The purpose of a comprehensive psychological evaluation is to accurately identify a child's patterns of strengths and needs. 

A comprehensive evaluation will assess your child’s abilities in several areas of functioning:

• Cognitive skills

• Academic or achievement skills

• Memory and learning

• Executive Functioning

• Mood and Behavior

 When should you consider scheduling an evaluation for your child?

When a child is struggling with academic and life demands, challenges are often multi-faceted. A comprehensive evaluation will help you better understand your child's learning profile, including his/her academic and cognitive strengths and weaknesses.

Any or all of the following concerns are a reason to seek a consultation regarding psychological testing:

• Struggling academically

• Difficulty learning new material and concepts in any subject

• Slow to learn or understand new information

• Hard time keeping up with pace of class

• Poor attention and/or behavior in classroom

• Poor time management or organization skills

• Does not complete tests on time

• Test anxiety or other mood difficulties interfering with learning

• At risk for grade retention

• Gifted evaluations

• School admissions requirement

Psychological testing can occur across the childhood age span, from pre-school years to determine school readiness to a young adult who is attending college and having difficulty keeping pace with the academic demands.

What can you expect?

Comprehensive evaluations at Thinking Tree Psychology involves three main steps and these steps likely will be similar with other providers. These steps include:

• Intake session to better understand your child and concerns and make a plan for testing

• Several hours of testing, spread out over two days or more

• Feedback session with parents focusing on testing results, impressions and recommendations, with evaluation report to distribute to school and other providers

Lindsay Clendaniel, PhD is a pediatric psychologist and Director at Thinking Tree Psychology. She specializes in the treatment of children, adolescents and young adults with anxiety and health-related adjustment issues, with particular expertise in pain management and treatment of chronic headache and functional gastrointestinal illness. Dr. Clendaniel has presented research at national conferences related to the topic of pain management and has also authored several articles and book chapters related to the management of functional gastrointestinal illness.