Testing & Evaluations – Child
Early Childhood
Psychological testing can provide valuable insights into a young child’s unique strengths and challenges. Early testing is crucial as it allows us to identify and address potential difficulties before they become more significant. This process is about understanding your child, not just labeling them.
We use a variety of evidence-based measures to create a comprehensive picture of your child’s cognitive, behavioral, and social-emotional functioning. This can include:
Children & Adolescents
Comprehensive psychoeducational evaluations often occur after a child’s or adolescent’s caregivers, parents, or teachers have noted a concern. Before these types of referrals are conducted, a caregiver or teacher will observe a child exhibiting academic, emotional, and/or behavioral difficulties. Frequently, parents are encouraged by a child’s teacher or tutor to pursue a psychoeducational evaluation. Parents often seek these types of evaluations to determine whether their child has the following:
The comprehensive psychoeducational evaluations include cognitive (intelligence) and academic testing. Additionally, the evaluations have a heavy neuropsychological component that includes assessments of receptive and expressive language, visual spatial, attention, visual and verbal memory, and executive functioning abilities. Self-report questionnaires are given to parents, teachers, and at times the child or adolescent to assess emotional functioning. Each evaluation also includes in-depth clinical interview with parents and the child or adolescent. Depending on the age of the child, a classroom observation may also be conducted at an additional fee.
The intelligence testing typically includes one of the following tests, based on your child’s or adolescent’s age:
The academic testing can include one or a combination of the following:
A variety of neuropsychological tests can be administered based on your child’s or adolescent’s age and specific needs. The following list is a sampling of tests that can be administered:
LANGUAGE:
MEMORY, LEARNING, ATTENTION, and EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING:
The results of these types of evaluations help identify the child’s strengths and limitations.
Depending on the results of the evaluation, a diagnosis could be provided if the results support a significant discrepancy in scores. After the evaluation is conducted (approximately 6-8 hours of testing over two days) and the self-report questionnaires have been collected, a two-hour feedback session is held in which the parents are provided with a detailed explanation of the results and how the diagnosis was determined. Detailed recommendations and referrals to other professionals are provided at the time of the feedback session. A comprehensive report is provided to the parents after the feedback session has been conducted. Once parents obtain the report, they at times choose to share the information with their child’s teacher, school, pediatrician, therapist, and/or other health care providers.
Many times parents request that a comprehensive psychoeducational evaluation be conducted so that their child can receive accommodations in school or on standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT. Although a psychologist may provide a diagnosis or specific recommendations, the public school system and the SAT and ACT have their own guidelines of what they consider significant and may not be willing to provide lengthy accommodations. The evaluations that are conducted by Soublis Psychological Associates are comprehensive in nature and meet all of the requirements of which specific tests the SAT and ACT require in an evaluation.
The cost of the evaluation will be determined during the first telephone consultation. Many factors are taken into consideration when deciding what type of testing will be conducted. Therefore, this decision will impact the amount of time your child will spend being evaluated.
Evaluations for Gifted and Talented
Many parents believe their child or adolescent may be gifted. They can be identified as children who spoke very early, learned to read very early, have a high vocabulary, remember a large amount of material, etc. These children also tend to be under-stimulated in a regular classroom setting and at times can be disruptive.
Gifted testing conducted by a psychologist is a comprehensive evaluation process designed to identify individuals with exceptional intellectual and academic abilities. It’s often sought by parents and educators to understand a child’s unique learning profile and determine eligibility for gifted programs or specialized educational services. The process is more than just a single IQ test. A psychologist uses a variety of standardized tools and assessment techniques to create a holistic picture of an individual’s strengths and weaknesses. Beyond simply getting a label, a psychological evaluation for giftedness serves several important purposes:
The Katie Beckett Waiver Evaluations
The Katie Beckett Waiver is a valuable resource for families of children with complex medical needs or significant disabilities. It is a specific type of Medicaid program that allows children under the age of 19 to receive care at home instead of in a hospital or institution. The most important part of this program is that it waives the typical income restrictions for Medicaid. This means that a child can qualify for full Medicaid benefits based on their own disability and need for an institutional level of care, regardless of their parents’ income.
As part of the eligibility process, an extensive evaluation is required to demonstrate that a child’s condition meets the criteria for this level of care. Our psychological testing services can provide the comprehensive developmental evaluations and documentation needed to support your application for the Katie Beckett Waiver.
This typically includes an intellectual assessment, questionnaires, direct observations, and any other relevant assessments.