What is different about a culturally sensitive evaluation?

I use several different cognitive assessments to evaluate seven broad cognitive abilities, based on the Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory (CHC).

The areas assessed are auditory processing, crystalized intelligence, fluid reasoning, long-term retrieval, processing speed, short-term memory, and visual-spatial thinking.

When evaluating culturally linguistically diverse (CLD) students, I analyze all of the scores using a program called the Culture-Language Interpretive Matrix (C-LIM; Flanagan, Ortiz & Alfonso,2013). The C-LIM assists in determining if the cognitive scores are truly indicative of a Specific Learning Disability or are the scores more reflective of a cultural and language difference.

The majority of clinical psychologists do not use the C-LIM when interpreting scores, therefore the results may not be valid if diagnosing a learning disability.

 

What is the process for completing a comprehensive psychoeducational assessment?

I provide a free consultation with school staff through a virtual meeting. I gather relevant information regarding the school's and parent's concerns.  A recommendation will be made for a battery of assessments to be completed. I will determine the cost based on the complexity of the presenting concerns and suspected disability. An evaluation plan and a contract of the agreement will be presented to the school. 

 

Once I am on site, I will complete a file review, observe the student in the classroom, and interview school staff and parents. Testing can take anywhere from 2-5 hours depending on the student and the evaluation plan. My report will be ready to present 2 weeks after assessing the student. The results will be shared with the school staff and the family virtually. 

 

What is involved with screenings and assessments for Dyslexia?

Dyslexia, also known as a reading disability is often misunderstood and not always properly diagnosed. There are three subtypes of dyslexia. They are phonological dyslexia, surface dyslexia, and rapid automatic naming dyslexia. Some students have what is known as double deficit dyslexia. It is important to identify the dyslexia subtype  so that the correct intervention is implemented.

 

If you have a student whom you suspect has dyslexia, I will administer a screening first. If the results indicate dyslexia I will administer a comprehensive evaluation to determine the cognitive weakness which is impacting the student's reading. Part of that evaluation would focus on auditory processing, orthographic processing, and visual-spatial skills. 

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Once all the assessments are completed I will make recommendations for specific research-based interventions that have been effective with students who have dyslexia. If your staff needs training for interventions I can provide that as well.

 

Interventions I have found most effective as a learning support teacher are listed below

- Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program for Reading, Spelling, and Speech (LiPS) This intervention works well with English learners who are not able to recognize 

- Seeing Stars: Symbol Imagery for Phonological and Orthographic Processing in Reading and Spelling (SI) This intervention is for the student who is still sounding out every word and has poor sight word recall. 

Lindamood-Bell

 

If you'd like to learn more about the complexities of assessing culturally and linguistically diverse students go to the following website:

Assessing CLD students     

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