Why Psychological Testing is Important for Children and Adolescents?
The contribution of psychological testing to understanding psychological functioning in adult, child and adolescent clinics has been recognized for many years. Especially in children and adolescents, the cause of the symptom may not always be known. Therefore, if a symptom occurs as a sign of psychological conflict and the cause is not entirely clear, psychological tests or assessments may be considered necessary.
In many ways, psychological tests and assessments can be likened to medical tests. If a patient has physical symptoms, as a first step the specialist may order X-rays or blood tests to understand what is causing these symptoms. This is because the results of the tests can help to develop a treatment plan.
Psychological tests serve the same purpose. Psychologists can use psychological tests and other assessment tools to understand the child or adolescent's diagnosis and guide treatment, as well as to measure or even observe the child or adolescent's behavior. For example, children who have difficulties in school may undergo psychological testing, such as intelligence tests, aptitude tests or learning disabilities.
The underlying cause of a person's problems may not always be clear. A child may have problems at school and in order to understand why, a psychiatrist or psychologist may ask for a general assessment of the child's situation. The general assessment may include observations from parents and teachers, psychological tests or assessments. Psychological tests, observations and assessments can answer the following questions and help us better understand the problem.
- Is the symptom caused by a reading problem such as dyslexia?
- Do you have an attention problem such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)?
- Does he have difficulty with impulse control?
- Are his parents getting divorced?
- Is he constantly exposed to parental fights?
- Does he/she have difficulty studying?
- Does he/she have difficulty going to school?
- Doesn't he want to leave mom?
In general, psychological tests and assessments can help to understand the nature of the child or adolescent's problem and to find the best way to address it.
What are Psychological Tests for Children and Adolescents?
CAT (Thematic Perception Test for Children)
It is a projective test that assesses children's behavior, impulses and perception of their environment. CAT is used as a psychological test that helps to understand children's behavioral problems and their perceptions of their place in the family. It also allows understanding and observation of children's reactions.
It can be applied to children between 3 and 9 years of age.
Rorschach (Inkblot Test)
The Rorschach Test is a frequently used projective test that provides information about an individual's personality structure. In order for this psychological test to be administered, it is necessary to have been referred to the test by an expert. The test should be performed by an expert in the field. Although the Rorschach can be administered to anyone who has the ability to speak, its evaluation varies according to the age range.
It can generally be applied to examine personality traits, emotional functioning, thought processes and relational investments. The most important feature of the test is that it transforms inkblots from an imagination test into a personality test and makes them open to interpretation.
After the test is administered, the results of the test are shared with the psychiatrist and psychologist following the test. The treatment team shares the results with the person and gives feedback.
TAT (Thematic Perception Test)
Applied for children over 10 years of age and adults, the TAT (Thematic Perception Test) analyzes the story that the person creates using imagination with cards depicting various human behaviors. The Thematic Perception Test, which is aimed at understanding the person's situation before psychotherapy, helps to address the individual holistically and analyze the emotional state.
CNS Vital Signs
CNS Vital Signs Tests measure people's verbal and visual memory, motor skills, motor speed, cognitive abilities, emotional memory, attention and reasoning skills. It is conducted online and reports are calculated in an evidence-based manner. Used worldwide for more than 70 years, CNS Vital Signs Tests include individual and worldwide analysis.
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fourth Edition (WISC-IV):
The Wisc-4 intelligence test, which can be administered to children between the ages of 6 years and 16 years and 11 months, is a clinical measurement and evaluation tool that evaluates children's cognitive characteristics. The norm studies in Turkey were completed in 2013, and it is considered one of the most frequently used psychological test applications proven in terms of reliability and validity. WISC-4 evaluates both the skill levels of children and young people within their age group and their strengths and skills that need to be supported. The application is done individually. The whole test takes an average of 2 hours. However, the test duration may vary depending on the work speed and motivation level of each child.In the WISC-4 assessment, 10 basic subtests are applied to the child. When deemed necessary, 5 additional subtests are administered in accordance with the standards.
The main subtests measure the child's verbal knowledge, verbal expression, perceptual reasoning and organization, social knowledge, short-term auditory memory, attention, concentration, mental processing speed, visual-motor and fine motor coordination skills. The WISC-4 application, through the report prepared, explains in detail how the child performs in the assessed areas, which areas have strengths and which skills should be supported to positively affect academic achievement and school performance.
In addition to the performance, the recommendations section, which is based on a clinical interpretation of the child's developmental history and behaviors observed during the application, includes recommendations and necessary guidance to support the child's intellectual and psychological development, both for parents and the school.
Denver Developmental Screening Test:
It is a developmental screening test applied to children and infants between the ages of 0-6. The skills it measures are fine motor and gross motor, language development, social and self-care skills in children and infants. The Denver II test is a test with validity and reliability that helps to follow, understand and observe the developmental process of the child in certain areas in accordance with his/her age development profile.
Stages of Development
Fine Motor Skills: In children and infants, skills such as holding, grasping, squeezing, hand-eye coordination, problem solving, using objects in the right place and time are skills that show whether they have acquired at a level appropriate to their age profile.
Gross Motor Skills: It shows whether skills such as jumping, walking, running and jumping, which should be acquired in general, are acquired in accordance with children's own age development profile.
Social-Self-Care Skills:< According to its own age profile, it evaluates whether the child is self-sufficient, able to manage his/her own affairs and whether he/she has acquired social communication skills.
Language Skills: It is a skill that measures whether children and infants can hear, hear, understand and use language according to their own developmental characteristics, whether they can produce sounds and words in appropriate periods, and whether they can make regular and age-appropriate sentences.
Implementation: The Denver II test is administered by people who have been trained and certified to administer this test. The test is aimed at measuring developmental steps and lasts between 10 and 15 minutes.
The Denver II test should be considered as a developmental test, not an intelligence test. It is applied to diagnose developmental problems that do not show symptoms in any or more than one developmental step in children and infants, and in cases of developmental retardation. The test can be reapplied 6 months after the test is applied to a child, the test should not be repeated before. During the application, the child and his/her parents or at least one of his/her parents must be present. The Denver II test is used for early detection of children with developmental delays who need special education or for diagnosis in clinical evaluations.
Application Areas
The Denver II test is mostly developmental;
- To diagnose children and infants with developmental delay, risky babies (preterm birth, cord entanglement, low birth weight, multiple pregnancies)
- In the babies of expectant mothers with risky pregnancies (substance abuse, any disease or developmental history, consanguineous marriage)
- In children with learning disabilities in the preschool period to protect seemingly healthy children and infants from possible problems and for follow-up
- Children with difficulties in perception and language use
- If physical development is not progressing in accordance with age development
- If he/she has difficulty in establishing social communication skills in preschool period
- If they have difficulty developing age-appropriate skills, the Denver II test is administered.
MOXO Attention and Hyperactivity Disorder Test:
MOXO, one of the psychological tests, is specially designed by experts for children, adolescents and adults to help in ADHD diagnosis and patient observation processes. The MOXO Test is a short online test that includes visual stimuli, auditory stimuli and both visual and auditory stimuli and related distractors. It measures attention, timing, impulsivity and hyperactivity performances and takes 15 minutes for children and 18 minutes for adolescents and adults. There are no letters or numbers in the administration of the test. There is a target stimulus/image and the person is expected to press the space key as soon as the stimulus appears on the screen. After repeating this throughout the test, a profile is obtained in which they are compared with their age group.
CAS Test (Cognitive Assessment System):
CAS, one of the psychological tests, is referred to in the literature as an aptitude and intelligence test that measures the cognitive skills of children and adolescents. It is applied to children and adolescents between the ages of 5-17. It is used to follow the mental development of individuals, to predict their success and abilities or to detect existing problems. The application time of this psychological test varies from person to person, but it takes approximately 60-75 minutes. The CAS test also measures the areas of planning, attention, simultaneous processing and sequential cognitive processing. Since it evaluates the mental processes of the individual, the CAS test is administered by specialized psychologists, just like other psychological tests.
Metropolitan School Readiness Test (4-6 years):
It is an assessment tool that measures physiological, environmental and cognitive factors in order to determine whether children are ready for school, their adaptation to the rules of school and the learning steps that exist in school. As a result of the test, healthy data is obtained on the level and extent of the child's readiness for school.The most appropriate time to take the test because it measures school readiness is the preschool period because the metropolitan school readiness test evaluates whether the child has passed the steps that also belong to the preschool period such as word comprehension, sentence comprehension, general knowledge, matching, numbers and copying. Since it consists of shapes and pictures, it is a test based on verbal communication with the tester. Therefore, as with other psychological tests, it is important that the person administering this test is an expert and prepares the child for the test and establishes a relationship before starting the test.
Bender-Gestalt Visual-Motor Perception Test 2:
It provides developmental and neuropsychological data on visual and motor coordination at the level of perceptual development of children-adolescents and adults. It is applied from 4 years of age. It is known as a performance test.
Agte Ankara Developmental Screening Inventory:
It is applied to 0-6 years of age to evaluate children developmentally. Agte Ankara Developmental Inventory is conducted together with the parents and the child. The expert who conducts the test may mostly ask questions to the parents and may ask the child to perform some performances himself/herself. Agte is a development test that measures development, not intelligence, and performances are examined in 4 areas. After language cognitive, fine motor, gross motor, social development and self-care skills are measured, the general development level is determined. After it is realized in which developmental area the child is in, the specialist gives suggestions to the family and, if necessary, directs them to the relevant institutions. It is one of the most widely used psychological tests.
Frostig Developmental-Visual Perception Test:
It is one of the psychological tests applied to detect visual perception problems in children aged 4-8 years at an early stage. Children with visual perception problems have difficulties in skills related to academic performance such as reading, writing and arithmetic.
Gesell Developmental Figures Test:
It is considered as a performance assessment test applied to children between the ages of 3-10 and in this context, it measures motor skills, visual perception, visual memory, hand-eye coordination and small muscle skills in children.
Peabody Picture Word Recognition Test:
It is a performance test used to determine the language skills, vocabulary and concept development of children aged 2-12.
Cattel Intelligence Test:
It is applied to individuals between the ages of 6-14. It is a psychological test that measures performance and intelligence level.
S.D Porteus Labyrinths Test:
It is one of the psychological tests used to determine general ability. It can be preferred as an assessment tool especially in impulsive children because it measures special areas of intelligence such as acting cautiously, seeing ahead by acting cautiously, protecting oneself from various obstacles and risks, and it also serves to measure the skill in the behaviors shown in daily behaviors.
What Should I Say When Bringing My Child for an Intelligence Test (WISC-4)?
Before you bring your child to any of the psychological tests, you must inform them. Parents can tell your child that there will be an application of about 2 hours with an expert to get to know their skills, that it is not an exam that is scored like school tests, that information will be obtained on how they learn better and in which areas it would be good for them to be supported.
When are psychological tests not applicable?
There are some situations where psychological testing is not needed. These may include loss of a parent, abuse or some traumatic events. In such cases, it is recommended to refer the child or adolescent to psychotherapy for support without subjecting them to an assessment process.
