Overview 
Toronto Psychological Assessments And Testing

Dr. O'Connor's Psychological Assessments and Testing services help get to "the root" of  the psychological concerns that present in young people, and point to evidence-based solutions to address them. Children, adolescents and young adults suffer from a range of psychological concerns, from the relatively benign to the more serious. Their families, and the professionals who work with them are searching for help to support these young people. They want to get to "the root" of the problems that inhibit the young person's ability to function and achieve success at home, at school and in the community, and access effective strategies to address them.

Dr. O'Connor also offers psychological assessments and testing services to help young adults with learning problems obtain appropriate support at the college/university level, or accommodations to assist with college/university admission exams.

Dr. O'Connor's psychological assessments incorporate her post doctoral training in School Neuropsychology, and integrate a brain/behaviour focus to assess the young person's functioning levels across a range of concerns. This includes an exploration of the young person's strengths and weaknesses across various neurocognitive domains, and how this pattern impacts learning, and/or the young person's  social, emotional and behavioral functioning. 

Psychological Assessments And Testing Can Help

Dr. O'Connor's Psychological Assessments become part of the solution and lead to evidence-based interventions to address the psychological concerns that present in the young person. Not every child or youth who exhibits a problem needs an extensive evaluation, although many do.

Dr. O'Connor's psychological assessments sharpen the focus or "open a window" on the young person's strengths and specific needs. They enhance understanding of how the child, adolescent, or young person is performing across various developmental and/or neurocognitive domains, and of the interventions that can address areas of concern. 

Dr. O'Connor addresses a range of concerns that present in young people.

These include:

• Sensori-motor functions, visual spatial skills, phonological/auditory processing skills, learning and memory, as well as executive, attention and working memory functions.
• Fluency, processing speed and cognitive efficiency.  Standardized measures within these domains also assess the young person's problem solving skills, his reasoning and thinking skills, his non-verbal and verbal ability. 
• Language functions and academic achievement levels.  
• Intellectual functioning levels. 
• Social, emotional and behavioral concerns such as anxiety, depression, aggression and/or depression, and relationship problems.
  
• Trauma related issues, such as a single acute traumatic event, for example, a motor vehicle accident. Or  more chronic, ongoing forms of complex trauma such as bullying, abuse, maltreatment and attachment breaches, or domestic and community violence. 
• Learning problems, such as learning disabilities, or reading, written language and math disorders. 
• Acquired brain injuries (e.g., concussions or mild TBI).

Psychological Assessment Can Help.

Dr. O'Connor's Psychological Assessments increase understanding of adolescent and child problems and how to help.

• Find out what is contributing to and maintaining the adolescent and child problems that worry you. 
  
• Find out how a young person  is doing in specific areas of child development - the social, emotional, behavioral and cognitive/academic.
• Find out about a young person's needs and how to help.
• Discover a child's strengths and build on where "things are working" and going well.
• Learn how a child is coping with specific challenges or concerns (e.g. divorce, parental addiction, social concerns, trauma related issues,) and what you can do to help.
• Find out where you need to intervene to reduce stress in a child, build positive coping strategies and enhance the young person's  competence, psychological well being and resilience.
  

Following the assessment, Dr. O'Connor may refer you to resources in the community or relevant books and other resources to address the young person's needs. If applicable, Dr. O'Connor will provide recommendations to help the young person cope with specific problems and concerns. The assessment leads to evidence based interventions to support the young person, in areas of need and to help build on his or her strengths. 

How Does It Work?

When conducting a psychological assessment, Dr. O'Connor relies on information from a variety of sources. These include background information gathered from the young person's parents, teachers, or other significant adults; school reports; or previous assessments. Dr. O'Connor also relies on questionnaires, behavior rating scales and other informal measures to learn more about the child or adolescent, including his social, emotional and behavioral functioning, his neuro-cognitive strengths and weaknesses and his academic skill levels. She uses standardized assessment measures to compare the young person's psychological functioning with that of same-age peers across a range of behaviours and skills. Standardized measures include tests of intelligence, cognitive functions and learning ability, executive functions, memory, language skills and academic achievement.

Dr. O'Connor tailors the assessment to the young person's specific needs and uses assessment tools and approaches that address the concerns that arise for the child, adolescent, or young adult.  Each young person will show a different pattern of neurocognitive strengths and weaknesses, despite sharing the same diagnosis, for example, a reading disorder. They will also require a different combination of intervention strategies to address their needs.   

Typically, the young person attends two assessment sessions of about three hours each, although a third assessment session is often required.  Following the assessment, the results of the administered measures are scored. Dr. O'Connor reviews and interprets the assessment findings and writes a comprehensive, detailed report. Following her review and interpretation of the findings and her completion of the report, she meets with the client/s and provides a verbal and written report of the assessment findings. The written report provides a comprehensive summary of the assessment results, includes recommendations/interventions to address issues of concern, and, when appropriate, provides a diagnosis or diagnoses. 

Learn more about psychological assessments.

Contact Dr. O'Connor to find out how her psychological assessments can help.