Psychological assessment

Psychological assessment makes it possible to assess a person’s intelligence, cognitive processes, personality, emotional sphere or relationships. The assessment request must contain specific questions and a specific purpose, and at the end of the cooperation, a psychological assessment report is prepared (in accordance with the requirements specified in Section 13 of Chapter III of the Law on Psychologists).

We carry out assessments and recommend them to children from the age of 4.5 (always taking into account the child’s individual development and communication skills).

We perform three types of assessment on children:

1. Assessment of intellectual/cognitive abilities

This assessment tests the child’s memory, thinking and attention, describes intellectual abilities and difficulties. A report is usually necessary for other specialists to determine, for example, whether learning support is necessary, to choose the most appropriate educational programme for the child, or to understand the possible causes for behavioural problems.

This assessment is performed upon request or necessity – most often, an assessment is requested by a doctor, the State Pedagogical Medical Commission or an educational institution.

Methods used: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV) or Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ IV COG). If necessary, the child’s emotional and behavioural spheres are also examined when assessing intellectual abilities.

1. Assessment of the emotional sphere and relationships

Assessment that gives a broader view of the child’s various emotional and behavioural difficulties, for example, helps understand the child’s view of themselves and their emotional condition, find out the child’s emotional well-being in different environments; relationships with other people; helps understand the possible causes for the child’s behavioural difficulties.

If necessary, methods are also used to evaluate the peculiarities of thinking, sometimes assessment of intellectual abilities is recommended, cooperation with other specialists may be recommended.

1. Assessment of signs of violence

This assessment should be carried out in cases where there is suspicion or concern that a child may have been the victim of any form of violence. The assessment evaluates the possible experience of violence by assessing the signs of violence and the consequences thereof.

The assessment uses different methods of determining the child’s emotional condition, trauma symptoms, and particular methods for specifically determining the signs of violence.

For adults, we only perform assessments on parenting abilities.

This assessment is more often performed at the request of an institution or a specialist. The assessment evaluates the sphere of the parent’s personality, understanding of the child’s needs, the peculiarities of the parent’s thinking and the relationship with the child.

An essential precondition for this assessment is for the parent to be able to be with the child in one of the sessions, when the child-parent relationship is assessed.

In order to make a decision on the performance of any assessment, the specialists of Dardedze Centre evaluate the following:

• Purpose and necessity of the assessment;
• Whether the performance of assessment is in the best interests of the child;
• Restrictions related to the specific individual (individual peculiarities, intellectual abilities);
• Need for a repeated assessment (we do not perform and do not recommend performing assessments more than once a year, with some exceptions).

Costs:

• On average, 6 sessions are needed for psychological assessment.
• Cost of one psychological assessment session: 50 euros.
• Preparation of psychological assessment report: 150 euros.

Application: by phone +371 67600685 or by e-mail info@centrsdardedze.lv