Every student brings different strengths and needs to their education. The beauty of our world is that no one child or person is the same. Comprehensive evaluations help to identify those strengths and individual needs. You may have heard the term, but still wondering, ‘what is a comprehensive evaluation, and how will it help my child?’
What is a Comprehensive Evaluation
Comprehensive Evaluations focus on the child, their strengths, and needs. They provide families with a framework for the child’s success while discovering strengths and weaknesses in learning and emotional health along the way. The goal of a comprehensive evaluation is to assist families, teachers, psychologists, pediatricians and/or psychiatrists develop an individualized treatment plan. Benefits of comprehensive evaluations will:
- Provide teachers with learning style information
- Help determine if a referral is needed for Speech Language Evaluation and/or Occupational Evaluation
- Possibly lead to a diagnosis
- Provide parents with information to take to schools for IEP and 504 meetings
- Provide colleges, universities and high-stakes testing organizations with evidence for accommodations
- For older students, answer questions as to how they learn, process information, and/or why they struggle (can learn to lean on strengths)
- Help determine appropriate accommodations and/or interventions necessary for success
What does a Comprehensive Evaluation look like?
Comprehensive evaluations can take as long as 6 hours of in-person or remote testing, broken into several sessions (depending on the student). It will combine input from parents and teachers to get different settings/perceptions and a deeper understanding of the student. Areas that we look at include Cognitive (processing), Academic, and Behavioral areas of functioning. We tailor each evaluation to the specific area of concern established through the intake interview. If Autism, for example, is suspected, we schedule an extra appointment to allow for direct performance observations of behaviors associated with this diagnosis. We evaluate and collect data to be able to diagnose specific learning disabilities in reading, math, and writing (dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia). Additionally, through interviews, behavior ratings, observations, and social history, we may determine mood dysregulation and social-emotional skill deficits.
The cost for a comprehensive evaluation with Herrera Psychology is all-inclusive; services will include appointment dates, assessments, report writing, and follow-up report review appointments with you to go over findings. Once we have completed an evaluation report, we can share, with parental approval, this with school, pediatrician, and others in your child’s village to receive greater support and recommendations. If there is a need for accommodations, now is the time to ask for them within your child’s learning environments. We have a clearer understanding post-evaluation, to utilize the right resources for your child.
Accommodation requests in Florida are ongoing. The process of an evaluation can take up to four weeks depending upon scheduling, so it is important to start the process as early as possible in the year if you are in need of a clearer understanding of why your child is struggling academically, behaviorally, or socially.
Given the diversity of students in schools today, tools like comprehensive evaluations and assessments can help bridge the gap between the school and the student. But doing evaluations early is key! To learn more about evaluations and assessments with Herrera Psychology, click here. Call now to schedule a consultation. Reach out to us anytime to schedule a comprehensive evaluation with your child and we will walk you through the process to get started right away.
