{"id":1696,"date":"2023-09-22T10:56:44","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T17:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/district-psychologists\/?page_id=1696"},"modified":"2023-09-25T09:49:56","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T16:49:56","slug":"how-to-talk-to-your-child-about-the-assessment","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/district-psychologists\/how-to-talk-to-your-child-about-the-assessment\/","title":{"rendered":"How to talk to your child about the assessment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>Starting the Conversation<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">In a nutshell, the purpose of an assessment is to \u201cLearn about how you learn and how your brain works.\u00a0 Also to learn the things you are very good at and the things that might be more challenging for you\u201d so that:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Teachers know how to teach you<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Parents learn how to support you<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">You know how to advocate for yourself<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><em>Hint: don\u2019t use the word \u201ctest.\u201d\u00a0 Instead, talk about \u201cactivities or tasks.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Introducing the idea of an assessment to your child may sound something like: <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><em>We have noticed you\u2019re working really hard at school, but it still seems pretty tough, and we are not sure why.\u00a0 If we knew more about how you learn best, your teachers and us could do a better job helping you.\u00a0 So, last week we talked with (psychologist&#8217;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.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>Describe the Process<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">When your child comes in, we will do different activities to help us understand how they work with different types of information.\u00a0 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">For younger children, it may be important to let them know that the psychologist helps children, parents, and teachers learn about the child\u2019s brain.\u00a0 Make sure they know there is nothing wrong with them!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Older children may feel assured that this is a confidential process, focused on being curious, learning about strengths and weaknesses, and finding solutions.\u00a0 Their input is extremely important to figure out what will be most helpful for them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Explaining the process may sound something like: <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><em>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.\u00a0 Some will be fun, some will be easy, and some will challenge you.\u00a0 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!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em>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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>Tips for how to talk about the assessment with your child<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">If your child is resistant, it may help to rephrase the problem using their words. Such as \u201cI\u2019ve noticed you\u2019re getting in trouble a lot this year, and it doesn\u2019t seem to make sense.\u00a0 I wonder if there\u2019s a way we can figure it out together\u201d.\u00a0 Or \u201cI heard you say that you hate school, and I can totally see why!\u00a0 So let\u2019s see if there\u2019s a way to change that\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Some children may be worried they\u2019ve 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\u2019t go on their report card!).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>See you soon!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.\u00a0 We are excited to start our work together and learn more about your child\u2019s amazing brain.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<!-- PMB print buttons is only displayed on a single post\/page URLs-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting the Conversation\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 In a nutshell, the purpose of an assessment is to \u201cLearn about how you learn and how your brain works.\u00a0 Also to learn the things you are very good at and the things that might be more challenging for you\u201d so that: Teachers know how to teach you Parents learn&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9981,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/district-psychologists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/district-psychologists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/district-psychologists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/district-psychologists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9981"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/district-psychologists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1696"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/district-psychologists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1712,"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/district-psychologists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1696\/revisions\/1712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/district-psychologists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}