Psychological assessments are performed for a variety of reasons including but, not limited to:
- Attention problems (distractibility, restlessness, hyperactivity, difficulty with focus and concentration), Social problems (difficulty interacting, relating to others, or maintaining friendships),
- Behavioral challenges (aggression, oppositional, impulsive, withdrawn),
- Self esteem issues (low self worth),
- Trauma, and mood problems (sad, angry, worried, anxious, fearful) either at home and/or at school.
In general, this type of evaluation includes:
- A clinical interview or in-depth gathering of both the developmental and medical histories,
- The administration, scoring, and interpretation of an intelligence/cognitive test,
- Social/emotional tests (involves mood/behavioral screens, multiple projective tests,
- Possibly a personality test),
- Collateral with a third party (i.e., teacher, therapist),
- Behavioral observations,
- Review of any previous evaluations.
These assessments are conducted to help rule out a specific diagnosis (i.e., Autism Spectrum Disorder vs. Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder vs. Anxiety Disorder).
