Limited Weekend Assessments Available!
What is an Assessment?
An assessment is a comprehensive evaluation of an adolescent’s functioning. You may also hear the terms “psychological evaluation,” or “psychological testing,” to refer to this process. An assessment uses multiple sources of information to gather an understanding about a teen’s behavior, including any underlying diagnoses that may be contributing to difficulties at home, school, or with friends. Think of an assessment like geolocation: we use multiple "satellites", aka informants, to best pinpoint your adolescent’s current functioning. Some of these satellites are parent-report, self-report, school input, direct testing, and clinical observation. We use empirically- validated tools to provide a detailed description of your child to inform treatment recommendations and ideas for support.
Questions an Assessment can help answer:
- What’s going on with my teenager? Why are they doing (or not doing) ______?
- Does my child have a learning disability?
- Does my teenager have autism, ADHD, or anxiety?
- Why isn’t therapy working in the way we expected?
- Could my adolescent child benefit from accommodations in school, like an IEP/504 plan, extended time on tests, or preferential seating?
- Could my teen benefit from accommodations on the SAT/ACT, or in college?
- What middle or high school setting may be best for my child based on their learning profile?
- Why is my teenager suddenly having a hard time attending and staying in school?
- Is my teen’s brain (or neurotype) different from their peers?
- How do I best support my child as they become a young adult?
- We had an assessment done when they were really young, but we are wondering how things have changed with age. Could we have an updated evaluation?
How is an assessment different from a standard intake?
A standard intake session is often a brief overview of your child’s top concerns at the moment, things like regulating behavior, anxieties, or attending school. This happens at the outset of any therapy and is not more extensive than 1-2 sessions of understanding teen and/or parent concerns.
An assessment, or testing, is a much deeper dive into your child’s behaviors, including understanding what might be at the root of their concerns, to better guide treatment and intervention recommendations. An assessment is a lengthier process that requires multiple sessions with your adolescent, parents, and clinical psychologist.
How does an assessment at TAP work?
An assessment at TAP is structured but includes flexibility. This means it generally includes the same elements (e.g., questionnaires, reports from others, structured tests), but does allow some modifications depending on your teen’s needs and specific concerns. Our goal is to get to know your teenager from different perspectives, at their level, and within their comfort zone.
Here’s what an assessment at TAP looks like, step by step:
- First, we conduct a parent interview intake to understand your primary concerns. This may include a semi-structured interview with one or both caregivers. A second parent interview session may also be conducted to ask about early developmental history in cases where autism is being evaluated.
- Second, one of our assessors sets up a testing session with your adolescent. Usually we see teens for a 3-hour session, although this is flexible depending on your child’s preferences. Teens often have two or three sessions total, depending on their presenting concerns. Depending on the assessment question, your teenager may complete an IQ test (brain games, blocks, puzzles, word puzzles), achievement testing (reading, writing, math), computerized attentional tests, self-report questionnaires, and/or interviews.
- Third, we have parents and collateral sources (usually school, but sometimes other adults who may know your teen well, like coaches or extracurricular teachers) complete questionnaires online about your teen’s behavior in different settings.
- Lastly, the clinician compiles and integrates all the information obtained into a detailed, comprehensive report. The report includes formal diagnoses (if any) and customized recommendations to guide the next steps for your family. These recommendations may include treatment recommendations at TAP, referrals to providers outside of TAP, ideas for school-based accommodations, and online and virtual resources. The results of the assessment are conveyed to the parents in a 60-90 minute feedback session, with the option to add on additional sessions to convey results to your teen in a developmentally-appropriate way.
This process is all about making you and your teenager comfortable. Our clinic space is friendly for all ages- we incorporate weighted blankets, fidget toys, snacks, rewards and prizes, and visual schedules to help kids get through testing sessions. Our space and our clinicians do our best to avoid white coat anxiety- we are dressed like teachers at school and talk about playing “brain games”. If you were a fly on the wall at TAP, you would see us playing Among Us during breaks, walking outside on the American Tobacco Trail, checking out the sweet snacks in the break room, talking about KPop Demon Hunters, and teens leaving with smiles and feeling comfortable.
If you are a parent of a nonverbal teenager or a teen with significant social anxiety or selective mutism, you may be wondering how we conduct assessments with adolescents who may not be willing to engage with clinicians. We work with youth at all levels of verbal status, including nonverbal, autistic young adults and highly anxious teens who do not verbally communicate with unfamiliar adults. We modify evidence-based tools to ensure we are still capturing nonverbal metrics of functioning, such as achievement, IQ, and adaptive skills, and try to meet each teen where they’re comfortable- we’ve conducted interviews with picture response boards, used texting to build out responses, and worked with parents in the room to increase comfort.