PSYCHO-EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT
An individual psycho-educational assessment completed by a registered psychologist provides an opportunity to better understand an individual’s cognitive, academic, and behavioural strengths and needs. An assessment often includes standardized measures of cognitive ability (thinking and reasoning), memory, receptive and expressive vocabulary, visual-motor integration, and academic achievement (reading, writing, and math). Interviews are often used to gain background information about the concern as well as developmental and medical history. Questionnaires or rating scales which examine concerns related to social-emotional functioning, adaptive functioning, executive functioning, and behaviour may also be included depending on the nature of the concern. A diagnosis of a specific learning disability, ADHD, or other issues may be identified. The goals of a psycho-educational assessment include gaining in-depth information about an individual’s learning profile, determining any underlying causes of learning challenges, and making recommendations to help an individual both at home and school. Recommendations may be related to academic programming (e.g., remediation and/or adaptations), behavioural programming, and/or social-emotional functioning.
Our fee to complete a psycho-educational assessment is approximately $3100. This is consistent with other psychologists in Nova Scotia. A psycho-educational assessment takes approximately 20 hours to complete and involves the following:
6 to 8 hours of one-on-one testing (broken into 2 sessions)
Scoring and interpretation of tests
Review of documents including report cards and previous reports (previous psycho-educational assessments, school-based academic testing, speech and language, occupational therapy, assistive technology, medical)
Consultation with other professionals when needed
Interviews
Preparation of the assessment report
A feedback session to go over the results
A school meeting if desired
Payments for psycho-educational assessments are usually made in three installments. The first installment is due after the second testing session. The second installment is due after the feedback session. The final installment is due upon completion and delivery of the assessment report.
