A psychoeducational evaluation, sometimes referred to as a psych-ed eval or neuropsych, is an assessment of how a student learns. It measures different types of reasoning, memory, and working efficiency. This is in contrast to learned knowledge, like math facts or vocabulary definitions. Pyschoeducational evaluations are most commonly recommended for students who are either gifted or having difficulty in school.…
October is, among other things, National Dyslexia Awareness Month. But today’s blog post is timely no matter the date, because a delayed diagnosis of a child’s learning difference exhausts every resource a parent might have. If have a concern about dyslexia, we strongly encourage you to have your child tested. This is a service schools must provide…
By Sarah Vander Schaaff What does it take to get into college? For that matter, preschool? Two recent stories in The New York Times address changes in the admissions process for some schools and both look at efforts to take the focus off standardized tests. First, there was the attention-grabbing headline: “Private Schools are Expected…
By Sarah Vander Schaaff To hear Dr. Brian Hare speak about the genius of dogs is quite something. In fact, just last week, when I was listening to my local NPR station, I heard a rebroadcast of an interview with him and was still fascinated. And it was this second-time around that I was able…
The first time I heard of an IQ test for children was in grade school. A newspaper article said the actress Geena Davis had such a high one and that she was in Mensa. It’s interesting that these tests are often talked about in the context of trivia, or as a friend recently said, in a…
By Sarah Vander Schaaff Several weeks ago, well before Sandy and the holidays took over our thoughts and conversations here in New Jersey, I attended an evening lecture given by Sam Wang, an associate professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton University and co-author of the 2011 book, Welcome to Your Child’s Brain: How…