Academics and school success are difficult for many students for a variety of reasons. Through the services of a registered psychologist, PDS can provide support for individual students, teachers, school support personnel, and your school community to best support all students, and in particular, students at risk.
If academics are challenging for individual students, they will likely benefit from an individual psychoeducational assessment, which identifies the learning profile of the student including relative strengths and weaknesses and recommendations to support further learning. Knowing a student’s cognitive profile provides valuable information for programming and allows the student to become a self-advocate.
With parental consent, PDS will arrange for assessment of individual students and determine their learning potential. Individual assessments can also determine if the student has a diagnosis or specific profile including, but not limited to:
- learning disability including Nonverbal Learning Disability
- slow learner and low cognitive functioning
- gifted (and gifted at risk)
- Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder
Regardless of the experience of teachers and school personnel, it is difficult to determine whether a student has a learning disability without individual psychoeducational testing. Many colleges and universities require recent psychoeducational testing to provide accommodations at the post-secondary level, suggesting that your high school students may need a new or updated assessment.
