Psychological testing in Virginia

What is psychological testing?

Psychological testing is simply this: figuring out why a student is struggling in school and/or at home. That’s it. Yes, this typically involves a lot of detective work like interviewing parents to gain a thorough developmental history, getting feedback from teachers, considering social and emotional functioning, direct testing with a student, sometimes an observation, and it might involve a formal diagnosis of some kind. But in the end, it simply answers the question, “Why is a student struggling?”

Now, how is this different than a psycho-educational evaluation or neuropsychological evaluation? There is a lot of jargon here, so let me try to make this as painless as possible. A psycho-educational evaluation focuses primarily on school performance; however, in my opinion it’s really not that different than a psychological evaluation. After all, both should answer the question about why school or life is hard.  And a neuropsychological evaluation seeks to answer this same question, but it goes a bit further and links a student’s struggles to specific brain functioning.

So, what do we offer? In our practice, we offer psychological testing or psycho-educational testing. We don’t really care which one you call it. What we care about is answering why you or your child is struggling. But, even more than this, our job is to answer it thoroughly, answer it in a way that makes sense to the people that matter, and answer it in a way that sets the stage for growth. Honestly though, our job is more than just this. Ultimately, we value this process and making the testing experience personal for both parents and students. After all, testing shouldn’t be a transaction, it should be a relationship. And relationships should never be rushed–from the first phone call to the interview, from testing sessions to reviewing results. Want to get in touch or have questions?  Contact us here.