Psychological Assessments
Providing meaningful assistance to you and your child starts with a thorough understanding of your current concerns, your child's developmental history, and any relevant situational or familial factors that may be affecting your child. Dr. McCallum’s warm and engaging style helps put children at ease during the assessment process, allowing their natural strengths to shine while making challenges more approachable.
Through the assessment process Dr. McCallum strives to help you understand your child's individual strengths and challenges. With this knowledge she works with you to develop and implement an effective plan for supporting your child and helping them read their potential.
Parents may choose to have an assessment of their child completed for a variety of reasons. Some common reasons for referral include:
- attention difficulties
- autism spectrum disorders
- adjustment difficulties (anxiety, anger, depression)
- behaviour difficulties (including noncompliance, defiance
- inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity
- learning difficulties
- giftedness
- academic or achievement difficulties (difficulties with reading, writing, math)
- cognitive difficulties (intellectual disabilities)
Psychoeducational Assessment
Psycheducational assessments help parents, caregivers, and educators build an understanding of a child’s learning needs and strengths. Such assessments are often requested when a child is struggling academically, when a specific learning disability is suspected, or when parents are wondering if their child’s current academic setting is meeting the child's learning needs. The information gathered provides a valuable resource to develop an individualized plan to help the child succeed acadmically.
A Psychoeducational assessment typically includes in-depth interviews with parents and teachers, a review of academic records and previous assessments, standardized cognitive and academic testing with the child, and an examination of social emotional functioning. Dr. McCallum will work with you, however, to tailor the testing to best address your child's presenting concerns. A school observation may also be useful to help identify factors that may be contributing to learning challenges. At the end of the assessment process you are provided with a written report outlining the assessment results and detailed recommendations to help support your child reach his/her learning potential.
Gifted Assessment
Sometimes psychoeducational assessments are requested to determine if a child is gifted and/or meets criteria for admission to a school’s gifted program (e.g., Calgary Board of Education’s GATE program or Westmount Charter School). Dr. McCallum is able to conduct gifted assessments in a timely manner and provides the documentation families need to apply to such programs. Her extensive work with preschoolers allows her to positively engage young children, not only putting them at ease and supporting them to demonstrate their skills, but also making the assessment process as stress free for the child (and parents) as possible.