Tips for good assessment and report writing - 5

This is the fifth tip written by the assessment  team at the Jerusalem municipality educational psychology services.   The members of the team are:  Rita   Baumgarten, Hanna Brimer, Nadine Caplan , Eynat  Cohen Rahman , Etti Daniel Simon , Uri Dar ,  Michelle Lisses Topaz, Betty Netzer, Ruth Oman Shaked , Adina Sacknovitz , Smadar Sapir Yogev, Anan Srour   and  Dahlia Zayit.

Base your conclusions on an integration of the child's test scores, your clinical impressions and the teacher's reports.  Don't rely only on test scores no matter what, and on the other hand, don't rely only on your clinical impressions.

For example, when you look at the child's fluid ability, consider the child's scores on fluid ability tests,  and also consider your clinical impression of the child's ability to think and conceptualize about abstract ideas, to draw conclusions about things that are not spelled out but only implied in texts, to tell TAT stories that are imaginative, go beyond mere scene descriptions, and are coherent and reasonable, to define concepts and words in an abstract way, to understand complex instructions, to see the main features in RCFT test and to be able to alternate perspectives between parts and whole, to think flexibly and to use feedback effectively, to plan and monitor his work, to refrain from perseverations and automatic responses, etc.  Look at how the teachers describe this child's thinking and understanding, his ability to initiate, plan and self monitor, etc.

If there are significant contradictions between the test scores, the clinical impressions and the teacher's opinion, use your good judgment and good sense to decide whether the child's fluid ability is within normal limits or not, and try to think and hypothesize about the reasons for the contradiction.

Remember:  it's not always possible to reach an unequivocal conclusion.  We are dealing with human beings, so everything does not always 'fit' into place.  When you don't feel confident about your conclusions and have unanswered questions – it's better to say or write your doubts (with suggestions how to resolve them), than to write something you don't feel good with.