1 - Assessment Flashcards
Skills and Abilities of a Clinician
Able to establish and maintain rapport - children parents, teachers
* Able to select appropriate measures -referral question and presenting problem
* Able to understand and evaluate the psychometric properties of tasks - reliability validity
* Able to administer and score tests using standardized procedures objectively
* Able to appropriately interpret results
* Able to apply assessment findings to programming and intervention - recommendations
* Able to communicate findings effectively - verbal and writing
* Able to read and interpret reports of others
RMP AS R PIRC O
Psychological Assessment
any activity that is designed to further the process of accumulating information and forming judgements about the behavioural, emotional,
social characteristics of an individual
Types of Assessments
- Cognitive / Ability assessments
◦ Intelligence, neuropsychological, aptitude and achievement - Objective personality / Behavioural assessments
◦ Personality inventory or behavioural surveys - Clinical assessments
◦ Diagnostic or projective measures and apperception tests
The assessments should be
Relevant, reliable, and valid information about a child and the child’s problems or difficulties
- Used to help track the child’s efforts in order to assist the child in achieving developmental milestones,
academic gain, or social emotional functioning
Ethics
- Respect and appreciate the worth and dignity of the child
- Assessment represents a mutual engagement between you and the examinee
- A collaborative effort
** not something done to the individual
- Hinges on respect, and a belief that the effort, time, and work put into the assessment will be of benefit to the individual
Ethics Consent
Informed consent is important at the outset
Informed refusal: the right to refuse the assessment without any consequences
Guardians / parents must also give consent
* Parent must understand what is involved
* The purpose of the testing
* Who will have access to the information
Special case: Court ordered assessments
* Individuals may have less choice about refusal
* May face consequences if they do refuse
Assessment Process
Referral source - concerns, presenting problems, questions
- Investigate:
-Relevant background information & presenting problems
Doctor or clinician referral - some results to start with
Medical history - Assess:
-Information from ——-initial series of assessment measures - Further assess:
-Additional -measures for a thorough assessment - Communicate:
- relevant background information
-details about the assessment process
-Observations during assessment
formal evaluation findings & interpretations
-recommended interventions or instructional programs
What background information is important?
- Identify the major problem areas
- Antecedents / consequences of behaviours
- What factors have contributed to the problem - external socioeconomic, violence, parenting
- Historical data – to identify the child’s developmental history
- Previous assessments and treatments - what was the outcome
- Current family situation
- Current stressors / life events
- Child’s experiences & behaviour across settings - home school community
Formal Assessment
A battery of psychological measures may be used:
- Intelligence
- Academic skills
- Clinical dimensions or psychopathology
- Personality
- Temperament
- Motor skills
- Daily living skills
- Interests and/or difficulties in living
Selection of Measures - Inductive
Gather information from a variety of sources and drawing conclusions about what that info might mean
Interviews with parents, teachers, medical records, collect as much info as possible
allow the test scores to drive interpretation
Selection of measures Deductive
a priori hypothesis about the nature of the child’s difficulties
Literature, diagnostic criteria
Use existing framework to decide what kinds of measures to use
–What was done in the past - how many tests needed to answer the referral question
Considerations in selecting measures
Children come with an extensive amount of info in their case file - need to carefully select
