ASSESSMENT

A clear understanding of your questions and concerns is essential!

Assessments might include gifted testing, neuropsychological evaluation, or other evaluation approaches. Your clinician will work with you to determine the best path forward.

Our testing sessions vary depending on the age and needs of the individual! They may occur in one morning session of 2 to 3 hours or occur in several sessions over the course of several days. If a full day of testing is used, this simulates a full day of school, except with more direct engagement and opportunities for rest.

You may work with more than one of our clinicians for greater variety and engagement using our team approach. Please bring hydration and snacks. There are multiple short breaks where we encourage you both to get fresh air, and play, relax and clear the mind. Some of the tasks may be easy, and others may be more difficult, and new to you. Each task is a short burst, with many short tasks making up the day. Activities are varied. Some are game-like, others more like schoolwork. 

Our assessments aim to be collaborative and therapeutic. You and your child are partners in the process. A comprehensive approach is critically important for the early and accurate diagnosis of neurodevelopmental conditions in childhood. A comprehensive neuropsychological assessment can:

• Help you feel seen, heard and understood

• Help you know the things you need to do next and get connected to those things

• Get a clear overview of strengths and weaknesses

• Help understand a diagnosis or why some pattern happens

• Find any “deeper layers” that may be stalling progress

• Solve practical problems

• Advocate for what you need from a school or agency

The process includes:

• In-depth interview with parents/caregivers

• Comprehensive standardized testing

• In-depth feedback session with parents/caregivers to discuss results and recommendations

• When appropriate, a feedback session with the child or adolescent, using language that is positive, developmentally appropriate and not overwhelming

• Written report detailing evaluation results and conclusions with personalized recommendations

Testing may include:

• Social, emotional, and behavioral functioning

• Intellect and general cognitive abilities

• Academic skills (reading, writing, mathematics, skill acquisition; academic achievement tests as *behavior samples*, a chance to watch the person work on a task that’s similar to the task they have real-world problems with, to get ideas of where the breakdown might be)

• Executive functions (working memory, inhibitory control, planning and organization, cognitive flexibility)

• Focused, sustained, and self-directed attention across various modalities

• Memory and learning

• Receptive and expressive language and social communication skills

• Visual-spatial and sensory-motor skills

We don’t use the same tests for every situation. The assessment is tailored specifically for the questions you have.

Research suggests parents might recognize signs of giftedness by age three, but children are often not identified through school screening until age eight or later! Early identification can expand educational options, help parents better support their child, and prevent later difficulties. Gifted testing can:

• Help you understand what you are seeing

• Learn more about your child’s developmental trajectory

• Get a clear overview of current cognitive strengths and weaknesses

• Intervene early with any areas of concern

• Enrich with new opportunities or advocate for what you need from a school or agency

The process includes:

• An in-depth intake interview with parent/caregiver and review of any relevant records

• Standardized, 1-on-1 testing with the child, in a fun and relaxed atmosphere

• Same-day results and feedback provided to parent/caregiver

• Written report – detailed evaluation results and personalized recommendations

Gifted students can be intense! Over-sensitivity, perfectionism, high expectations for achievement, feeling socially out-of-sync or misunderstood, and existential depression can be expressed differently in this population. And children with academic or other challenges combined with high IQ can experience such intensity even more keenly. Early and accurate identification can help. Dr. Wingers’ years of experience as a specialist in the gifted and twice-exceptional informs her approach and the work of the clinicians at CENTER.

Individual cognitive testing differs from school-based gifted testing in significant ways.  School-based gifted testing is typically administered in a group, and given the constraints of the school screening process, little context for results is provided. A reliable and valid individual assessment should use measures approved by the Arizona Department of Education and be conducted by a skilled evaluator experienced in working with children. To understand results, we interpret the child’s scores in the entire context surrounding the child, which includes parent input, observations of the child, developmental history, a deep understanding of and expertise in giftedness and early childhood development, and a clinical understanding of the purposes and limitations of measurement instruments.

Clinical conditions such as ADHD, dyslexia, and others are rarely diagnosed in children ages three and four, which is not unexpected given they might not yet have been exposed to structured learning situations, nor are they developmentally ready to engage with higher-level learning and the accompanying behavioral expectations. Unfortunately, many children encounter years of school failure and frustration before learning issues are identified. During these early years, pediatricians can be alert to risk factors and “red flag” behaviors that might be evidence of later concerns. Talk to your child’s pediatrician about your concerns, and seek a developmental preschool evaluation if needed. While the presence of risk and alert factors at this early age does not necessarily predict that a child will have a clinically diagnosable condition, it could indicate a need for additional screening or evaluation. An early evaluation provides the opportunity for proactive interventions and informal experiences geared to shore up areas of concern, including pre-academic readiness skills, self-regulatory skills, changes in parenting approach, school supports, and others as the child grows.

The process includes:

• In-depth intake interview with parents/caregivers

• Review of any relevant records and consultation to gather collateral information

• Functional, play-based assessment

• Standardized testing of cognitive, language, academic readiness, emerging executive function, motor, and social-emotional skills

• In-depth feedback session with parents/caregivers to discuss results and recommendations

• Written report detailing evaluation results and conclusions with personalized recommendations

DIAGNOSTIC CONSIDERATIONS

ADHD
ADJUSTMENT ISSUES
ANXIETY
ATTACHMENT ISSUES
AUTISM SPECTRUM
BEHAVIORAL ISSUES
DEPRESSION & MOOD ISSUES
DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
DYSLEXIA
DYSGRAPHIA
DYSCALCULIA
EMOTIONAL INTENSITY/DYSREGULATION
EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS
GIFTED INTELLECT/HIGH POTENTIAL
LEARNING DIFFERENCES
LANGUAGE DISORDERS
TWICE EXCEPTIONALITY
UNDERACHIEVEMENT

(This is not an exhaustive list of the conditions we treat at CENTER Psychology & Consulting. We will provide referrals as needed for conditions not within our scope of practice. Please contact us for more information.)