Initial Parent Meeting: Evaluations begin with a parent interview, during which time we review previous testing and developmental history, discuss parent and teacher concerns, and review the estimated cost of the evaluation as well as the testing process.
Testing Sessions: The total time needed for the actual testing with your child varies from 3 hours for a focused evaluation to 12 hours for a more comprehensive psychological evaluation. Most children and adolescents need approximately 6-8 hours of testing. The total time is determined by the number and type of testing measures utilized to answer the referral questions, as well as certain characteristics of your child (for example, attention span, processing speed, motivation). Testing sessions will be scheduled in two- or three-hour blocks, usually in the morning. Therefore, you can expect that your child will need to come in for two or three different testing sessions.
The type of testing varies for each child but can involve a variety of activities:
- Answering questions out loud and on the computer
- Building designs & completing puzzles
- Reading, writing, spelling, and math
- Drawing
- Memory “games”
School Observation (if indicated): For preschool or elementary-aged children, it can sometimes be beneficial for your psychologist to do an observation of your child in their school environment. This will typically be done during a time when your child can be observed through several transitions, as well as in both structured and unstructured activities. Whether or not a school observation will be beneficial for the assessment will be determined collaboratively with you at the initial parent meeting. The time investment for the school observation is typically two hours, and is billed separately at your psychologist’s current hourly rate.
Parent Feedback Meeting: The parent feedback meeting occurs around 4 weeks after the final testing session, and is an opportunity for parents to better understand the testing results and recommendations. At this meeting, the parent will be provided with an advanced draft report to view the results, diagnoses (if indicated), as well as recommendations. A final version of the report is issued within one week of the feedback.
Adolescent Feedback Meeting: Occasionally, when appropriate, it may be helpful to have a separate feedback session with your adolescent to help them better understand the results of the evaluation. This can be particularly beneficial if there are results from the evaluation that may be hard for them to hear while in the presence of their parents.