School psychs know a lot of special education jargon and are required to explain these terms to parents. What’s the best way to synthesize our evaluation results and present our findings to families in a meaningful and helpful way? Let’s explore some ways we can achieve this! If you want to watch a replay of the live recording, please click here.
Ask For Feedback
One of my favorite things to do is to ask trusted special education team members for their feedback! You can ask for suggestions on improving your explanations, and ask if they find your explanations meaningful and helpful. While it’s important to keep our explanations of assessment results succinct, our reports must also be comprehensive and include all collected data and information. Also, don’t forget to include necessary state and federal requirements!
The Importance of Summaries
Let’s face it, there can be a lot going on during IEP meetings which can cause psychs to feel anxious or even overwhelmed. Summaries are an excellent place for school psychs to synthesize all their information across data sources and highlight important data. When it’s time to verbally explain your assessment findings, having a good summary makes all the difference in the world. Try out these quick tips!
- Add a summary at the end of each section of your report (i.e., social-emotional, cognitive, behavior, etc.).
- Take all of your summaries and copy and paste them into the end of your report.
- If you struggle to write your summary, ask yourself: what did I learn about this student?
Focus Your Attention on This…
When I explain assessment results to parents, I keep this same question in the back of my mind to help keep me on track: what did I learn about your child? Try to answer this question without giving the names of subtests, standard scores, or using words like “clinically significant.” It’s harder than it sounds! To help make presenting assessment results more succinct, ask yourself the following questions and answer them as you share your results.
- How does the student remember information?
- What did I learn about their academic functioning?
- What is their social-emotional functioning like?
- Did they present with any behaviors that stood out to you?
School psychologists are uniquely positioned to link the home and school environment and bridge the gap so students can receive the best support to ensure their progress and success.
Sign up for our 4th annual Summer Boot Camp TODAY to attend a session dedicated to succinctly explaining results! I love this topic, so come and join me!
