Understanding Psychological Assessment Reports (Post-Covid)
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We’re back with the second topic in our series about our most popular services that help get your learner on a path to school success! When applied with the expertise and tact of GPS Education Consulting L.L.C., these tools work wonders! Previously, we discussed how comprehensive educational record reviews are the first step to school success.
Today, we’ll start the conversation about psychological assessment reports. In this post, my goal is to normalize and validate the uncomfortable feelings many folks experience related to psych reports. I’ll also share a bit about my experience as a school psychologist who wrote hundreds of reports over the years.
In our next entry, we’ll cover more aspects of this complex topic, including how GPS Education Consulting L.L.C. can help you avoid these issues and get your learner on the path to school success without wasting any more precious time in their educational career.
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Unfortunately, this topic probably stirs-up a lot of uncomfortable feelings in our readers.
Psychological evaluation reports are often at the crux of the most important decisions in your learner’s educational career.
While attempts are made to write these reports in language that is easily understood by parents and caregivers, they’re also written to be useful to those using them to make significant decisions about the child’s educational programming.
As a result, psychological assessment reports are often complex and difficult to understand, especially for those who do not have training and experience in administering and interpreting psychological assessments. To make things worse, they are often used within systems (e.g., schools) that also require you to be fluent in language from IDEA and Section 504 of the ADA.
For these reasons, it’s crucial for parents to receive experienced assistance in understanding their child's assessment results…and that’s where we come in.
As a school psychologist, I considered assessment reports to be one of the most important and meaningful contributions that I made to a child’s life. I wanted to write reports that would be understood by parents but found it difficult to do so while balancing the necessity of being clearly understood and useful to the IEP and/or Section 504 Team. Often, I fell short of my intention to write for parents/caregivers because of my experience seeing well-meaning school staff misinterpreting parts of the document.
So…what did I do? I tried to find time to review the results with parents/caregivers several days ahead of the IEP / 504 Meeting where we would review the report. Truthfully though, this was exceptionally challenging to accomplish, as kids and staff went about their days at school and the inevitable walky-talky calls came to help kids deescalate from crises, hold impromptu counseling sessions, or review emotional regulation strategies with kids in need.
So…then I tried to spend 30 minutes reviewing the report with the parent/caregiver and school team during the Meetings. Sometimes this was effective, but more often it felt rushed since there were back-to-back meetings on the calendar. This got more intense as we returned to school following the Covid closures.
As a school psychologist who strives to find and adequately convey the strengths and needs of learners/children/students with the goal of helping the child’s support team to 1) better understand them, 2) value their differences, and 3) advocate for their growth across all areas of life…my aim often missed the mark despite best intentions.
To function within this overburdened system, I felt like I had to condense a child’s life, a parent’s hopes and concerns, and a teacher’s path to helping into a series of sound bites.
Opportunities to collaborate with experts in various aspect of the learner’s life shrank and felt less: 1) meaningful, 2) productive, 3) thoughtful, and 4) supportive. Eventually, I left the schools…
Now, GPS Education Consulting works tirelessly to reverse this trend!
Best,
Evan Gallena, Ed.S., NCSP
Founder & Lead-Consultant: GPS Education Consulting L.L.C.
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Email Evan@GPSEducationConsulting.net with questions!
Together, as one… Navigating the path to school success!
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