Additional Considerations for Child Evaluations
For a child evaluation, meet with the parents first and discuss with them what to
share with their child. You may have an opinion, strongly held or not, on whether
you should meet with the child to share findings at all, depending on the child’s age,
interest, and capacity to understand. You can advise the parents, but as the child’s
guardians, they make decisions on the child’s behalf. In most situations, if you meet
with a child to share findings, a parent should be present.
Families can be complicated. Should there be one meeting or two when parents
are divorced and don’t get along? Should stepparents be invited? In a difficult
situation, a single parent may need support from a family member or close friend.
In an intact family, both parents should be in the meeting—even if it has to be held
by conference call—so they can hear the same information about their child. In rare
instances, it might be best to exclude a parent who is mentally ill, abusive, or otherwise likely to use information about the child in a way that could be hurtful