Communicating Assessment Results 1

Question 1

Who may be involved in the Communication of results?

Answer 1

• the client,
• parents (if the examinee is a minor)
• other professionals involved with the examinee (i.e., teachers, school administrators, mental health professionals, court officials)
• In cases where clients are mandated for assessment by the court system, you may have to communicate results to the court or court officials.

Question 2

How do a counsler determine who to give the results?

Answer 2

• It is important to clearly state that results are communicated to others only with the explicit permission of the client or guardian.
• In some cases, you will have to determine who is the appropriate person is to receive this information.

Question 3

How to communicate assessment results?

Answer 3

with an oral or written report, whereby counselors communicate assessment results to clients (or other relevant parties) in a comprehensible and useful manner.

Question 4

Why it is important to know how to. communicate assessment results?

Answer 4

• Because assessment results are of direct interest to clients.
• Depending on the reason for assessment, they may be concerned about what the results mean in terms of their academic standing or goals, career decisions, abilities, or emotional problems.
• In some cases, the results of assessment have high stakes associated with them. For example, assessment is required to determine competency to stand trial in forensic settings and for competency to be sentenced to death in capital punishment cases.
• Being able to communicate fair and valid interpretations of test results can be as serious as life and death, or the results can have lasting implications.

Question 5

What is the feedback session?

Answer 5

Counselors and other helping professionals use feedback sessions with clients to orally communicate their assessment results.

Question 6

When feedback session is scheduled?

Answer 6

Feedback scheduled soon after the assessment

Question 7

How to start the feedback session?

Answer 7

• Begin by explain the purpose of assessment
• Be prepared to explain difficult concepts, in a manner that clients can understand
• Counselor may need to talk about:
  1 explain the various sources of test bias that may affect the interpretation of the scores.
  2 Explain for the client that that test data represent just one source of information and are not sufficient for fully assessing an individual’s abilities, skills, or traits.

-After explaining the purpose of the test, counselors should report test results in a manner that clients (and family members) can understand.

Question 8

How to report test results in a manner that clients (and family members) can understand?

Answer 8

o Most people, professionals and laypersons alike, find that percentile ranks can be the easiest types of scores to understand
o When explaining percentile ranks to clients, it is easy for them to see that being #1 is not the best outcome. If you are in the 1st percentile, then that means that out of 100 people, your score is equal to or higher than one score. In other words, your score is probably the lowest out of the 100.
o Some professionals prefer using qualitative descriptions of scores rather than the scores themselves. When appropriate, the standard error of measurement can help to emphasize that the test results are not absolute; results provide approximations of where true scores might fall.

Question 9

What are the Feedback sessions purposes?

Answer 9

o Counselors can review and clarify assessment results
o acquire additional information relevant to the assessment process
o educate the client (and family members, if relevant) about what their results mean
o provide recommendations regarding interventions or educational services.
o A vehicle for establishing good rapport with clients
o To help them understand why treatment is being recommended.

Question 10

What are the Feedback Session Activities?

Answer 10

• Have client discuss personal reactions to and feelings about the test.
• Examine whether test results may be attributable to any cultural factors, such as race, ethnicity, age, gender, language, or disabling conditions.
• Seek additional information from the examinee to explain any discrepancies or inconsistencies that becomes evident.
• Translate the results into language the client can understand.
• Emphasize strengths and objectively discuss weaknesses.
• Allow sufficient time for client to assimilate the results.
• Listen attentively to what the examinee says.
• Observe nonverbal as well as verbal cues.
• Check to see whether the examinee understands the test results.
• Correct any misconceptions.
• Encourage client to further research or study the meaning of the results.
• Provide some alternatives for the test taker to consider, based on the test information.
• Schedule follow-up sessions, if needed, to facilitate understanding, planning, or decision-making.