PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENTS AT RELATEDMINDS EDUCATIONAL SERVICES: Psychoeducational Assessments Completed by a Professional team of school and clinical psychologists familiar with schools, teaching and the classroom. RelatedMinds Psychoeducational Services. Full information is available on our main webpage: www.relatedminds.com
OUR TEAM
Psychoeducational assessments are completed by a multidisciplinary team. Team members include Dr. Jim Roche, our senior psychologist, Sheena Cholewkas-Smyth, MS, and James Tanliao, MS. Dr. Roche has over three decades of experience in education. He has worked as a classroom teacher, school psychologist, director of behaviour management services and as a provincial consultant for autism spectrum disorder. In California he was a trainer-of-trainers in the CAL-PENT program, serving as the consulting psychologist for several districts in the Bay area providing teacher training, teacher consultation and was the trainer for districts that were dealing with difficult cases involving multiple handicapping conditions.
James and Sheena are both certified school psychologists (Certified Members of BCASP - The British Columbia Association of School Psychologists), James is a NASP (National Association of School Psychologists) Certified School Psychologist as well. Both have extensive experience working in the schools, consulting with parents, students and teachers in the classroom. This is perhaps the most important difference between the psychoeducational assessment services that our team provides as compared to others: we all have extensive hands on experience in the schools.
PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT
A psychoeducational assessment is a detailed look at your child’s cognitive, academic and social-emotional status.It is used to qualify children for special education and support services, and is used by your child’s school based support team and classroom teacher to develop an educational intervention program based upon your child’s skills, strengths and weaknesses.
WHAT AREAS DOES THE PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT COVER?
In general every psychoeducational assessment covers at least the following:
General Intelligence (Problem Solving Skills and General Knowledge)
Language skills (Listening, Verbal and Reading, ranging from spelling to comprehension)
Memory (Working Memory, Short Term Memory, Long Term Memory, Visual Memory, Verbal Memory etc.)
Learning
Executive Functioning including attention, focus, planning, extended effort, cognitive flexibility, concentration
We screen for ADHD, and if appropriate, we can fully assess for ADHD and provide a diagnosis and treatment interventions for the home and school
Reading (phonetic skills, word reading, reading comprehension)
Spelling
Writing (from sentences to essays)
Mathematics
Academic fluency (speed of reading, writing, calculating)
Listening comprehension
Behavioural issues as well as social and emotional functioning
From the data we gather during this assessment process we then, if appropriate, make a diagnosis of a specific learning disability, ADHD and social-emotional issues.
We always start with a 1 hour intake in our Burnaby office. This allows us to review your concerns, and information you may have from the school or previous assessments, and determine the exact nature of the exam.
We then schedule a time for the testing process, which can at anywhere from 2-3 two hour sessions. We also ask you to complete a number of forms and clinical assessment tools. Some of these you will do in the office while your child is being assessed, some may be sent to you to complete on-line, and some will be given to you to complete at home. Older students are often asked to complete self-reports.
Teachers are also asked to complete a number of assessment tools. We sometimes send these home with you, or can send them by email. Often we conduct a phone interview with at least one teacher.
You will be asked to pay $200 for the initial session, and then 50% of the remaining fee before the first 2 hour session. The remainder at the end of the assessment process.
After testing is complete we usually need a week to 10 days to score the tests, analyze the information and write a report. This often involves more than one team member and takes several hours.
When the report is complete we schedule a feedback session with the parent(s) to discuss the findings of the assessment and almost always we ask to review the report with the student/child. Psychoeducation - understanding your cognitive and psychological strengths and weaknesses, and understanding our plan to make learning easier, is something every student should participate in.
COST: $2,400. total.
WHAT ABOUT AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER?
An autism spectrum disorder assessment can also be completed, however, this is a separate assessment process. We can discuss this issue at our initial meeting.
HOW CAN WE CONTACT YOU?
The best way is to both call and email. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
Our email contact is on our website at www.RelatedMinds.com
You can also email us at: RelatedMinds(at)gmail.com
HOW LONG IS YOUR WAITING PERIOD?
We know that some agencies have waiting lists that are several months long, and that waiting lists for schools can take years. Once we start the process we usually complete everything in a few weeks. Overall we usually see a new student within 3-4 weeks. We do not schedule out more than a month.
For more information about services we provide please click here: www.relatedminds.com