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The MindWell Assessment: Diagnosis and Action Plan
Extremely comprehensive, yet accessible and realistic. Across the Dc metro area, the MindWell Assessment is regarded as “the gold standard” for educational, behavioral, developmental and emotional testing. Instead of a few pages of boilerplate, you receive a completely custom report – often over 20 pages – that identifies and explains exactly what is going on. In addition to diagnosing the issues and what’s causing them, the report also identifies the specific individual strengths and most realistic strategies that can be used to address the problem.
An excellent value. There is no comparison between the MindWell Assessment and template-driven “Scantron”-type testing done by technicians. Instead, our approach is holistic, based on today’s best assessment tools and practices, and conducted by doctoral-level clinicians who have years of experience and stay up-to-date with the latest research. This helps make sure key factors are not overlooked so that you can be confident in putting the interventions in place — before the school year is lost or further damage is done to self-esteem or relationships.
The short video on this page explains our approach to testing.
Read what our clients have said over the last ten years!
COVID-19 Precautions
We are following all CDC guidelines and requiring both the clinician and client to wear a face mask while testing. We also are taking temperature checks at the beginning of each session. We have installed touchless trashcans and soap dispensers and have hand sanitizer in all the rooms. We are wiping down all testing materials, door knobs, and keyboards before and after each use. We have UV lights which help disinfect the offices and also have installed air purifiers in each office. Testers will take breaks with their clients to wash hands.
Below is one parent’s journey from unanswered questions to success for her son
Our journey to the doorstep of Mindwell felt like a long road with many confusing turns. The first documented time we felt concern about our son’s academic performance was in his pre-K program. Two months shy of his fifth birthday, he could only identify four letters despite multiple years of preschool and lots of exposure at home. He was tested by an early learning team in the county we resided. They found him to have average intelligence and felt there wasn’t a problem. Halfway through Kindergarten he could finally name all of the letters and we began struggling through early reading tasks. His first grade teacher felt that his slow progress was because he was a boy. His second grade teacher thought there might be something more going on and recommended he be tested by the school. The school also found him to be of average intelligence and he did not meet the criteria for special education even though many of his phonics and spelling scores were severely low.
Finally in third grade, he was two grade levels behind in reading on his initial reading inventory. He was able to get Leveled Literacy Intervention all year. However, he still did not make it to grade level scores by the end of the year. Was the intervention enough? He started fourth grade, and we held our breath. By mid-year, we knew that he was still struggling and the coping mechanisms he had developed to get by were breaking down as the material was more intense. We suspected dyslexia and began using an Orton Gillingham tutor three times a week before school at home choosing to use our resources on services versus testing. However, three months into this process, we needed concrete answers about what was happening in his brain that impacted his learning.
Three testing sessions later with Mindwell, we had answers: Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and poor working memory. Finally knowing the answer to the puzzle was the biggest relief for him and our family. We had a diagnosis we could work towards treating. Our son received affirmation that it was not his fault that everything felt so hard at school.
We continued with our tutor until we moved. We have continued Orton Gillingham tutoring at home two to three times per week through course work I’ve taken. In addition, the school he attends now pulls him out of class for the Wilson Program. He has worked so hard in the year since his diagnosis.
We really began to see the results of the tutoring about ten months in when he began to read books faster and more and on his own without prompting. The Friday night he came home from school and I found him curled up on the couch with a book will forever be one of my favorite memories. Now it is a common sight in our house or on long car drives. He is making up for lots of lost years!
We took this picture of him on his one year anniversary of Orton Gillingham tutoring to celebrate how many books he had read over the last several months. Not pictured are about another ten books from the school library!
Our hope is that more schools, teachers, and professionals will begin to recognize dyslexia earlier. We are so thankful to Mindwell for being thorough and addressing gaps of information other testing had not caught. Tutoring feels arduous and slow at times, but the big picture success is huge. We know that our son will have the tools he needs to succeed.
– A.C., 03-12-2019