Comprehensive Diagnostic Evaluation

Our comprehensive diagnostic evaluations provide a thorough understanding of your child’s development, assessing multiple areas to identify strengths and opportunities for growth. This holistic approach helps create personalized recommendations to support your child's ongoing progress.

Thorough and Personalized Evaluations for Your Child’s Development

Understanding your child’s development is crucial for their growth. At The Goldman Center of Chicago, our comprehensive diagnostic evaluations are designed to provide you with a detailed, personalized overview of your child’s unique developmental journey. By assessing a wide range of developmental areas, we ensure a holistic understanding of your child’s strengths and identify opportunities for further growth. This approach helps us create tailored recommendations that support your child’s ongoing development.

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Thorough and Personalized Evaluations for Your Child’s Development

Areas We Assess

Our comprehensive diagnostic evaluations provide a complete understanding of your child’s development by assessing multiple key areas:

Adaptive Behaviors: Evaluating daily living skills such as toothbrushing, dressing, and grooming.
Speech & Language: Assessing both expressive and receptive language, along with social communication skills.
Social Communication & Interactions: Focusing on social and conversational abilities, including turn-taking and appropriate interactions.
Cognition: Understanding how your child processes information, learns, remembers, and functions cognitively.
Emotional Functioning: Assessing your child’s ability to express, regulate, and interpret emotions.
Executive Functioning: Evaluating essential skills like self-regulation, planning, and organization.
Play Skills: Analyzing functional and symbolic play, which are crucial to a child’s overall development.

Our Evaluation Process

Understanding what to expect can make the diagnostic evaluation process smoother for both you and your child. Here’s a step-by-step overview of our thorough and personalized approach:

Parent Intake Meeting

Duration: 1 hour (virtual)

The process begins with a virtual meeting where our psychologist conducts a parent interview. During this session, we gather detailed background information about your child’s development, behaviors, and any concerns. This information helps us tailor the evaluation to your child’s unique needs.

Testing Appointments

Duration: Two sessions, each approximately 2-3 hours

Your child will participate in two one-on-one sessions with our psychologist and psychometrician. These sessions include a variety of developmentally appropriate assessments, such as play-based tasks, paper-and-pencil activities, and questions. For younger children, parents are encouraged to be present during the sessions to offer additional insights and support. For older children, parents typically wait outside to ensure the assessment is conducted in a distraction-free environment, though we will check in with you as needed.

Scoring and Analysis

After the testing sessions, our psychologist will carefully score and analyze the results. This involves reviewing standardized test scores and observational data to create a detailed developmental profile for your child, helping to identify any potential diagnoses.

Feedback Meeting

Duration: 1 hour (virtual)

Two weeks after the final testing session, we will schedule a virtual feedback meeting. During this session, our psychologist will provide a comprehensive overview of the findings, discuss any diagnoses, and offer recommendations for next steps, including referrals for additional services if needed.

The Importance of Parent Involvement

Your role as a parent or caregiver is essential in the evaluation process. For younger children, we actively involve you during the testing sessions to gather your insights into your child’s behavior and development. For older children, we ask parents to wait outside during testing to allow for a focused evaluation, but we will regularly check in with you. This collaborative approach ensures that our evaluations are thorough, accurate, and truly reflective of your child’s unique needs.

Diagnosis and Follow-Up

Once the assessment is complete, we’ll schedule a virtual feedback meeting to discuss the results in detail. Our psychologist will explain the diagnosis, if applicable, and provide clear, actionable recommendations for the next steps. We’ll guide you through potential interventions and connect your family with additional support services like ABA therapy, speech therapy, and more, ensuring your child receives the ongoing care they need to thrive.

Additional Academic Testing

For families seeking additional insight into their child’s academic abilities, we offer an optional Academic Add-On. This supplemental assessment evaluates key academic skills such as reading, writing, and math, providing a detailed understanding of your child’s current academic functioning and potential learning challenges. While this add-on is not typically covered by insurance, many families choose to invest in it for a more comprehensive evaluation of their child’s learning needs. Our team will work with you to determine if this option would be beneficial for your child’s development and educational planning.

Ongoing Support After the Evaluation

Our commitment to your child’s development goes beyond the initial diagnosis. At The Goldman Center of Chicago, we provide personalized recommendations and referrals to ensure your child receives the right interventions and services to support their ongoing growth. We are here to guide you every step of the way, helping you access the resources your child needs to thrive.

Begin Your Child’s Comprehensive Evaluation Journey

Choosing the Goldman Center for your child’s evaluation means partnering with experts who are fully committed to their growth and development. Together, we can uncover your child’s unique strengths and provide the support needed for them to thrive. Contact us today to learn more about our comprehensive services and how we can support your family’s journey.

"Our experience with The Goldman Center was incredibly supportive. They were there for us when we felt most vulnerable, quickly setting up an evaluation for our son when other places had long wait times. The staff treated us with kindness, answered all our questions thoroughly, and made us feel comfortable throughout the diagnosis process. They provided us with excellent resources and therapy programs, leading to great success for our son. We highly recommend The Goldman Center!"

"A friend recommended The Goldman Center to us, and now we recommend them to anyone who suspects their child may be neurodivergent. Getting a proper diagnosis was crucial for us, and we needed a place that was both thorough in testing and could clearly explain how our son's diagnosis specifically affected him. Goldman did exactly that, providing detailed insights and recommending resources tailored to our son's unique needs."

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Expert Evaluations to Continuous Care

Our expert evaluations provide a thorough understanding of your child's development, leading to personalized recommendations for ongoing support. From assessment to continuous care, we’re dedicated to guiding your child's growth every step of the way.