Frequently asked questions
The Health Professions Act of B.C. authorizes licensed Registered Psychologists to conduct psychoeducational assessments in private and public practice in British Columbia.
Registered Psychologists diagnose specific learning disorders, or learning disabilities, giftedness, intellectual disability, developmental disabilities, ASD, ADHD and many other conditions that arise during school years and affect learning.
Psychologists who specialize in conditions that affect learning and occur during childhood have obtained a master's degree (MA) and doctorate (Ph.D.) from an accredited university (most commonly from UBC). They are experts in recognizing the normal trajectory of the acquisition of basic skills such as literacy (reading) and numeracy (math).
They diagnose conditions that interfere with learning, including specific learning disorder or learning disabilities (reading/dyslexia, math/dyscalculia). They identify complementary strengths and needs in the cognitive processes that underlie learning such as; executive function, auditory and visual working memory, attention, language, phonological awareness and processing, visual processing, reactivity to stress, anxiety, and social-emotional difficulties. Psychologists have completed internships and three years in a Master's program specializing in School Psychology before obtaining a doctorate that requires 6 years, a dissertation and passing the Examination for Principles and Practices in Psychology (EPPP).
Registered Psychologists meet standards and are governed by a regulating body, a Code of Conduct overseen by the College of Psychologists of B.C. Psychologists pass the licensing examination (EPPP), and the jurisprudence examination, complete internships, are approved by a panel of psychologists and complete a criminal record check. Psychologists are required to maintain annual continuing ethical and professional competency standards by ongoing attendance at professional conferences. In total, registered psychologists have about 13-15 years of university education (BA, MA, Ph.D.) from an accredited university.
https://collegeofpsychologists.bc.ca
Certified School Psychologists have a masters degree in school psychology and are authorized to conduct psychoeducational assessments in public and independent schools.
BC Certified school psychologists are now in the process
(May 2024) of being required to join the College of Psychologists and will be referred to as registered school psychologists. Registered School Psychologists with a master's degree will continue to conduct psychoeducational assessments if employed by the school system but will now be regulated by the College of Psychologists of B.C. bringing their school practice in alignment with the College of Psychologists Code of Conduct. Registered school psychologists may work under a registered psychologist in private practise, but they are not licensed to have an independent private practice.
The Health Professions Act does not authorize School Districts to permit any other public or independent school personnel such as teachers, nurses, or resource teachers to conduct psychoeducational assessments or to diagnose a learning disability, specific learning disorder, developmental disability or ADHD or any other diagnostic conditions that may affect learning.
With decades of experience working in schools conducting psychoeducational assessments for the diagnosis and early identification of learning disabilities, developmental disabilities, giftedness, ADHD, social-emotional concerns and screening for high-functioning autism, registered psychologists the professionals who can diagnosis learning disabilities, intellectual disability, giftedness, ADHD and other conditions and provide access for your child or adults to evidence-based interventions and accommodations that are only provided by the diagnosis by a registered psychologist or psychiatrist.
Specific Learning Disorder is a neurodevlopmental disability diagnosed when there are specific defects in an individual's ability to perceive or process information for learning academic skills efficiently and accurately. This neurodevelopmental disorder manifests during the years of formal schooling and characterized by persistent nd impairing difficulties with learning foundational academic skills in reading , writing , and or math. Performance is well below average for age, or acceptable performance levels are achieved only with extraordinary effort.
Specific learning disorder may occur in individuals identified as intellectually gifted and manifest only when the learning demands or assessment procedures (e.g. timed tests), that cannot be overcome by their innate intelligence and compensatory strategies. Specific learning disorder can produce lifelong impairments in actuates depend on the skills, including occupation performance and students/parents are eligible for tax credits to assist with managing the disability.
B.C. Ministry of Education (MOE) uses the term Learning Disability. A Specific Learning Disorder (DSM 5), or Learning Disability (MOE), is diagnosed when a student shows persistent difficulties learning and skills in reading, spelling, math or writing that are well below expected for age and exposure to evidence-based instruction.
Before making a diagnosis, psychologists must rule out or exclude other possible explanations for slow learning such as intellectual developmental Disorder (also known as intellectual disability), physiological problems such as hearing or vision, motor disorders, lack of evidence-based instruction,trauma/stress, or English as a second language.
About 80% of the referrals to psychologists who specialize in school-age problems are for students with a specific learning disorder or learning disability in word reading, also known as dyslexia.
Students with dyslexia have a deficit in phonological awareness (sound awareness) and the working memory system. This impairment in the phonological system and memory system makes the development of automaticity of connecting the sound (s) that go with the letter (s) slower than their peers, and fluent word reading does not emerge. Behaviourally, this is observed early on as difficulty: naming letters, remembering sounds that go with letters, noticing beginning and ending sounds, and rhyming. Later in grade 1, it is observed as difficulty moving units of sound, or phoneme deletion tasks (say winter without the t) and blending (h-ome = home), ( c-a-t = cat), and difficulty accurately mapping sounds onto groups of letters. In later grades, students continue to have slow and labour intensive word reading because they cannot decode the letters or recognize words automatically. They often substitute words that are similar but have different meanings. They have difficulty spelling and continue to retrieve incorrect spelling patterns, mixing up the order of letters in a word, reverse letters and numbers and this interrupts writing. Many of these students will go on to develop other problems such as lowered academic self-esteem, anxiety and lowered overall cognitive ability (fan out effects), because they cannot read. This can lead to lowered expectations for education, future employment opportunities, unsatisfactory job choices and a life time of low income.
Some children have a mathematics learning disability or specific learning disorder in mathematics, also known as dyscalculia. This is observed as difficulty committing or retrieving math facts fluently to and from long-term memory. This can be due to a lack of instruction or practice, but for students with math disability, it is usually due to a weakness in working memory with either low storage capacity (can only remember a few things at a time), difficulties in attention and an inability to suppress interruptions when they are trying to find the answer. In math disability research, we refer to this as difficulty inhibiting irrelevant associations. Difficulty inhibiting irrelevant associations means when the student is trying to find the answer for 3 + 4 the numbers 6, 7 or 8 pop into their head and they have to spend time trying to sort through which is the correct response.
There is a large body of research that indicates that stress, as measured by elevated cortisol levels, saturate the receptors in the hippocampus, and this affects consolidation and retrieval of information. Interruptions in retrieval affect basic computation, multistep calculation, and problem-solving. When acute stress is experienced during math calculation or the anticipation of math class or a math test, the contextual condition is referred to as "math anxiety." The experience of math anxiety produces cortisol, which disrupts working memory and the processes in the hippocampus. This is contextual, which means that the perception of threat temporarily impairs working memory and performance in math calculation. Early identification and strategies to reduce anxiety can reduce the long term negative effects, such as math avoidance. Many children who have trouble learning are experiencing contextual stress and low academic self-esteem while in school. This can be identified during an assessment, with follow-up counseling in coping strategies, metacognition, self-regulation, and mindfulness. We provide differentiated instruction for the teachers, contextual changes to the classroom and memory and learning strategies for the student. Math is a gateway course to Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics degrees, which lead to higher paying technical jobs, so it is very important for Canadian children to address math anxiety so that our children can compete in the global economy.
There are many children who have dual or co-morbid learning disabilities, with problems in both reading and math. Some individuals with learning disabilities may also have other neurodevelopmental diagnoses such as ASD, ADHD or ODD. These students face significant challenges at school. Without identification and treatment, they can easily become marginalized, discouraged, develop low academic self-esteem, and avoid courses that require focus, attention, reading, or math. Undiagnosed students can be gradually moved into programs that wean them out of university track education and higher learning and higher paying jobs.
Each province's Ministry of Education establishes definitional criteria to identify a learning disability, giftedness and intellectual disability. Therefore your child could be identified with a specific learning disability in one province, but not another.
The DSM-5-TR (American Psychiatric Association) is the diagnostic and statistical manual used across North America's to define the diagnostic criteria and codes (ICD-10-CM) used to identify a specific learning disorder or neurodevelopment disorders that manifest early in childhood before a child enters school. Children with these deficits or differences vary from limitations of learning or in their control over executive functions to global impairment of social skills or intellectual ability.
Autism
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are diagnosed when the deficits of social communication are accompanied by excessively repetitive behaviours, restricted interests, and insistence on sameness. Children or adults with ASD frequently co-occur with other mental and behavioural disorders such as anxiety disorder, ADHD with oppositional defiance disorder; tics with obsessive compulsive disorder). Children or adults with ASD are note with the use of specifiers (with or without accompanying intellectual impairment;with or without accompanying structural language impairment; associated with a know genetic or other medial condition or environment al factors; associated with a neurodevelopmental , mental or behavioural problems), as well as specifiers that describe the severity of symptoms.
Asperger's disorder
Asperger's disorder is now diagnosed as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without language or intellectual impairment
Intellectual developmental disorder formerly known as Intellectual Disability, is characterized by deficits in mental ability and impairment of adaptive functioning so that the individual fails to meet the standards oaf personal independence anon one or more aspects of daily life. Global developmental delay is used for children under age 5 who are unable to undergo systematic assessment of intellectual functioning and a reliable assessment cannot be conducted. Intellectual developmental disorder may result from an acquired insult during the developmental period from a severe head injury.
With over 30 years of experience working in schools with children, advising parents, teachers, and school-based teams, we know the evidence-based interventions and treatment plans that work, and that schools can realistically implement. A learning disability diagnosis is required for access to specialized instruction and materials.
Once you have a diagnosis by a registered psychologist, the school will provide services to guarantee a child with a learning disability fair and equal access to genuine education. Psychologists who specialize in diagnosing learning disorders are primarily involved in diagnoses that first occur in childhood, such as learning disabilities, but they also diagnose developmental disabilities such as intellectual disability, high functioning autism, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD), with or without Hyperactivity (ADD). They also identify social-emotional concerns such as conduct disorder, depression and/or anxiety conditions which interfere with learning. With fully informed parent consent, we can provide reports for pediatricians, psychiatrists, and Children's Hospital to assist in complex diagnoses.
We know the policies procedures and guidelines set out by the B.C. Ministry of Education and your rights to help your child access specialized materials, instruction, and accommodations for students in schools and university.
Clearly written, easy to understand reports help teachers and schools create the optimal contexts for your child's learning. We provide and guide parents and teachers with easy to implement evidence-based interventions that work.
We are here to help you optimize your child's learning by discovering how they learn best. We reveal areas of cognitive and academic strength and empower the student with that knowledge and how it affects their everyday learning at school, and in the community. Other important areas such as attention span, distractibility, and social or emotional concerns that may interfere with learning and memory, such as school-related anxiety are evaluated.
We provide recommendations for evidence-based materials, instruction, technology, intervention for academic skills (reading, math, writing, spelling), and learning strategies for improving memory and accommodations for assessment and evaluations (tests).
By increasing a student's awareness of their abilities (metacognition), and memory (metamemory), compensating for needs and strengthening areas of need (academic skills), we can maximize their potential in school and life. After a comprehensive assessment, the combination of personal growth in awareness of strengths and needs and the access to appropriate evidence-based strategies and accommodations, many students experience a transformation in their ability to learn. They are enabled to approach learning from a fearful, doubtful worrier into a competent student who loves the challenge of learning.
Yes. If you have concerns about your child's learning, talk to the classroom teacher and school resource teacher first. School districts do conduct either informal (teacher checklists), or standardized screening for early reading and math skills. Ideally, standardized screening for learning disabilities begins in kindergarten and extends through grades 3 and onwards through middle school. Standardized screening provides a comparison of your child's early skill acquisition in reading, spelling, and math to other Canadian children the same age. If results show your child is underachieving in reading, math or writing (below a Standard Score of 85), the school-based team should be providing evidence based intervention and progress monitoring. If satisfactory gains are not made after a period of time, the School Based Team should consider a referral for a comprehensive psychoeducational assessment. The waitlists can take up to a year or more if the school does not think your child is a priority for an assessment. You may want to consider a private psychoeducational assessment by a registered psychologist and if you do, we can help.
We conduct an initial intake, with careful attention to the developmental history of your child's early development, medical history, language, social, and motor development. standardized reading, and math screening assessment, and a complete school file review including all report cards and any other relevant educational information such as the history and types of school-based interventions or those used in private tutoring, counseling or other diagnoses. Findings may indicate that only a short assessment is required with some follow up suggestions for you and the school.
If we suggest further assessment you will be investing a significant amount of money and time, but you will be glad you did. We conduct cognitive abilities testing, assessment of memory, exeuctive function, attention, visual motor skills and complete rating inventories for social emotional, attention and executive function.
We offer three levels of assessment:
Comprehensive psychoeducational assessment = 3800.00.
Early literacy and numeracy screening = 500.00
In-depth academic skills Standardized Achievement testing = 1500.00
For school district contracts, we will assess a minimum of 10 students.
Your health insurance or federal grants may cover some of the costs of the assessment.
For college or university grants of 3800.00 are available at:
https://studentaidbc.ca/sites/all/files/form-library/appendix_8.pdf
Many employee benefit plans cover about 1000.00 for registered psychology/ psychoeducational services annually. There are also federal grants available for university students who obtain a psychoeducational assessment and receive a diagnosis of learning disability. A psychologist's fees are tax deductible, and if your child is diagnosed with a learning disability, some of the other services such as tutoring are tax deductible.
Our comprehensive psychoeducational assessment takes about 6-8 hours of individual testing over the course of 2-3 days. That's between 2 to 3 hours long for each session. There is a total of 24 additional hours of clinical work and analyses of results and report writing involved in a comprehensive assessment.
Most kids thoroughly enjoy the cognitive assessment process because the tasks are interactive and challenging and we use Q interactive with delivery of test items on the IPAD for precision timing, scoring and viewing. The activities and tasks give students the opportunity to show what they can do without the burden of trying to read, write, or perform math, things they struggle with.
It takes the psychologists about 3-4 weeks to analyze the data, finalize the report, and tailor the recommendations. Achievement testing can take between 2-3 hours. Screening can take as little as 20 minutes, depending on the child's age. You might find out that your child is just fine, and they do not require any further assessment.
Yes. You receive an initial draft to review and a final copy of the psychoeducational report. We share the readable and teacher friendly report with you and answer any questions you have. The report provides a clear Ministry of Education and DSM 5 diagnosis, and easy to implement, practical, evidence-based recommendations tailored to your child's needs. The diagnosis and recommendations allow the student access to specialized services and will inform their Individual Education Plan (IEP). Adaptations and strategies formally document the services for the school and can redirect their learning trajectory and self-esteem from doubt and frustration to the experience of success in school. The report follows the student through school and is kept in their confidential file if you want the school to have a copy.
If you want a psychologist to accompany you to your school meetings, we are experienced and can help you navigate the process of working with the School Based Team.
A private assessment guarantees that the information is confidential and you control who sees your child's information and the report. You are under no obligation to report to the school if you decide that you do not want to.
Research has shown that the powerful positive effects of a psychoeducational assessment depend on how the psychologist explains the results to the child, parents, and teachers.
We pride ourselves in our ability to relate to kids and to make them aware of their cognitive strengths through the process of the assessment. Most of the students who undergo a psychoeducational assessment find an improved sense of academic self-esteem equipped with self awareness of their abilities and an accurate analysis of their skill strengths and needs, and most importantly an evidence-based learning plan that empowers their learning. They leave the assessment process with a clear understanding that a reading or spelling learning disability does not define or limit them, as it is not a measure of their intelligence.
There are many ways to get around a learning disability.....Jim Carey, Albert Einstein, Will Smith, Cher, Henry Ford are just some of the examples of brilliant individuals who struggled with a learning disability and have rewarding and successful lives.
We show our clients how certain simple, evidence-based techniques can improve fluency in reading or math, how adaptations to materials, use of specific memory strategies, and changes to the context and technology will enable performance.
If your child has an undiagnosed learning disability, or ADHD, obtaining a diagnosis and access to evidence-based services is a very important step to address their anxiety. Many children are sitting in classrooms with undiagnosed learning disabilities and ADHD. The lack of identification and access to services or medication they require contributes to their stress and anxiety. First and foremost, learning problems and ADHD need to be identified and treated with evidence-based intervention.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive therapy improves focus and attention by teaching students to be more aware of the present moment rather than being lost in their thoughts, worrying or doubting. Many students with undiagnosed learning disabilities suffer from learning-related anxiety, and this only compounds learning problems. Students are required to read, write and perform math at a certain level in school, and when they have difficulties in these areas and or have an undiagnosed learning disability, they cannot engage in the work or complete tasks and they do not understand why.....this leads to low academic self-esteem.
Obtaining a diagnosis and accessing appropriate specialized instruction is essential. Teaching mindfulness practise can help students who are experiencing negative thinking to be aware of the mind's tendency to wander into automatic thoughts. Students who have had trouble learning for many years can jump into "I can't do this" and worry about performance. Simple guided calming breathing techniques and mindfulness activities bring attention to the present moment and this will reduce stress. Most children have been introduced to mindfulness in school already and love it.
Medical and nursing schools now offer doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, and pain specialists mindfulness training to help their patients with pain, stress, depression, and anxiety. If your child obtains a diagnosis of ADHD, we recommend that you meet with your pediatrician to develop a treatment plan that involves medication as well as implementing specialized adjustments to the learning environment including academic coaching, evidence-based instructional differentiation, environmental accommodations, and behavioral strategies.
Some students with undiagnosed and untreated learning disabilities hide their difficulties in reading, spelling or math for a lifetime. Over time, this can create a sense of low self-esteem, embarrassment and stress. Students may have been called lazy, or in some cases, they have been thought to have an intellectual disability because they learned English as a second language or are very young for their grade (December birthdays). Psychologists are experts in the assessments required to discern a learning disability versus an intellectual disability.
When students understand out how smart they are, and that a learning disability has nothing to do with intelligence, they feel relieved.
Sometimes students cry when their difficulties in reading are affirmed. Other times they smile and say thank you. It is rewarding to see the look of validation on a student's face when they find out they are going to be helped after a long struggle.
Students with learning disabilities are some of the bravest people I have ever met. Most are not diagnosed until grade 4, and many are missed and never identified and go through school without reaching their full potential in life.
Students with learning disabilities are relieved and happy to have access to audiobooks, interventions, Ipads, and specialized instruction. We provide evidence based strategies to reduce contextual reactivity to stress during learning and to improve working memory and memory retrieval.
The psychoeducational assessment is only one part of the solution; creating a happy hippocampus is the next step to ensure the context is optimal for your child's learning.
Contact us at PACBC for one of our assessments: psychoeducational assessment, achievement testing or literacy and numeracy screening and try out our Mindfulness-Based Practises class to reduce anxiety and improve attention for kids with learning disabilities.
https://www.bcasp.ca/images/CONSENT4_1.pdf
Before an assessment, the law and the College of Psychologists of British Columbia require that parents are fully informed and consent. Informed consent is more than just a signature; it is an agreement and understanding of the purpose, benefits, and risks of an assessment. Parents learn the alternatives to having an assessment and what may happen without one. Parents need to understand the limits of confidentiality, the privacy of the student, and the protection of the report and data. We provide students with the same information and whether or not they agree to undergo the assessment.