Understanding the Benefits of Psychological and Educational Assessments for Your Child
- Kristy McConnell, R. Psych.
- Mar 11, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 12
Sometimes our children do not seem as successful at school as we hope for. They might struggle with reading, writing, or math. Perhaps your child’s teacher has brought up concerns. A learning assessment, can also be called a psychoeducational assessment or psychological and educational assessment. During the assessment, we take a deep dive into your child’s abilities in order to provide a shared understanding of their strengths and areas of growth.
What areas could be looked at during a psychological and educational assessment?
Intellectual development
The assessment will usually involve an intelligence test, also known as an IQ test, to help us understand your child’s cognitive potential.
Academic achievement
We also look at areas that would benefit from an assessment of your child’s reading, writing and mathematics in order to determine if there may be a potential learning difficulty that is getting in the way.
Social and emotional development
If you are concerned about the way your child feels their emotions, or connects with others, we will look into where they might benefit from support based on their experiences and what strategies might be best.
Life skill development
If your child seems to struggle in many areas of their day-to-day living, we may also have a look at their adaptive skills.
Executive functioning
Perhaps you are concerned that your child is not developing the skills needed to problem solve, set goals, think ahead, switch tasks, or manage their time. This is also an area we can look at within an assessment.
What questions might be answered with a learning assessment?
Does my child have a learning disability?
What supports does my child need at school?
Will they be able to receive accommodations for their learning struggles?
What are their areas of strength and areas for growth?
What can I do to help my child?
What potential diagnoses might come out of the assessment, if any?
What does a psychoeducational assessment involve?
We would love to hear from you if you think an assessment might be right for your child.
