Does Your Child Long to Feel Smarter?

For a child or adolescent who is experiencing difficulties in school, an educational assessment is crucial. Educational assessments are procedures in which children or adolescents participate in a series of standardized tests to determine the nature and extent of difficulties they are experiencing in their academic development.

Educational assessments typically include IQ testing, academic achievement testing, and testing for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or other processing disorders. In addition, testing for specific learning disorders is conducted if it is suggested by the results of the initial educational assessment.

If you suspect your child has ADHD, testing is particularly important because many behaviors that children and adolescents engage in appear to be ADHD when, in fact, these behaviors might be more attributable to emotional difficulties, problems in relationships, or simply over-scheduling of activities. Thus, testing for ADHD must measure an individual’s specific abilities pertaining to attention and concentration over a sustained period of time, and in a variety of settings. Testing should also differentiate between ADHD and learning disabilities, which co-occur approximately 50% of the time.

Early detection of learning disabilities is vital to effective treatment. A child with a reading disability that is detected and treated in the second grade will make much greater academic progress than a child with a reading disability that is not treated until the fourth grade. One of the main reasons is that the fourth-grade child will likely have fallen much farther behind in school than the second-grade child.

If your child is struggling in school, come in soon for a consultation with Dr. Brian.