Assessments
Dr. Lisa offers comprehensive psychological assessments. Although these assessments are commonly referred to as psychoeducational assessments, Dr. Lisa assesses more than just cognitive and academic abilities. Dr. Lisa takes a comprehensive approach when assessing your child’s strengths and challenges to ensure a thorough and accurate understanding of your child’s needs and to make appropriate and helpful recommendations.
Parents often seek out psychological (psychoeducational assessments) when they notice their child lagging behind at school relative to their peers or displaying other concerning behaviours. This could mean their reading, writing, or math skills seem delayed, or perhaps their behaviour seems much younger or more challenging compared to their peers. Parents may also be wondering if their child has ADHD, and want to know if ADHD is impacting their child’s education and behaviour. Or they may be hesitant about medicating their child for ADHD before having a comprehensive assessment done in order to rule out other possibilities for the inattentive and hyperactive behaviour.
Comprehensive assessments offered at Growing Minds Psychology typically assess for the following:
- Specific Learning Disorders
- Intellectual Disability
- Giftedness
- ADHD
- Other factors that may impact your child's ability to learn
- Mental Health Disorders, including OCD
Assessment Process
Assessments begin with a parent interview to better understand your concerns and goals for an assessment. A thorough developmental history and understanding of your child’s current presentation is also obtained. Parents will also be asked to provide collateral information such as school report cards and other assessment reports if available.
Next, Dr. Lisa will meet with your child to get to know them and to complete assessment measures. These assessment measure may include different tasks, puzzles, and questionnaires. Parents and teachers will also often be asked to complete questionnaires.
Following completion of the assessment measures, Dr. Lisa will review all the information, score and interpret any measures completed, and write a report. Parents, and sometimes the child (depending on the age), will then return to review the results of the assessment. Diagnoses (if applicable) and recommendations will also be discussed. Parents will be provided copies of the report that they can then use to access supports (if recommended and needed).
Why Choose Dr. Lisa?
Dr. Lisa is a doctoral-level clinical psychologist who believes in offering comprehensive assessments so you get an accurate understanding of what is going on for your child. Being a doctoral-level clinical psychologist means that Dr. Lisa has extensive training in assessment and diagnostic clarification of a variety of mental health disorders, not just learning disorders. Dr. Lisa is not only skilled at assessing learning disorders, but investigating other potential diagnoses or explanations that may explain your child’s difficulties. Many behaviours may look like one thing, but are really being caused by something else. For example, difficulties with inattention may be a result of ADHD, but they may also be due to other concerns such as lower cognitive functioning, anxiety, or learning disorders. This is why Dr. Lisa believes in, and specializes in, comprehensive assessments. Additionally, in Alberta, psychologists vary in their level and type of training. Psychoeducational or formal psychological assessments should only be conducted by psychologists who gained specialized and extensive training in formal assessment and differential diagnosis through their masters or doctoral education, and not by counselling psychologists. Dr. Lisa’s doctoral-level education provided her with extensive training and experience in all aspects of assessment in a variety of settings (outpatient clinics, private practice, hospital, and forensic settings). Being a clinical psychologist also means Dr. Lisa has significant training and experience working with, and assessing, severe and complex mental health disorders.
Investment
Rates vary depending on the scope and nature of the assessment. Assessment fees generally range between $1375 - $4000. Please book a free consultation phone call to discuss the costs of your child’s assessment. Reduced cost assessments are also available for families who would otherwise be unable to afford an assessment due to financial hardship.