Sometimes the question is clear.
A teenager may be bright but struggling at school.
A post-secondary student may have managed for years before becoming overwhelmed.
Someone may already have diagnoses of ADHD, anxiety, or giftedness but still feel that something important has not been explained.
My assessment work focuses on teens, adolescents, and post-secondary students, particularly when the picture is subtle or complex.
For students struggling with learning, attention, executive functioning, school performance, or an uneven pattern of strengths and difficulties.
A psychoeducational assessment can help answer:
What is making school harder for this student than it needs to be?
Psychoeducational AssessmentAutism can be harder to recognize in adolescents who are bright, verbal, socially motivated, or have learned to mask or compensate.
This can be especially true for girls, whose autism may be less obvious from the outside or may previously have been understood as anxiety, shyness, ADHD, perfectionism, or sensitivity.
Assessment considers developmental history, friendships and social experience, sensory differences, masking, existing diagnoses, and what may not be obvious from the outside.
Autism AssessmentADHD is more than difficulty paying attention.
Assessment looks at attention and executive functioning across time and in everyday life: starting, remembering, organizing, sustaining effort, and following through.
ADHD AssessmentSometimes the question is not one diagnosis.
ADHD, autism, anxiety, mood, giftedness, learning differences, and executive-functioning difficulties can overlap.
A broader assessment can help sort through what is contributing and what best explains the difficulties someone is experiencing.
Complex Psychological AssessmentMy work also includes gifted and uneven learning profiles, and subtle, complex, and high-masking neurodivergent presentations.
I want an assessment to explain more than test scores.
The report should give the student, family, and others involved a clear and useful understanding of the findings.
About Dr. Jacqueline Doherty ChinRather than having testing completed by a psychometrist and the results interpreted by a psychologist who may have had little or no direct contact with your child, I get to know your child myself. The psychologist interpreting the findings is the same person who actually worked with your child.
Families, students, and referring professionals can send a request here.
Request an Assessment