Referral Question:

Samantha, a 15-year-old female adolescent, was referred by her parents for a psychological evaluation. Their main concerns regarding Samantha include the fact that she has been having difficulty focusing and maintaining her attention at home and at school (as reported by teachers), that she is failing her academic course-load, is having difficulty sleeping, is withdrawing from family and friends, appears sad and hopeless more days than not, and does not want to eat. They indicate that she has struggled with attention issues for as long as they can remember and that the other symptoms are more recent, starting around 6 months ago when she transitioned to a new school. They would like clarity on her diagnoses and recommendations for the home and academic settings.

• Identify questions/main areas that you would want answered by the parents and child in the interview process. Would you utilize a structured/unstructuredinterview?
• Identify the test battery that you would complete with this child in an evaluation:
• What types of behaviors might you expect to see during testing with Samantha?
• Provide a preliminary diagnostic impression (will not be graded on right/wrong) with support.
• Identify four recommendations you would make to improve her home/social/emotional functioning and another three recommendations to help improve her functioning in the academic setting.

• Intelligence test
• Achievement test
• Rating scales – who would complete the rating scales?
• Projective test
• Personality test

Please support your choice of test with evidence/reasoning for its use in this case.

Please identify any scales you would expect to be elevated on the rating scales or specific trends you would expect to become apparent on her testing results (e.g., high scores on the hyperactive scale, slow processing speed, anxious themes on a sentence completion test).

APA FORMAT 4 or more pages in-test citations