Psychological Testing / Assessments

Genesis Counseling in Boca Raton, FL, offers psychological testing with School Psychologist, Dawn Baydowicz, PsyS. Psychological Testing at Genesis Counseling is available for children, adolescents and teens who are in need of determination of whether they have a learning disability, attention deficit disorder, in order to decide whether they have emotional/behavioral diagnosis and/or accommodations for school and test taking. Dawn also performs assessments to determine if children qualify for their school districts “gifted” program.

Discussing the Evaluation with your Child:
The psychological evaluations at Genesis Counseling are filled with activities that most children enjoy. We love to hear from parents that their kids want to come back and do it again, just for fun. Let your kids know that they will enjoy it! Dawn never wants a child to feel under pressure to perform, particularly for gifted testing. We encourage parents to simply tell their children that they are going to do some activities that will help their teachers learn the best way to teach to them.

The Day of the Evaluation:
For gifted testing, at Genesis Counseling, the testing session usually lasts between an hour and an hour and a half, depending on the age of the individual. Testing for other evaluations, which are more extensive, will likely take place over the course of three or more days. Our psychologist, Dawn Baydowicz Psy S, never pushes a child to continue with testing if he/she begins to appear tired or starts to lose focus. She always strives to make the testing process enjoyable, and often hears from kids that it was fun. Please make sure to bring a snack for your child in case he/she gets hungry during the session, as well as a jacket in case he/she gets cold.

A developmental assessment can determine if your child is meeting expectations in several different domains, including language, motor skills, cognitive/early problem solving skills, social skills, and self-care skills. This type of assessment also provides information about whether your concerns about your child’s development are related to an Autism Spectrum Disorder or another issue. Most importantly, if your child has a developmental issue, early diagnosis allows you to intervene effectively and help your child succeed.

Dawn Baydowicz, Psy S. has highly specialized training and experience in conducting comprehensive developmental assessments and ensures the assessment is individualized to meet your child’s specific needs. This includes an interview with you, the parents, followed by one or more testing sessions with your child. Consultation with your child’s teacher or a school observation may also be incorporated in the assessment. Best-practice, standardized tests, including the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (ADOS-2), are used to determine developmental functioning and diagnose complex issues such as Autism Spectrum Disorder. During the feedback session, Dawn meets with parents to provide a detailed report of the results, explain applicable diagnoses, and provide treatment recommendations and advice on accessing services. Developmental assessments are appropriate for children from 6 months to approximately 6 years of age. Dawn also provides testing for Autism Spectrum Disorder for older children, adolescents, and adults as part of a comprehensive psychological or psychoeducational assessment.

This test averages 24 to 26 hours, including intake, face-to-face testing and documentation.

A psychoeducational assessment provides an in-depth analysis of your child’s academic strengths and weaknesses and identifies if a learning disability or ADHD is present. Some practices achieve this by offering each child a standard battery of tests. Dawn Baydowicz, Psy S. utilizes a more individualized approach. The assessment begins with a parent interview to learn about the difficulties the child is having at school. Based on this information, Dawn selects specific assessments to target areas of concern to administer along with a selected standard battery. This approach tends to be less time-consuming, more cost-effective, and more precise in arriving at diagnoses. In the feedback session with Dawn, the parents receive a detailed report outlining all of the findings along with detailed recommendations for helping their child.

This test averages 8 to 10 hours including intake, face-to-face testing and documentation.

Emotional/personality evaluations are conducted both independently of and in conjunction with psychoeducational and developmental assessments. When they are part of a larger assessment, emotional functioning is assessed to determine how these factors may be impacting development or school performance. Sometimes a child appears to have a learning disability when it is an emotional issue that is affecting the child’s school performance.

Emotional/personality evaluations can be tremendously helpful as stand-alone assessments as they provide diagnostic clarification and a detailed analysis of character structure and current symptomology.

Behavioral evaluations with children are often conducted because there are problem behaviors the parent wants to address, such as acting out behaviors. With small children with behavioral and/or developmental issues, these assessments sometimes take place in the home so that the psychologist can observe the child in his or her own environment.

This test averages 15 to 17 hours, including intake, face-to-face testing and documentation.

A gifted assessment entails administering an IQ test when it is suspected that a child may benefit from a more rigorous academic environment.
Dawn Baydowicz, Psy S. ensures that only the most recent versions of the standardized IQ tests are used. These include:

• Wechsler Intelligence Test for Children-Fifth Edition (WISC-V)
• Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI-IV)

If your child scores two standard deviations above the mean (IQ=130), Dawn will provide you with documentation of the scores and will recommend gifted placement. Gifted assessments are usually completed within two hours. Appointments can typically be scheduled within a week of your call and you will receive your report within a week of the assessment.

This test averages 4 hours including intake, face-to-face testing and documentation

To inquire about any of our Psychological Testing Assessments with Psychologist, Dawn Baydowicz, PsyS email in**@**********************da.com or call 561-408-1098.