THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY-JUNE 2026 87 A Parent’s Guide to Psychoeducational Assessments BY CHAD C. NELSON Psychoeducational evaluation can help to answer many questions regarding your child, their learning, and their overall functioning. These questions include: • What kind of learner is my child? • Why is my child struggling in one subject but not others? • Why does my child cry at the thought of school or doing homework? • Why have my child’s grades declined? • Why do I have to repeat myself over and over to get my child to do something? • Why is my child struggling to make friends? • Why is my child misbehaving in class? • Why is my child so nervous? • Why does my child seem to be more emotional than their peers? • Why does my child appear lazy and disinterested when I know they are not? • What does my child need to help them become a happier and more successful student? • Why is my college student struggling with the demands that are placed on them? While evaluators may differ in what they include in an evaluation, psychoeducational evaluations often continue to involve six areas of questioning/evaluation: 1. Background information and developmental history. 2. Assessment of abilities (cognitive functioning). 3. Assessment of processing. 4. Assessment of academic functioning. 5. Assessment of attention/executive functioning. 6. Assessment of social/emotional functioning. Excerpt from an article by Chad C. Nelson, PhD, a licensed psychologist in private practice in Baltimore County, Maryland, who specializes in the evaluation of learning, attention, and emotional disorders in children, adolescents, and young adults. This article is an update of his very popular FSJ article of December 2013, “A Parent’s Guide to Psychoeducational Evaluations.” FROM THE DECEMBER 2023 FSJ EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT
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