Limited Weekend Assessments Available!
What is an Assessment?
Most simply, an assessment is a deep-dive investigation aimed at understanding a specific question related to your mental health, executive or cognitive functioning, or your social-emotional functioning. Because the types of question(s) that assessments answer can vary widely, assessment types, lengths, and results can also vary widely.
However, it is most important to know that an assessment typically consists of four main components:
- The development of a specific question that you want an assessment to answer
These questions can range widely from “Is my child ready for early kindergarten?,” to “What diagnosis best describes my current symptoms?,” to “Do I have autism?” - An in-depth interview with you (and family or collateral where appropriate)
These interviews are usually between 2-4 hours depending on the assessment question. - Testing of some kind
Testing can include self-report measures (questionnaires), standardized questions your assessor asks you about your experience, or hands-on tests you complete with your assessor. - A written report
All testing will result in a written report that explains what your assessor found, as well as treatment and other relevant recommendations.
How is an assessment different from a standard intake for therapy services?
In the mental health field, the word “intake” typically means a provider will meet with a client (or in the case of a youth, the youth and a caregiver) for a session or two to gather verbal reports about your or your child’s experiences, history, behaviors, and goals for treatment. The goal of this intake process is to best understand what type of treatment may be the best fit for the individual's needs and connect you with an appropriate provider. This type of information gathering is standard in mental health and should occur prior to receiving any therapy services at any clinic. To learn more about TAP's standard intake process, click here.
An assessment is a more structured and comprehensive process that gathers much more information and results in a formal report, and is not common practice for a mental health intake. During an assessment, we gather numerous forms of data from a range of sources. This can include any combination of the following: clinical interview of the individual and their caregivers; standardized report forms completed by the individual, teachers, and caregivers; cognitive and achievement testing; computerized tests of attention; standardized tests of social developmental language; and/or structured observations. The assessor then incorporates all of this information into a written report that you receive at the end of the process. This written report documents all the information gathered and uses it to assign clinical diagnoses (when appropriate) and make treatment and other recommendations.
Because an assessment requires much more of your time and financial resources, we do not recommend that everyone interested in therapy services complete one. To learn more about when we would recommend an assessment rather than a standard intake, please click here.
How do assessments at TAP work?
We start all of our assessments with a 50 minute intake appointment aimed at understanding your goals for assessment and the questions you are hoping to answer. In this hour, we will discuss what has been helpful about previous assessments or therapy services and/or where you are feeling stuck or lost. Using this information, we will discuss an initial assessment plan and get further appointments scheduled. The assessment plan will confirm 1) what questions we seek to answer with an assessment and 2) an estimate of hours and fees associated. At that time, you can choose to proceed with an assessment or decide that an assessment is not for you.
After confirming you would like to proceed with a full assessment, assessments proceed as follows:
For Youth: Assessments for all youth will typically begin with a 1-2 hour caregiver interview that can be conducted in person or virtually. We will then schedule all remaining portions of the youth’s assessment in person. Depending on the individual youth, their stamina, preference, and the size of the assessment, we may meet in person with a youth for one to three testing sessions. The length of these sessions will also depend on the youth’s ability to perform at their best for a sustained period of time. In between testing sessions, report forms can be completed by youth, caregivers, and teachers remotely.
For Adults: Adult assessment will start with a two hour clinical interview in person before moving on to any additional standardized assessments. At times, the clinical interview may take longer depending on the complexity of the case.
Once we have completed all portions of the assessment and all report forms have been completed, we will write and incorporate all of our findings into a written report.
Within a month of completing your assessment, we will schedule a 50 minute feedback session to discuss the findings of the assessment and our recommendations, as well as answer any questions you may have. You will then receive a copy of the written report that is yours to share with current and future providers, schools, and medical providers.