We offer comprehensive educational, cognitive & emotional testing for children, teens and young-adults.
Marimba's testing services offer educational and psychological evaluations for children, teens and young adults. Our comprehensive assessment can provide parents and educators with valuable information about a child's functioning, including areas of cognitive, academic and emotional strength.
Each test battery is tailored to the parents' specific questions and concerns, and followed up with a thorough written report and recommendations.
Overview
The Testing Process
The testing process begins with a meeting with parents in which information is gathered related to the child's developmental history, including specific issues of concern. Parents are asked to fill out a questionnaire with additional details.
With the child, testing is generally done in limited 2-3 hour blocks of time, with most evaluations requiring 3 or 4 appointments.
Our experience has shown this testing schedule produces the most useful and accurate results, as most children are more able to perform to the best of their ability through these multiple short sessions than in one or two marathon blocks of time.
In parallel with testing, the psychologist will speak with other key adults in the child's life — including therapists, psychiatrists, and teachers — and, if needed, conduct a school observation.
Feedback & Recommendations
After the child has completed testing and parents have returned any questionnaires, the work is scored, evaluated, and compiled into a written report. This report generally takes 1-2 weeks for completion.
At that time, a parent feedback is scheduled in which the results are reviewed and recommendations provided aimed at helping the child in all applicable areas of life including school, home, and peer relationships.
When appropriate, a separate feedback meeting is held one-on-one with the child to review results, with an emphasis on reinforcing strengths and providing ideas for change in specific areas of concern.
Fees for Testing
We believe our clients should always know upfront exactly what the expected costs are for our services.
For psychological testing, the fee ranges from $2500-$4000 depending on the extent of testing required to appropriately address concerns and provide recommendations.
The total fee for a particular client is discussed in advance of any testing and is a flat fee that covers all expected work.
We do not charge an hourly rate for psychological testing services. To best understand the strengths & challenges of the child, we want to allow every child to work at their own pace and value having the flexibility to add supplemental testing based on information learned through the process without a client incurring unexpected costs.
Areas of Assessment
In developing an appropriate evaluation, the areas of functioning that can be assessed include the following:
Cognitive Testing
Cognitive testing looks at a child's current level of skills related to verbal comprehension, perceptual organization, working memory, and processing speed. This information provides the foundation for understanding other areas of functioning, including academic, attention, and emotional.
Academic Testing
Academic testing examines the child's abilities in broad areas of learning, including phonetics, reading speed and comprehension, written expression, and mathematics. As needed, more specific testing in each area is administered in order to assess for any apparent difficulties. In conjunction with cognitive testing, the results provide information about academic strengths and challenges, including learning disabilities.
Attention/ADHD Testing
Attention testing involves measures specifically designed to look at attention and concentration, as well as impulsivity. As part of a comprehensive battery, these tests allow for careful examination of symptoms of ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), including evaluating both auditory and visual fields over short and longer periods.
Executive Functioning Testing
Executive functioning testing encompasses a wide range of skills that revolve around organization and planning; a fundamental underpinning to achieving success both academically and in personal endeavors. Tests of executive functioning cover, as needed, short and long term working memory, auditory and visual processing, organization, motor control, multi-tasking, and strategies for planning related to simple and complex tasks.
Emotional Testing
Emotional testing works to help parents better understand their child's inner functioning, including feelings of depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. In addition, emotional testing also reveals information about a child's skill set for problem solving and coping with stress, as well as providing valuable links between behaviors (such as poor school performance, self-harm, or noncompliance) and underlying feelings. This portion of an evaluation includes a variety of tests, including in-depth interview, questionnaires, and projectives.