Why Is Neuropsychological Assessment Important for Educators?
Schools today offer a wide range of programs
Programs in most schools address a wide range of functioning levels from the severely developmentally disabled to the gifted or talented. For these programs to work effectively, the school psychologist must identify the learning strengths and weaknesses of each child so that the children will be placed in the educational environment that will help them reach their full learning potential. The more extensive the psychologist's repertoire of insightful tools, the more complete the evaluation. And, the more complete the evaluation, the more appropriate the child's placement.
Learning disabilities are difficult to identify
Identifying learning disabled students has never been an easy task. Students' ability to acquire learning skills can be affected by many factors, ranging from physical make-up to home environment. It is possible that Johnny can't read because he has not been in school enough, has emotional problems that interfere with learning, is unable to listen to instruction, or has a brain dysfunction that prevents the acquisition of learning material through traditional methods. In order to separate the many overlapping factors and provide the most accurate diagnosis possible, the school psychologist must use the best diagnostic instruments available.
Children with subtle problems benefit most from neuropsychological assessment because they do not have severe disabilities that have obvious symptoms; yet, these children do not function best within the normal learning environment.
How Do Schools Use Neuropsychological Assessment?
Just as the medical practitioner uses diagnostic tests to rule out or to corroborate diagnoses, the school psychologist assesses abilities using neuropsychological assessment. Most students are not formally assessed. If a teacher notices that a child seems to have learning problems with cheap custom essay writing, the teacher may modify teaching methods accordingly. If the student fails to respond, then more extensive assessment may be done to determine the best instructional approaches to meet the student's needs.
What Are Some Limitations of Neuropsychological Assessment?
One of the advantages of neurological assessment is that it can accurately detect neurological damage or dysfunction without the need for obtrusive medical tests. However, some limitations should be kept in mind:
• To perform neuropsychological assessments well, you must be a thoroughly trained professional.
• The results of a neuropsychological assessment are not an absolute score or completely accurate proof. You must use results along with data that are compiled from many different sources.
• Many experts question the validity of basic norms of neuropsychological assessment because the norms were originally derived from groups writing a 5 paragraph essay outline that were predominantly adults; only a very small sample of children were represented in the populations that were studied to produce the norms.
• Neuropsychological assessment batteries are long and extremely time consuming when used in their complete form.