculations, which can provide information about automaticity of math facts and speed of completion.

3) Writing skills including Written Expression completing tasks related to editing, writing words and sentences and a story summary within a booklet format. A Spelling task explores single word spelling. An optional Writing Fluency task can help explore the ability to write easy sentences as quickly as possible, which may reflect a difficulty with written output.

Additional areas that can be explored, depending on any concerns noted by parents and teachers, include language processing, such as phonological processing of sounds within words, and speed of naming letters and objects, Reading Fluency including speed of recognising words, Decoding Fluency and speed of silent reading, and Oral Language skills such as Listening Comprehension abilities and ability to express language skills orally.