Assessing a child’s current achievement levels and cognitive strengths and weaknesses is complicated business. It can take 4-6 hours of contact time over a period of a week and then require waiting another 2-4 weeks to get a detailed report. It may also include interviews with parents, students and teachers and a review of previous educational assessment information. Why put your child through that?

There are many reasons to consider a full psycho-educational assessment. An assessment can:

• Help you understand why your child struggles with some aspects of learning
• Provide information about what can be done in the classroom to make learning easier for your child
• Provide information about what can be done at home to support your child’s learning
• Help your child understand his or her own learning style, so they no longer feel “stupid”, and can begin to articulate their strengths and self-advocate in their areas of need
• Provide specific information about where your child is functioning in specific skill areas as compared to age and grade peers
• Point to other areas that need further exploration in order to fully answer questions that arise through the evaluation
• Provide recommendations regarding resources that might be effective in helping your child develop specific skills such as movement therapy, occupational therapy, counseling, social skills groups, ADHD or Executive Function coaching etc. 
• Provide information about technological supports that could make your child successful in areas of difficulty, such as scan and read or voice activated software programs
• Provide the technical information public schools need to determine eligibility for services and supports that may be provided during the school day and/or before or after school and in the summer

For a partial list of assessments tools available through Options In Learning, see the About Laura Berkowitz page, under Education and Experience.

Informal Evaluations

Informal assessments can be a brief look at how a child functions in certain areas, or a general overview of how a child learns. It may include: a review of the child’s current schoolwork, and an interview with parents and students, and a few carefully-chosen measures of academic functioning, usually administered in one session of 2 hours, at most.

Some reasons to choose an informal assessment:

• Teachers see a very specific learning issue and want further information
• Specific information about grade placement is needed
• Information about learning is needed to match a student and a tutor
• Previous evaluation information needs to be confirmed
• Updates are desired to evaluate the effectiveness of some specific intervention or
• Updates are desired following a period of intensive intervention

Options In Learning works with school systems and with individuals and families to provide the same high level of excellence in evaluations as we do to in private tutorials. Evaluations can often be scheduled within a month of a request, with the written report completed one month after that. If you have any questions about assessment, please contact Options In Learning.

Contact Information:

Address: Options In Learning, Laura Berkowitz, PO Box 384, Marlboro, Vermont  05344
Phone: 802-254-5042 Fax: 802-254-5042 E-Mail: options@sover.net

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