Educational psychological assessment is a formal procedure undertaken individually between a psychologist and a child

1. Understanding Psychological Assessments And Academic Testing
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Biography of David J. Carey:
David was employed for many years as the Coordinator of Special Education and
Programme Development at the Froebel College of Education, one of Ireland’s five
primary teacher-training colleges. He has recently decided to pursue his primary
interests, the private practice of psychology and writing books. He is a psychologist
with 25 years experience in both clinical and educational settings. He has worked
with children, adolescents and adults having a variety of emotional and behavioural
difficulties including Oppositional Defiant Disorder, ADHD, Conduct Disorder as well
as serious mental health problems such as bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia. At
Froebel he has lectured in special education and coordinated several post-graduate
programmes including a Master’s degree in special education. He is a part-time
lecturer on the Master’s in educational psychology and special education at University
College Dublin, an occasional lecturer at Roehampton University, London and at
Trinity College Dublin.
David is the author of The Essential Guide to Special Education in Ireland
and is on the editorial board of REACH, the journal of the Irish Association of Special
Education Teachers. He is currently completing a guide to the education of children
with autistic spectrum disorders in mainstream schools. He has published extensively
in Ireland and in the US on various mental health topics and special education issues.
He has lectured internationally and currently is the director of an educational
development programme in Nairobi Kenya, working with Kindergarten teachers and
providing volunteer teachers in the slum schools of Kabira, Africa’s largest slum.
Private Practice:
David includes the following specialities in his private practice:
1.) Hypnosis for self-esteem, self-confidence and habit control
2.) Individual therapy of adolescents and adults
3.) Assessment of children, adolescents and adults
4.) Assessment of child-custody issues
5.) Assessment of ADHD in children, adolescents and adults
6.) Individual cognitive-behaviour therapy for ADHD in adolescents and adults
7.) Group therapy for adults
For an appointment or additional information please call: +353 (0)86 8115764
Email Me: info@davidjcarey.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________
www.davidjcarey.com

2. Understanding Psychological Assessments And Academic Testing
_____________________________________________________________________________________
UNDERSTANDING PSYCHOLOGical
ASSESSMENTS AND ACADEMIC
TESTING
Educational psychological assessment is a formal procedure undertaken individually
between a psychologist and a child (or any person). After building up rapport and making
the child comfortable, the psychologist will administer a test to the child. There are
many tests that can be administered so I will just introduce and explain the most
commonly used tests. First though, it is necessary to discuss some general principles
of testing.
Tests do not tell anyone anything! They do however yield data and information that
then must be intelligently consumed by the qualified assessor. The information
gathered from a test must fit into the picture of the whole child’s life, background, family
dynamics, learning and schooling history, motivation, health history and a thousand
other variables. Anyone who takes the simplistic view that a test provides an answer
that can be used to definitively unlock the riddle of a child’s learning problems is
seriously mistaken.
What is Intelligence?
Arguments about the nature of human intelligence and what comprise it are centuries
old. We have looked at one particular psychological test that is based on a model of
intelligence that conceives it as a combination of verbal and non-verbal skills. This
model feeds into the common-held understanding that being intelligent means
you will ‘be good at reading and maths, you will perform well in comprehensive
examinations and you will necessarily perform well in school and get into the
university programme of your choice’. This is obviously a narrow model and a
dangerous assumption – it’s one that is being challenged vigorously from many fronts
today.
IQ is probably the most commonly understood, and at the same time misunderstood,
concept about human intelligence. The problem with IQ scores is that they are far too
easy to misinterpret and lead quickly to assigning people into the general categories of
‘smart’ or ‘limited’. An IQ is nothing more than a mathematically derived formula to
quantify various test scores. There has been a lot of research into IQ and it has been
discovered that it is a good predictor of one thing, and one thing only – success in
school! This is particularly true of the Wechsler model of IQ.
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3. Understanding Psychological Assessments And Academic Testing
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As stated earlier, there are other models, and a popular one is that developed by
Howard Gardner*, which is known as Multiple Intelligence theory. Gardner was
dissatisfied with the major model of intelligence and the type of educational structures
that have resulted from this model. Gardner has stated, “I want my children to
understand the world, but not just because the world is fascinating and the human mind
is curious. I want them to understand it so that they will be positioned to make it a
better place. Knowledge is not the same as morality, but we need to understand
[morality] if we are to avoid past mistakes and move in productive directions. An
important part of that understanding is knowing who we are and what we can do...”.
Gardner believes that every human being possesses a number of different capacities, all
as a result of brain system functioning, which can be called ‘intelligences’. For Gardner,
there are at least seven different types of intelligence and our inability and difficulty in
recognising them is a result of the way we educate people, relying mostly on words and
numbers.
Gardner lists his seven intelligences as:
• Linguistic Intelligence – facility with words, reading, speaking.
• Logical-Mathematical Intelligence – facility with numbers, sequential thinking.
• Interpersonal Intelligence – being sensitive to and understanding other people.
• Intrapersonal Intelligence – knowing oneself, one’s beliefs, attitudes and values.
• Musical Intelligence – the capacity to respond to music or perform music.
• Bodily-Kinaesthetic Intelligence – ability to move, athletics, dance.
• Artistic Intelligence – responding to or creating visual or plastic art.
Since creating his first list of seven intelligences Gardner has continued his research
and now believes there are sufficient grounds for adding one other:
• Naturalist Intelligence, which he defines as enabling “…human beings to
recognize, categorise and draw upon certain features of the environment.”
Gardner continues to investigate the nature of human intelligence and is considering
the possibility that he can add to his list the following:
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4. Understanding Psychological Assessments And Academic Testing
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• Moral Intelligence – a concern with those rules, behaviours and attitudes that
govern the sanctity of life – in particular, the sanctity of human life and, in many
cases, the sanctity of any other living creatures and the world they inhabit.
• Existential Intelligence – a concern with ‘ultimate issues’.
• Spiritual Intelligence – exploring the nature of existence in its multifarious
guises.
According to Gardner, every human being has capacities wired into their brains that are
manifested in these intelligences to one degree or another. In other words, we are all
intelligent – it’s just that we show our intelligence in different ways. I have
oversimplified this theory to a great degree but the point I wish to draw to your attention
is how much we can underestimate certain children when we conceive of intelligence
merely as an IQ figure obtained from a particular test.
This ‘obsession’ with IQ testing can lead to low expectations on the part of educators
when the test results are low; low expectations quickly translate into poorer teaching
methods, less reinforcement in the classroom for the child and therefore lower
performance on the part of the child.
The stakes are high in the IQ race and the winners are more often than not created by
those who teach them than by any so-called natural intellectual endowment. Think of it
this way; if a person has an IQ of 185 but possesses no ability to understand himself or
others, what sort of a life will he lead? Generally speaking the answer will be a life of
frustration, wrong choices, unhappiness in love and relationships, and constant
disappointment.
Gardner’s theory has its critics and is not universally accepted as an alternative model
of human intelligence. But whatever concerns arise about it and from it there is no
disputing the fact that Gardner is responsible for brining to the fore the issue of
intelligence and expanding our understanding of what it is.
Intelligent tests require intelligent testers
Put simply, intelligence testing requires intelligent testers. Additionally, tests in
themselves are not useful instruments to classify children into special education
categories. I have seen far too many children with autistic spectrum disorders given
tests of intelligence with the results indicating that their intelligence is significantly
impaired - yet anyone working with the child, or any family member, can relate poignant
stories of the child’s keen mind and different ways of thinking that clearly demonstrates
their intelligence. I am therefore wary of intelligence tests when they are relied upon to
provide the sole answer, solution, and source of information used to provide special
education services.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
www.davidjcarey.com

5. Understanding Psychological Assessments And Academic Testing
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The information gathered from a test falls into some general categories. If the purpose
of the test is to assess intellectual skills (often referred to as cognitive skills), the
information gained should shed light on most of the following:
Verbal skills
Non-verbal skills
Attention and concentration
Visual memory
Auditory memory
Short-term, long-term and immediate recall of visual and auditory information
Social judgement
Social comprehension
Hand-eye coordination skills
Perceptual organisation skills (orientation in space and time)
Abstract reasoning, both verbal and visual
If the purpose of the assessment is to investigate alleged behaviour or emotional
problems, then in addition to the above, the information gathered should shed light
on:
Frustration tolerance
Impulse control
Anger management
Coping skills
Interpersonal judgement
Stress tolerance
Anxiety issues
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www.davidjcarey.com

6. Understanding Psychological Assessments And Academic Testing
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Fears and phobias
Unusual thoughts or ideas/beliefs
Knowledge of right from wrong
Social problem-solving skills
Motivation for schooling
Preoccupations and obsessions
Mood (emotions of short duration)
In general, the more information one is able to gather from assessment, the greater the
possibility of putting together an intelligent formulation that helps everyone involved in
the life of the child to understand the child more comprehensively.
The written assessment should clearly provide insight into the referral question and all
related information necessary to understand the child. It should be easily read by a
teacher or parent, should not contain jargon or scores that can not be understood by all
who read it and should outline specific recommendations for educational and support
services and strategies necessary to enable the child to benefit from their educational
programme.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
www.davidjcarey.com

7. Understanding Psychological Assessments And Academic Testing
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Biography of David J. Carey:
David was employed for many years as the Coordinator of Special Education and
Programme Development at the Froebel College of Education, one of Ireland’s five
primary teacher-training colleges. He has recently decided to pursue his primary
interests, the private practice of psychology and writing books. He is a psychologist
with 25 years experience in both clinical and educational settings. He has worked
with children, adolescents and adults having a variety of emotional and behavioural
difficulties including Oppositional Defiant Disorder, ADHD, Conduct Disorder as well
as serious mental health problems such as bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia. At
Froebel he has lectured in special education and coordinated several post-graduate
programmes including a Master’s degree in special education. He is a part-time
lecturer on the Master’s in educational psychology and special education at University
College Dublin, an occasional lecturer at Roehampton University, London and at
Trinity College Dublin.
David is the author of The Essential Guide to Special Education in Ireland
and is on the editorial board of REACH, the journal of the Irish Association of Special
Education Teachers. He is currently completing a guide to the education of children
with autistic spectrum disorders in mainstream schools. He has published extensively
in Ireland and in the US on various mental health topics and special education issues.
He has lectured internationally and currently is the director of an educational
development programme in Nairobi Kenya, working with Kindergarten teachers and
providing volunteer teachers in the slum schools of Kabira, Africa’s largest slum.
Private Practice:
David includes the following specialities in his private practice:
1.) Hypnosis for self-esteem, self-confidence and habit control
2.) Individual therapy of adolescents and adults
3.) Assessment of children, adolescents and adults
4.) Assessment of child-custody issues
5.) Assessment of ADHD in children, adolescents and adults
6.) Individual cognitive-behaviour therapy for ADHD in adolescents and adults
7.) Group therapy for adults
For an appointment or additional information please call: +353 (0)86 8115764
Email Me: info@davidjcarey.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________
www.davidjcarey.com