CDL's Comprehensive Student Evaluations

The neurodevelopmental or psychoeducational evaluations provided by our psychologists assess the psychological processes involved in the learning process. These processes include attention, language, memory, graphomotor or handwriting skills, spatial and sequential organization and higher order thinking. In addition, academic skills in reading, written language and math will be assessed. Finally, information regarding social skills and relationships, emotions and behavior will be obtained.

The first priority in conducting an evaluation will be to address student and parent concerns and to answer specific questions they might have. A second emphasis of our evaluations is to explain the findings to students and parents in user-friendly language. Finally, the evaluation process will give students and parents very specific recommendations about ways to help students perform more successfully in school. While a clinical diagnosis, such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder or Reading Disorder may be given when needed, the emphasis during the evaluation will not be to "label" the student but rather to understand what underlies the "label" and how to manage challenges.

The Evaluation Process

Once you have decided that you and your child or young adult would like to be evaluated by our psychologists at CDL, call us to schedule an appointment. After the appointment is scheduled, we will begin collecting information by sending a packet containing several questionnaires and standardized rating scales, which are to be completed by the parent (if the student is still in high school, and at times, for college students), the student, and teacher/s (except when students are attending college). Our psychologists have developed a descriptive questionnaire to gather data regarding the student's neurodevelopmental, academic and behavioral skills. We ask that all completed forms be returned to CDL prior to the first session so that the psychologist can review them and, thus, begin to understand the presenting problems, questions the students and parents would like answered, and the nature of the student's strengths and weaknesses.

Complete neurodevelopmental/psychoeducational evaluations are generally conducted over a two-day period and require approximately 8 to 10 contact hours with the psychologist. Scheduling a specific test procedure, such as intelligence testing or testing for dyslexia, may be conducted in one day.

There are four basic steps to the evaluation process:

1. Initial session: During the initial interview session, the completed questionnaires and rating scales completed by the parent, student, and teacher/s will be reviewed with the parent or young adult (i.e., college age students). Other relevant information will also be obtained. (When college students are evaluated, an interview with the parent/guardian may or may not be conducted. This is determined by the needs of the client.) At the initial session, the psychologist will make a recommendation as to the type of evaluation that is needed.

2. Testing sessions: The second step is to complete the testing. Testing will generally take from one to three sessions, depending on the referral concerns and the extensiveness of the evaluation the parent or young adult has requested.

3. Test scoring and interpretation: Next, the psychologist will score the testing, integrate this information with that from questionnaires and rating scales, and look for patterns and consistencies gleaned from these multiple sources in order to develop a learning profile. Psychologists look for explanations for difficulties the student is experiencing. For example, if the student is experiencing difficulty in reading, the psychologist will identify the cause of this difficulty. That is, whether the breakdown is in phoneme awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and/or text comprehension. When our psychologists score tests they look for more than just raw scores. They also review their observations about how these scores were obtained.

4. Feedback session: Parents and/or young adult clients will receive immediate verbal feedback at the conclusion of testing after the psychologist has scored and interpreted the evaluation information. During the feedback session, the psychologist will thoroughly explain the information obtained during the evaluation process. Both strengths and weaknesses will be discussed. Each client will be given an individualized plan that addresses difficulties. Our recommendations are not "one size fits all". For example, if the client's difficulty in reading is due to poor phoneme awareness, specific strategies that address phoneme awareness will be given.

The following is a sample of what the two-day testing schedule may look like:

Day 1:

Session 1	Interview parent or young adult (i.e., college age student)
Session 2	Interview and testing with the student
Lunch Break	Approximately one to one and one-half hours.
Session 3	Testing with the student.

Day 2:

Session 4	Testing with the student.
Lunch Break	During this break, the psychologist must score, analyze and interpret the evaluation findings. Approximately two to two and one-half hours is needed for this task.
Session 5	Feedback session with parents and/or young adult, and subsequently with child or adolescent.

A written report of the evaluation findings and recommendations is provided approximately four to six weeks after the feedback session. However, at times, parents may receive a brief summary, test scores and recommendations if these are necessary to enable the student to receive immediate services in the school setting or from other professionals.

The final reports are extremely comprehensive and time consuming to prepare, and are generally 20-25 pages in length. Written reports contain a description of the presenting concerns, background information, data obtained from rating scales, questionnaires and testing (including standardized tests scores), an integrated summary of data from multiple methods and sources, and a specific learning profile of the student's strengths and weaknesses with specific strategies to address the identified weaknesses. Every effort is made to provide reports that consist of language that is user-friendly for parents, teachers and other professionals that may work with the student. If after receiving your report, you have any questions or concerns, the psychologist will be available to address them with you.

Call CDL to schedule an evaluation