Psychological / Social-Emotional Assessment

What is the Purpose of a Social-Emotional/Diagnostic Assessment?

To evaluate a child’s or adolescent’s social, emotional and behavioural functioning to inform recommendations for how best to support them at home or school
To understand the nature of your child’s or adolescent’s challenges from a psychological perspective
To diagnose a mental health disorder in children or adolescents, when appropriate (such as anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, etc.)
To provide insight into issues or concerns that are not at the conscious level by understanding inner conflicts or worries
May be used as a starting point for therapy to inform the therapist about a child’s or adolescent’s current level of social-emotional functioning

When the child or adolescent is experiencing:

Extremely worried or anxious feelings
Feeling sadness, depression, losing interest in activities they used to enjoy, or withdrawing socially from others
Behavioural challenges (i.e., being oppositional or defiant)
Difficulty in their relationships and interactions with others (e.g., siblings, peers)
Longstanding difficulties getting along with parent(s) or adults
Difficulty regulating emotions (has “big” feelings or temper tantrums), heightened sensitivity
Unwanted thoughts, repeated behaviours or rituals, need for order, and/or difficulty tolerating uncertainty
Difficulty coping with stressful transitions and life events
Changes in sleeping or in their appetite
School avoidance (this assessment will explore and help rule out emotional factors that may be contributing)

A social-emotional assessment may involve the following:

Standardized assessment scales completed by multiple people (i.e., parents, teachers, caregivers):
- Assess the frequency of specific symptoms (e.g., anxiety, mood difficulties, social behaviour)
- Examine adaptive behaviour and strengths that are important for understanding a child’s or adolescent’s functioning in different areas (e.g., at home, at school, with peers, and in the community)
- Gather comprehensive information regarding how your child or adolescent is functioning relative to others their age

Self-report standardized assessment scales:
- Gather information about your child’s or adolescent’s view of themself, and their perceived levels of functioning across social-emotional and behavioural areas

Personality assessment scales:
- Provide information about one’s personality or symptom profile
- Individuals are typically presented with a list of feelings, behaviours, personal attributes, experiences, and opinions, and give a “Yes/No,” or “True/False” response

Projective measures:
- Often allow for a more in-depth understanding of an individual’s inner conflicts, worries, and issues that are outside of one’s conscious awareness, allowing for more effective strategies and interventions to help them
- Ambiguous, open-ended stimuli are presented (e.g., ink blots, pictures, drawings)
- Can be particularly useful with children, who will often respond that they are “fine,” even though their behaviour or demeanor suggests otherwise

Observational play-based assessments:
- Can be used with a child individually, or together with a parent and a young child for specific referral concerns (e.g., parent-child relational concerns, discipline issues, emotion regulation difficulties)

Interview with parent(s) to gather information about: questions or concerns, goals for the assessment, the child’s or adolescent’s developmental history, and history of presenting concerns
Review of relevant documentation (e.g., previous assessments, school report cards)
Sessions with your child or adolescent
- 3 to 4 hours (number of sessions will be discussed)
- Aimed at understanding perceptions of their own life history, as well as mental health symptoms and behaviours
Standardized self-report measures completed by the child or adolescent
Carefully selected projective measures (e.g., drawings, stories, inkblots) completed by the child or adolescent
Standardized questionnaires completed by parents and teachers, when appropriate
Parent-child observations, when appropriate
Interviews with relevant others (e.g., teachers, health professionals involved in your child’s or adolescent’s care), when appropriate

Parents will receive feedback about the assessment findings verbally. The feedback session is intended for parent(s). During this session, the clinician will:
- Review the assessment results
- Communicate a clinical diagnosis (i.e., anxiety, depression, etc.), if applicable
- Provided recommendations to support the child or adolescent at home and/or school, including specific therapeutic interventions
Older children and adolescents can have their own feedback session to share developmentally sensitive information about their struggles and discuss a plan to support them
A brief report or diagnostic letter summarizing the findings and any diagnostic impressions, and recommendations is provided if requested by parents

Fees are typically $2,000, but can vary depending on the nature of your concerns

Psychoeducational assessments involve a screening of social emotional functioning but does not include a comprehensive social-emotional assessment component. A social-emotional/diagnostic assessment can be added to a psychoeducational assessment for an additional cost to help rule out factors that may be impacting your child’s or adolescent’s classroom or academic functioning. For more information about psychoeducational assessment, click here.
A social-emotional/diagnostic assessment does not evaluate cognitive functioning