PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT
In-Person & Online Testing

Drs. Alison Cook and Kristie Craigen have worked in private practice in Hong Kong for more than a decade. During that time they've administered literally thousands of assessments to students attending dozens of different international schools. Recently, Amber Foster and Neveda Wagenaar have joined them to enhance their existing service with their own unique set of educational and clinical skills.

The  psychoeducational assessment process is a fairly standard testing protocol employed by clinical and educational psychologists worldwide to accurately identify the underlying causes of presenting issues/symptoms and then serve as a roadmap for treatment planning and the development of targeted behavioural, emotional, social, and/or academic interventions. The findings of this confidential, yet somewhat technical report will then be shared and explained during a debrief with parents. Of course, teachers can be included in the debrief session at the discretion of parents.

At Cook & Craigen Assessments we:

• Identify a child’s strengths as well as challenges

• Adopt a holistic approach -- to examine each child's cognitive, academic and socio-emotional functioning

• Involve teachers as well as parents to get a full picture of the child across home, school and social settings

• Use a wide range of up-to-date, accurate, standardised assessment tools

• Produce a comprehensive written report that is recognised by health professionals, schools and examination boards worldwide 

• Support your family and help educators understand their student’s challenges in order to get them the assistance they most need

We also offer shorter assessments to: 

• Highlight a child’s progress following a previous psychoeducational assessment and interventions, and update data on current functioning

• Support application for exam accommodations/access arrangements for those already carrying a diagnosis

• Provide information for boarding school applications

• Identify an individual’s ‘IQ’ 

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Online Assessments

Cook & Craigen Assessments developed a "mobile assessment" service whereby they would routinely travel to geographically remote and/or underserved regions to undertake psychoeducational and psychological testing for students with a variety of academic, socio-emotional, and/or behavioural challenges. However, travel restrictions as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic created a need to find an alternative to in-person testing. Subsequently, Cook & Craigen Assessment Services has been successfully conducting online assessments in overseas regions including China, India, Laos, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam for almost two years now.  

Cook & Craigen online protocol is dependent on having a proctor onsite with the student. Similar methods have been in longstanding use in the U.S. for providing psyched assessments in poorly served remote regions. Fortunately, due to the global pandemic psychological test publishers have agreed to the use of their materials for online assessment purposes, and both the American Psychological Association/British Psychological Society have issued guidelines to ensure correct protocols for "telepractice" are followed. Even more encouragingly, research data suggest comparable efficacy of online and in-person assessments, and interestingly, college boards have approved the use of online assessments for determining eligibility for student accommodations. 

Cook & Craigen will start each Online Assessment by conducting a 30-minute virtual clinical interview with parents/guardian. Parents can also elect for their child’s teacher(s) to participate in an additional 30-minute virtual clinical interview. Students are tested individually in a quiet, distraction-free and confidential environment (either at home or school) monitored by an onsite invigilator. The invigilator will assist the student to join the virtual testing session with Cook & Craigen Examiners, provide all the appropriate testing materials and questionnaires, as well as monitor student performance to ensure time constraints are adhered to and test items are completed by the student, without the assistance of a third party or information found online. Students view the test stimuli on their screen and their responses will be either given verbally to the examiners or written on the response booklets provided by the invigilator.

Continuously viewing the student’s webcam over the course of the virtual session will allow examiners to observe students as they complete their responses. All ability and achievement tests are licensed from publishers. Once the assessment is complete, the onsite invigilator collects all testing materials. Response booklets are then sent on to Cook & Craigen headquarters in Hong Kong for scoring, interpretation and report generation. 

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