There is a certain misconception that comes up when you say that a child needs a psychological evaluation. Dr. Aaron Allred of Bristol Health clarifies that a psychological test is as valuable as an any other standardized tests and educational assessment. Dr. Allred has a specialization in psychological testing and has vast experience in identifying most mental disorders such as ADHD, anxiety, and depression. With his background, he talks about his role in identifying strategies for improving educational delivery for students with special needs. Find out more about alternative assessments that will help children and their families.
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Educational Assessments And The Valuable Information They Provide With Dr. Aaron Allred
My guest is Dr. Aaron Allred, a psychologist who specializes in educational assessments. That will be our topic. Dr. Allred, welcome.
Thanks for having me.
You’re with Bristol Health?
That’s right. I work with a variety of different mental health providers here at Bristol Health. We’re in Orem, Utah. I’m a psychologist here. I do psychological testing and assessments.
A lot of parents will be notified by the school district that they want to give their child an educational assessment. A lot of parents are nervous and unsure. What does this mean? What can they expect? Can you talk about that more? What information does that provide?
I’m certainly biased coming from a world of psychology but my thought is, whenever we can get more information the better. If we can use to inform someone’s education and make it all the more specific and tailored to them, then the child is going to benefit from that. It can be scary for some families to do an assessment. It’s this weird, unknown process that perhaps has misconceptions about it. It can be a great thing to understand at a deeper level what’s going on with their child’s learning.
A typical assessment in the school might look at reading, writing, math, and how quickly they can do those things. It might also include a cognitive assessment, which includes different areas related to verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, visual-spatial reasoning, and some important areas about how efficient a child’s brain is acting. It looks at their short-term memory and their psychomotor speed, or their processing speed to know how quickly they can do tasks. Getting all this information can be helpful. Once the testing is all done, it’s scored and compared to thousands of others who took the test when the tests were developed. You get an idea for how significant the concerns are. In my opinion, it helps to inform someone’s current functioning, which can then be used to help tailor their educational experience.
Assessments help to inform someone’s current functioning, which can be used to help tailor their educational experience. Share on XWhat is the process like? Some parents may worry and say, “My child can’t sit still that long.”
It’s done on a one-on-one basis. The two types of testing I described, achievement testing like reading, writing, and math, and cognitive testing. I work with a number of kids in schools where you see a lot of attention concerns. The impact to their attention concerns can be somewhat diminished if they’re in a one-on-one setting. There are more severe forms of inattention or hyperactivity where it’s still difficult to get a good reading because it’s hard for the child to sit still or to focus.
When I do an evaluation, we take breaks as we go. Sometimes there’s a little reward involved, whether it might be a small toy or a pencil and an eraser they can choose at the end to help them stay motivated in doing the evaluation. I’m observing the child the whole time we’re going. If I’m seeing something that makes me think we’re not getting valid data, let’s say the child falls asleep in the first five or ten minutes, that’s a big red flag. I might wonder, “Is there a medication that’s causing this? How is their sleep last night?” There are times where we have to postpone and try again in a few days or so. It’s done in a one-on-one setting and there is a variety of different tests that the child would be walked through. They’re given instructions with each task. Some of the tests are timed, some are not. It’s a variety of different activities that I would walk them through.
I have the background; I was a special education teacher for 23 years. The assessments that you describe sound like the ones we administered through the school district. They gave us good information that helped shape the program we offered the students. You also provide additional assessments that have value.
Testing in schools is done for classification purposes. Although it can help in the diagnosis somewhere along the line, it’s not done to clarify someone’s diagnosis. Rather, it’s to see if they qualify for services under the special education rules. It’s also to see how they’re being impacted by a particular condition or how they’re functioning in that way. It can be a little different than if someone seeks a private evaluation through a psychologist. In a private evaluation, there’s typically more time for a thorough clinical interview. There is a variety of different supplemental tests that can help to tease apart what’s what and to clarify the diagnosis.
There are some cases where we can get a whole lot of information. There may be particular reasons why we can be unsure about the validity of what we received. Let’s say, there’s a severe case where there are severe neuropsychological issues. The validity of what we receive can be difficult to tease apart. Sometimes, this comes down to having an experienced clinician take a look, taking together the testing results, the observations, the background history, and then making a good educated decision about what the diagnosis is.
If I can give an example here, learning disabilities and ADHD can often go hand in hand. There’s a higher comorbidity rate with the two. If you have ADHD, you’re at a greater risk of having a learning disorder. There’s an underlying psychological factor that might describe both of those. The converse is true. If you have a learning disorder, you are at a greater risk of ADHD. Teasing the two apart can be crucial in an evaluation. In the school system, there may be limited time and resources to do that with every child to tease apart what’s what. In a private evaluation, there are more clinical interviews, observations, and supplemental tests to get a good picture of what’s going on with someone’s mental health functioning.
This sounds like it could be valuable and knowing what accommodations would benefit the child. What is needed to maximize their learning experience?
Accommodations are informed by the testing results, what is observed in a child as well as their history. It’s often a case that teacher rating scales and interviews with teachers come into play as we do a thorough evaluation. At the end of each of my evaluations, I take a good hard look at what accommodations. It might be appropriate for an IEP or a 504 plan. I like to highlight strategies that can help. Whether it’s strategies at home, strategies that the teachers can use in school, grading that can help inform the parents of what’s going on and how the conditions is impacting their child.
I know a lot of parents that’s exactly what they’re looking for. They’re looking for information to provide the teacher, to make the teacher’s job easier. To let them know, “This is what will help my child, this is going to be effective.” It will save time for the teacher too when they know how to work with the student. I know as an education advocate that parents can request this additional training from their school district. That’s part of my job, negotiating with school districts. Even if they don’t or they’re not able to get the school district to agree to pay for it. They could still seek this on their own. You already explained the benefit of doing that. You mentioned that in some cases they can check with their insurance companies.
Schools have a responsibility to identify the children at risk and those students in need of an individualized education program. That often becomes the number one step. Has the school done any testing with the child that hasn’t been recent testing? How did that turn out? If the parents might question the results or wonder if the school is missing something, or if the testing is not as thorough to help the child, they can look into alternative assessments.
Insurances can sometimes pay for evaluations. It is important to realize that exclusions can be written into insurance plans. The insurance might say, “If it’s for testing educational purposes, we’re not going to cover that.” That can be a typical exclusion that’s written on someone’s plan. That’s not always the case though. It depends on the insurance and the particular plan. If a family contacts their insurance for referrals and call the psychologist or a qualified professional to do another evaluation, that professional could most likely help the family navigate insurance. They can see if there’s insurance coverage before they start the evaluation and help them with that process. There’s a variety of different types of evaluations.
You’ve had some background and experience in dealing with insurance companies. I understand you’ve also been able to help some families with that.
I’m on several different panels and I’m contracted with different insurances in the area. There are some cases where insurance benefits can be used for an evaluation where it’s for purposes of treatments. To identify if treatment is needed and to identify what type of treatment might be helpful. For example, after an evaluation, I may know medical decisions about whether the person should be on medication or the type of medication that they should be on. That’s not my expertise. I never say anything about that, but to recommend a medical consult. If I know it’s a condition that could be treated with medication, that’s a common recommendation that I make or something like counseling. There may be an emotional issue or emotional problem, whether it’s anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder. It could also be behavioral issues such as oppositional defiant disorder or conduct disorder. Counseling can be a low-risk and high effectiveness method in terms of treating these things.
Schools have a responsibility to identify the children at risk of ADHD and those students in need of individualized education program. Share on XI’ve witnessed that myself. I’ve seen that in my career. Sometimes a good therapist makes a huge difference. Are those services also provided at Bristol Health?
We have three different therapists and have four or five different medical professionals. Sometimes, our other providers may not match up exactly right with someone’s insurance. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. I take a good hard look at what the condition is and then often I cross-reference what I’m seeing in the test results with contracted providers who would take their insurance. I try to play matchmaker as best as I can. It’s something that nobody can do exactly perfectly. If I know that there are counselors with this particular specialty and they work with this age group, are in the area, and take someone’s insurance, I can make a strong referral in that case.
It’s beneficial to families. Having a child with special needs is extremely expensive. Any way to find out how to make treatment and care more affordable is worthwhile.
If there’s an emotional, attention, or behavioral issue, it’s often the case that the school can do is provide some resources. They may have a social worker at the school that can do counseling or casework types of services. Often it may be helpful to have an outside provider, counselor, or therapist to specifically treat the condition. They may see some improvements in their schooling, learning, and ability to perform in school and do well.
That is important. How a child does in school affects their self-image and how they feel about themselves. Just being able to see why they can be successful and learn. It’s valuable. This is wonderful and important information for parents. Thank you for your time, Dr. Allred.
I do free ten to fifteen-minute consult to someone who has questions. I’m happy to help some to navigate the weird terrain that is the mental health world. It’s often not known what services are out there. If I talk to someone that I don’t have a particular service or if I’m not a good fit for someone, I’ll need to refer out. I love giving referrals that are close to them and hopefully, someone that takes their insurance. Visit our website, call our number, and ask about our services.
I love all the services you offer above and beyond. The free consult, that’s important. Thank you for your time.
It’s great to be here. Thanks for the questions and I wish your audience all the best.
Important Links:
About Dr. Aaron Allred
Dr. Aaron Allred with Bristol Health talks about his role as a psychologist in identifying strategies for improving educational delivery for students with special needs.
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