Tips for good assessment and report writing - 12

One more tips written by the assessment  team at the Jerusalem municipality educational psychology services – with some additions by me.   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.

Conduct a dynamic feedback process and think with the school team about practical interventions

Feedback is not a one way stream of information "flowing" from the psychologist to the parents, the child and the teacher.  Feedback is not the psychologist giving recommendations to the parents, the teachers and the child.  Feedback is a mutual process that integrates the school staff's, the parent's and the child's views of the child's situation with the psychologist's thoughts about the sources of the child's strengths and difficulties.  This integration helps us answer the referral question, and leads to thinking with the parents, the teacher and the child about interventions worth trying at home and in school.

The interventions should be in line with the assessment results.  They should also be practical and specific.  That's why they should be thought about with the parents, the teacher and the child.  When the psychologist, the teacher, the parents and the child reach a common understanding of the child, it's possible to think about interventions that utilize the teacher's knowledge and skills, the parent's knowledge and skills, the child's knowledge and skills and the psychologist's ideas.  The interventions should address the child's difficulties as well as his strengths (ways to emphasize them). 

Interventions are part of the assessment process, since the ways they are implemented provide us with insights about the child, the school system and the family system.  That's why it's important to set dates for meetings in which tried interventions will be re-assessed and a richer picture of the child will emerge.  This enriched picture will open up new opportunities of assisting the child.  Because of the feedback's mutual character, it's better to write a final draft of the report after the feedback meeting.  The report will thus include insights from the meeting and synthesize the stories/theories of the psychologist, the parents, the teachers and the child.

Give yourselves feedback, too: think about how the way you conducted the assessment affected the results and your conclusions.  Think about the decisions you took and when it's needed let your considerations be reflected in the report.