Should I Update My Teen’s Psycho-Educational Assessment?
Your child is about to graduate high school, and it’s college application time!!
As your child grows, changes, and matures, their strengths, weaknesses and their needs can change. An updated psycho- educational assessment can help to identify these changes and provide new information that can guide support services and accommodations. For example, a student who had a specific learning disability in reading may have developed stronger skills in this area and no longer requires accommodations, but may now need accommodations in a different area, such as writing or organization. This is why it’s so important to update their assessment before entering post-secondary education.
Psycho-educational assessments are a crucial tool in determining the strengths and needs of your child in their educational environment. For students with learning disabilities or other struggles, these assessments provide valuable information that can help to guide accommodations, support services, and academic success. However, it’s important to understand that these assessments are not a one-time event.
You child may have had an assessment done in elementary school, or maybe as they entered high school? However, colleges and universities present new challenges and demands. The academic workload is often much more rigorous and requires a higher level of skill and knowledge in a variety of areas. It often involves a great deal of self-directed learning and independence. For students with disabilities, these new demands can present obstacles that may not have been present before. An up-to-date psycho-educational assessment can help to identify these new challenges and provide updated accommodations that can help your child succeed. Not to mention, post-secondary institutions often have different policies and procedures for accommodating individuals with disabilities than those in primary and secondary education and they will probably ask you outright for something more recent.
It is also important to note that individuals with disabilities may be eligible for additional financial support in post-secondary education. An updated assessment can help to demonstrate the individual’s continued need for support and can help to secure this funding.
Right now, your child is just finishing up their last year in high school; they may have just finished their post-secondary applications, or maybe they were just accepted for the Fall term? “We have lots of time!” Actually, you don’t! Now is THE time you should be thinking about getting started. Please consider the following steps: a) You need to have the conversation with your teen about updating their assessment, b) You have to find a reputable organization that can take care of this for you, c) Consider that you may be put on a waitlist, d) You need to have this report completed and to the school BEFORE they start classes. Having the report beforehand will ensure your child’s accommodations are already in place from Day 1.
To find out more about getting an assessment updated or maybe even completed for the first time, visit our contact page to get all the details and have all your questions answered!
