The practice of primary health care has expanded beyond the "traditional" medical model. Primary-care physicians and allied professionals are called upon more frequently to address parental concerns about develop mental delays, poor school performance, or behavioral problems. As a result, pediatricians, family practitioners, pediatric nurses, social workers, and speecManguage specialists are faced with the issue of developmental and psychological testing. The degree of the clinician's involvement in testing varies from interpretation of reports to performing screening or assessments. In many cases, the primary health care professional assumes the role of case manager. Unfortunately, cooperation between disciplines often has been lim ited because of poor communication, particularly in regard to develop mental and psychological testing, where acronyms, statistics, and jargon abound. Even professionals from mental health disciplines such as child psychiatrists or psychiatric social workers sometimes are overwhelmed. The purpose of this book, therefore, is to provide the clinician with practical information regarding developmental and psychological testing, thereby making the health care professional an "educated consumer. " This text does not simply describe how psychologists perform testing; rather, it provides information to help clinicians understand what the tests con tain, what their strengths and limitations are, and how they can be incorporated into practice.

Now in a revised and updated fourth edition, this trusted text and professional resource provides a developmental framework for clinical practice. The authors examine how children's trajectories are shaped by transactions among family relationships, brain development, and the social environment. Risk and resilience factors in each of these domains are highlighted. Covering infancy, toddlerhood, the preschool years, and middle childhood, the text explores how children of different ages typically behave, think, and relate to others. Developmentally informed approaches to assessment and intervention are illustrated by vivid case examples. Observation exercises and quick-reference summaries of each developmental stage facilitate learning. New to This Edition *Incorporates a decade's worth of advances in knowledge about attachment, neurodevelopment, developmental psychopathology, intervention science, and more. *Toddler, preschool, and school-age development are each covered in two succinct chapters rather than one, making the book more student friendly. *Updated throughout by new coauthor Michael F. Troy, while retaining Douglas Davies's conceptual lens and engaging style.

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This book aims to help the practitioner derive maximum benefit from the use of individual norm-based tests of mental development. It includes, but also goes beyond, an explanation of the psychometric expertise required to use such tests. Beginning with an exploration of the nature of mental development itself, the author explains how the very presence of the assessor impacts on the assessment process both in terms of perceptual idiosyncrasies and in terms of the effectiveness with which the interpersonal dynamics between child, carer and assessor are managed. This is a holistic guide to skilled observation, accurate interpretation, and effective reporting, which equips the reader to derive accurate conclusions in the best interests of the particular needs of the child under assessment.

Beginning-to-end, step-by-step guidance on how to conduct multi-method psychological assessments from a leader in the field The Second Edition of Conducting Psychological Assessment: A Guide for Practitioners delivers an insightful overview of the overall integrative psychological assessment process. Rather than focus on individual tests, accomplished assessment psychologist, professor, and author A. Jordan Wright offers readers a comprehensive roadmap of how to navigate the multi-method psychological assessment process. This newest edition maintains the indispensable foundational models from the first edition and adds nuance and details from the author’s last ten years of clinical and academic experience. New ways of integrating and reconciling conflicting data are discussed, as are new models of personality functioning. All readers of this book will benefit from: A primer on the overall process of psychological assessment An explanation of how to integrate the data from the administration, scoring, and interpretation phases into a fully conceptualized report Actual case examples and sample assessment cases that span the entire process Perfect for people in training programs in health service psychology, including clinical, counseling, school, and forensic programs, Conducting Psychological Assessment also belongs on the bookshelves of anyone conducting assessments of human functioning.

Social skills are at the core of mental health, so much so that deficits in this area are a criterion of clinical disorders, across both the developmental spectrum and the DSM. The Practitioner’s Guide to Empirically-Based Measures of Social Skills gives clinicians and researchers an authoritative resource reflecting the ever growing interest in social skills assessment and its clinical applications. This one-of-a-kind reference approaches social skills from a social learning perspective, combining conceptual background with practical considerations, and organized for easy access to material relevant to assessment of children, adolescents, and adults. The contributors’ expert guidance covers developmental and diversity issues, and includes suggestions for the full range of assessment methods, so readers can be confident of reliable, valid testing leading to appropriate interventions. Key features of the Guide: An official publication of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Describes empirically-based assessment across the lifespan. Provides in-depth reviews of nearly 100 measures, their administration and scoring, psychometric properties, and references. Highlights specific clinical problems, including substance abuse, aggression, schizophrenia, intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, and social anxiety. Includes at-a-glance summaries of all reviewed measures. Offers full reproduction of more than a dozen measures for children, adolescents, and adults, e.g. the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire and the Teenage Inventory of Social Skills. As social skills assessment and training becomes more crucial to current practice and research, the Practitioner’s Guide to Empirically-Based Measures of Social Skills is a steady resource that clinicians, researchers, and graduate students will want close at hand.