Starting the Conversation
In a nutshell, the purpose of an assessment is to “Learn about how you learn and how your brain works. Also to learn the things you are very good at and the things that might be more challenging for you” so that:
- Teachers know how to teach you
- Parents learn how to support you
- You know how to advocate for yourself
Hint: don’t use the word “test.” Instead, talk about “activities or tasks.”
Introducing the idea of an assessment to your child may sound something like:
We have noticed you’re working really hard at school, but it still seems pretty tough, and we are not sure why. If we knew more about how you learn best, your teachers and us could do a better job helping you. So, last week we talked with (psychologist’s name), who can help us find a way to make school easier for you and figure out what we can do differently at home.
Describe the Process
When your child comes in, we will do different activities to help us understand how they work with different types of information. For example, we will do puzzles, ask them questions, chat about what they like to do, and try to figure out what comes easy and why some things can be tricky.
For younger children, it may be important to let them know that the psychologist helps children, parents, and teachers learn about the child’s brain. Make sure they know there is nothing wrong with them!
Older children may feel assured that this is a confidential process, focused on being curious, learning about strengths and weaknesses, and finding solutions. Their input is extremely important to figure out what will be most helpful for them.
Explaining the process may sound something like:
The psychologist will do different activities with you to figure out how you learn best, where your strengths are, and why some things are more challenging right now. Some will be fun, some will be easy, and some will challenge you. Your job is just to do your best, and if something is tricky let the psychologist know so you can work together to figure out why!
Note: Although you may be very curious about what types of activities we will be doing with your child, in order to ensure that the results are valid, we are unable to show you exactly the types of activities they will be engaging in.
Tips for how to talk about the assessment with your child
- If your child is resistant, it may help to rephrase the problem using their words. Such as “I’ve noticed you’re getting in trouble a lot this year, and it doesn’t seem to make sense. I wonder if there’s a way we can figure it out together”. Or “I heard you say that you hate school, and I can totally see why! So let’s see if there’s a way to change that”.
- Some children may be worried they’ve done something wrong or that there is something wrong with them. For this reason, we recommend talking to your child in to help them understand nothing wrong and they are not in trouble (and that the assessment result won’t go on their report card!).
See you soon!
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. We are excited to start our work together and learn more about your child’s amazing brain.