Components of Child Evaluations | FAQs About Evaluations

How to Prepare for Child Evaluations

It is important to tell your son or daughter about the evaluation ahead of time. They should be told at least a week before the scheduled appointment. Often, when children are not informed before the evaluation (either an in-person or online evaluation), they are understandably nervous and disoriented (even scared) when the evaluation begins because they were not expecting this change in their schedule and they don’t know what to expect.

  1. You may want to tell your child that the purpose of the evaluation is to discover his / her strengths and weaknesses so that they can use their strengths to improve their weaknesses and make school easier for them. For example:

    “The job of the people at the Hanover Clinic is to figure out what things might be harder for you, and what things are easier for you. They do this so that they can help make school (or reading, or math, or writing, or whatever is hard for your child) easier for you. Since everyone has things that are hard for them and things that are easy, they work with really young kids – as young as four years old – and adults, in order to help them improve their skills.”

  2. Make sure your son/daughter has a good night’s sleep before each day of testing.

  3. They should also have had a good breakfast/lunch before they reach the clinic. It is also fine to bring snacks and something to drink to the evaluation.

  4. If they normally take medication on a daily basis, they should take that medication during the evaluation (unless you are told otherwise by Dr. Van Santen).

  5. If they wear glasses/contact lenses or hearing aids, please have them available during testing.

  6. Make a plan for how you and your child will be spending any breaks together. This is particularly important for younger children, who will probably be tired and looking forward to a long break.

  7. You do not need to bring any testing materials to the evaluation (e.g., pencils, paper, calculator, etc.). All materials will be provided by the HCBT clinic.