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Psychological
testing of children is a concept that is not well
understood by many parents or people not familiar with
psychological methods. Phrases and terms such as "psychometric
testing" or "assessment instrument" can in fact sound invasive and
scary. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Psychologists use
their knowledge to help children overcome their
difficulties and enhance their well being. Psychological
assessment is part of this knowledge base. On the one hand, the
knowledge of child development and appropriate behavioral and
emotional milestones, and on the other hand, the knowledge of
psychological tests (or psychometric instruments) and their use.
Under most circumstances using clinical judgments alone is
unreliable. Reliably evaluating children's functioning
requires the combination of subjective judgment and objective
measures.
The following paragraphs contain brief
information related to both psychological tests and the interview
process. More information is available on our test
development page
.
Test User Qualifications
Administering
psychological tests is a relatively straight forward process. Strict guidelines
prescribe how to introduce tests to children, what instructions to
use and how to explain test items. The difficult part of
the assessment is often not the assessment itself, but the
interpretation of observational information and test
results. This is a delicate process where clinicians "put the
jigsaw puzzle pieces together". During this process clinical
judgment may override test results, or vice versa, test results may
challenge the clinician's opinion. A good clinician will know how to
use test results and at the same time how to rely on his/her
opinion.
For the above outlined reasons, ethical guidelines
strictly regulate access to standardised tests. Without
appropriate training and expertise, psychological tests should NOT
be administered and
interpreted.
Tests
Tests are simply
measuring devices or procedures. Psychological tests are highly
specialised and aim to measure psychological constructs, such as
intelligence, personality, attitudes, emotional functioning, or
educational ability. This is where psychological tests differ greatly.
What essentially differentiates a good test from a
bad (or not so good) test is the test's
capacity to measure what it intends to
measure. For example, a questionnaire about one's dietary
intake may be a good test of eating habits,
but not a good test of
emotional functioning.
When psychologists talk about "psychometric
assessments", they talk about a differential approach to assessment.
The differential approach is a theory based model and holds the view
that psychological constructs, such as intelligence, can be measured
by appropriately designed tests. Performance on these tests will
reveal individual differences related to different mental skills and
attributes.
To ensure that
psychological tests appropriately measure what they
intend to measure, statistical methods are used at the test development stage.
For example, a good test of intelligence
will have items related to different intellectual
processes, including verbal ability, non-verbal
ability, processing speed and memory. These areas all related
to intelligence, and therefore should be included in a good
intelligence test. However, they should be also balanced and
representative. Statistical analysis at the beginning of test
development ensures that items are balanced and tap into the same
construct.
Information Sources
Test results are useful to understand a
child's functioning. However, arriving at a final
conclusion based on a single test result, or even on several
different test results, can be a serious mistake.
Therefore, the collection of relevant background information,
such as medical history, family background and developmental
history, is part of the standard procedure of child
assessment. Yet the type of additional information required
often does not surface until the interview, or in other cases,
until tests are scored and evaluated. For example, a child may be
assessed for learning difficulties, but may also present with
severe behavioural difficulties and the parents may reveal
symptoms consistent with ADHD. In this case the child's
teachers would need to be contacted to confirm the behavioural
observations of both the parents and the clinician.
Error
Error is a term
inherently associated with psychological testing. However, error
does not refer to mistakes or miscalculations. In relation to psychological
tests, error is an expected part of the assessment
process and built into the results. In other words, error assumes
that a psychological test result is not 100% accurate and depend
on various other factors.
Error
is particularly important when children are concerned. For example,
while it is important to ensure that children who attend an IQ
assessment are rested and alert, not all external factors can
be eliminated. They may worry about an upcoming school test,
they might be thinking about a lost toy, or simply they are having a
bad day. For this reason, IQ and achievement
results always include a "confidence interval", or a score
dispersion within which a
child's "true" score is placed.
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