The Foreign Service Journal, December 2013

74 DECEMBER 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT ■ Why is my child misbehaving in class? ■ Why is my child so nervous? ■ Why does my child seem so disorga- nized and lazy? ■ Why is my college student struggling with the demands that are placed on him or her? While every evaluator is different, psychoeducational evaluations typically involve five areas of questioning and evaluation. 1. Background information and developmental history. To gain a com- prehensive picture of your child, it will be important for the evaluator to have a full understanding of your child’s develop- ment leading up to the evaluation. Often evaluators will inquire about your child’s birth history, developmental history, medical history, academic his- tory, social/emotional history and family history. Areas of concern—and when they first became areas of concern—will also be assessed, as well as your impres- sions of your child’s strengths and weak- nesses. Some parents believe that only a “clean slate” approach to testing will lead to an unbiased assessment of their child. Evaluators, however, don’t let this infor- mation guide their evaluation; rather, they utilize it to help in a diagnostic for- mulation and in planning an appropriate intervention for your child. 2. Assessment of abilities (cognitive functioning). When assessing a child’s abilities, the examiner administers a series of measures to determine how your child learns, as well as their ability to process information and formulate responses. These measures often include verbal and visual tests to examine verbal reasoning, nonverbal reasoning and certain types of memory, as well as the speed at which your child processes