What does each type of assessment involve? 

COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT

• Verbal comprehension: Ability to communicate vocabulary knowledge and reason with words
• Fluid reasoning: Ability to use problem-solving skills to identify and complete patterns and determine relationships among visual and    numerical information
• Visual-spatial processing: Ability to think with shapes and patterns
• Visual-motor integration: Ability to coordinate visual information with finger-hand movement 
• Short-term memory: Ability to remember and use information seen or heard within a short time frame
• Long-term memory: Ability to store, consolidate, and retrieve information over periods measured in minutes, hours, days, and years
• Processing speed: Speed and accuracy of visual identification and decision-making.

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

• Oral language: Listening comprehension and oral expression
• Reading: Early reading, basic reading, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension
• Writing: Alphabet fluency, spelling, sentence composition, and essay  composition
• Math: Math calculation, math reasoning, and math fluency

SOCIAL, EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL FUNCTIONING (screening measure)

• Internalizing behaviours: Anxiety, somatization, feelings of sadness
• Externalizing behaviours: Hyperactivity, aggression, and conduct problem
• Atypical behaviours: Having unusual thoughts and perceptions
• Attention & study skills: Inattention and study and learning challenges
• Adaptive behaviour: Adapting to changing situations and recovering from difficult situations
• Other: Social skills, leadership skills, activities of daily living, functional communication, social withdrawal
 
Please note: If a diagnostic assessment is required, a semi-structured clinical interview will be administered to the parents and child (if appropriate)

EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING

• Initiation
• Flexibility
• Inhibitory control
• Emotion regulation
• Attention
• Self-monitoring
• Planning
• Organization
• Working memory

ATTENTION & HYPERACTIVITY/IMPULSIVITY 

• Inattention
• Hyperactivity
• Learning problems
• Executive functioning
• Defiance/aggression
• Peer relations

ADAPTIVE FUNCTIONING

• Communication: How well the student listens and understands, expresses themself through speech and reads and writes
• Daily living skills: Practical, everyday tasks of living
• Socialization: Functioning in social situations

UNDERSTANDING A PSYCHO-EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT

GOALS:

To provide information to parents & educators about a student's strengths and weaknesses in:
• Cognitive
• Academic
• Social, emotional & behavioural functioning
• Executive functioning and attention
• Adaptive functioning

RESULTS CAN BE HELPFUL IN THE FOLLOWING:

(1) Determining whether the student meets the criteria for a specific school designation or DSM-5-TR diagnosis (e.g., specific learning disorder, intellectual disability, gifted) and qualifies for special education services.

(2) Identifying other reasons that may cause poor performance in school, such as difficulty with attention or memory, or social and emotional concerns

(3) Developing strategies based on the student's individual needs to be implemented at school and home. 

POSSIBLE OUTCOMES:

DSM-5-TR diagnoses, such as (but are not limited to):
• Specific Learning Disorder
• Intellectual Disability
• ADHD
• Anxiety Disorders
• OCD


BC Ministry of Education designations, such as (but not limited to):

• Category Q (learning disability)
• Category P (gifted)
• Category R/H (Students Requiring Moderate/Intensive Behaviour Intervention or Students with Moderate/Serious Mental Illness)