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Our new school resources page has products and resources to help you support your students as they return to learning this fall. If many of your students will be learning virtually, or you won’t be returning to school right away, we have specific solutions to ease assessment during this time—while ensuring your students get the help they need.

  • Step-by-step instructions on how to remotely administer some of our most popular performance-based and cognitive tests to your students via videoconferencing and software or PARiConnect: IGT2, RAIT/TOGRA, and WCST,.
  • Now available! The RIAS-2/RIST-2 Remote allows you to assess your students when you’re apart via your videoconferencing platform along with minimally modified test materials.
  • Visit our Remote Assessment Solutions page for more information on how PAR can help you stay safe and serve your students while you’re social distancing.

 

Learn more by visiting parinc.com/School_Resources.

 

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This week’s blog was written by PAR Project Director Carrie Champ Morera, PsyD, NCSP, LP

Millions of children have experienced some type of trauma including, but not limited to neglect, abuse, natural disasters, death of a parent, and violence. These negative experiences subsequently can alter brain development, contribute to health problems, and impair functioning in multiple areas. We now know through the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) study that the effects of stressful and traumatic events can have immediate and lifelong impacts. Trauma manifests itself in various ways. In the short term, behavioral issues, academic issues, and emotional dysregulation may be observed in the school, community, and home settings as a result of trauma. Years later, substance abuse, cancer, depression, and even heart disease can be linked to childhood trauma. Education, prevention efforts, and strategies to develop resilience in children are needed to break the cycles of abuse, addiction, and disease, which in turn, will lead to more positive outcomes in children and provide them with the opportunity to live emotionally stable and productive lives.

Assessments are like puzzles, and addressing trauma is one of the many pieces needed in a comprehensive evaluation. In the school setting, one would not imagine leaving out academic measures as part of a psychoeducational evaluation. That is the way we need to think about trauma in school and community-based evaluations. As a starting point, we need to address whether the child experienced any type of trauma, how often, and to what extent. We need to intervene if there are immediate safety concerns. We need to uncover what supports, coping skills, and resources the child or adolescent utilizes. Trauma does manifest itself in many ways, and children and adolescents will respond to traumatic experiences differently, some in a more complex manner than their peers. However, if an assessment of trauma is not at least considered in our evaluations, this could lead to misdiagnosis, implementation of inappropriate interventions, and/or treatments that do not address the root cause of the problem. If an assessment of trauma is incorporated in an ethical, safe, and caring manner, we are minimizing the risk of harm and increasing the risk at a chance for positive outcomes in all children we evaluate.


 

Further reading on trauma:

Essentials of Trauma-Informed Assessment and Intervention in School and Community Settings

“Trauma is there, it is happening. We can either chose not to acknowledge it and continue to fall short in meeting needs, or we can acknowledge it is there and figure out how to help. We need to know how to effectively and ethically assess for its presence and then use assessment data to drive intervention planning.”  -coauthor Kirby L. Wycoff, PsyD, EdM, NCSP

The Neuropsychology of Stress and Trauma: How to Develop a Trauma Informed School

The ACES study has unveiled that childhood trauma is much more prevalent than previously thought; therefore, it is imperative that schools are better informed of the cognitive, academic, and social-emotional manifestations of trauma in order to provide appropriate accommodations to help ensure student success."-Steven G. Feifer, DEd


To learn more about what school professionals can do to understand trauma in light of the COVID-19 crisis, visit PAR’s YouTube channel to watch a recorded webinar presented by Terri Sisson, EdS, and Carrie Champ Morera, PsyD, NCSP, LP.

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More than 41 million individuals in the U.S. primarily speak Spanish at home, many of them between the ages of 5 and 17 years. With only a small percentage of psychologists able to administer assessment measures in Spanish, misdiagnosis due to lack of cultural or linguistic awareness is possible. That’s why it’s important to provide practitioners with tools that help Spanish-speaking and bilingual clients and students get the mental health support, monitoring, and treatment they need. 

Six new tests now offer forms in Spanish to help you help your bilingual and Spanish-speaking clients. Scoring sheets remain in English, allowing clinicians who do not speak Spanish to easily score and interpret these instruments.

Learn more about personality with the NEO-FFI-3 Form S Adult Item Booklet , the NEO-PI-3 Reusable Form S Item Booklet, and the NEO-PI-3 Hand-Scorable Answer Sheet.

Evaluate for symptoms of psychopathology with the PAI-A Hand-Scorable Answer Sheet, the PAI-A Softcover Reusable Item Booklet, and the PAS Hand-Scorable Response Form.

Measure depression and anxiety in children and adolescents with the RADS-2 Hand-Scorable Test Booklet and the RCDS-2:SF Test Form.

Prior to testing, make sure to use our updated Language Acculturation Meter form. Now with a scoring sheet, this free resource helps provide a framework for testing to help you choose the most appropriate assessment instrument and interpret test results.  A Spanish version is also available.

We’ve also updated the accompanying Language Acculturation Meter white paper, which now includes an appendix with normative data and a new section describing the normative process.

Visit our Spanish-Language page to learn about the more than 40 products PAR offers in Spanish.

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     We know how important it is to keep your clients, students, and patients safe during these uncertain times. Our two new white papers describe in detail how to administer the IGT2 and the WCST to your clients while staying apart, using the product software and a videoconferencing platform. Available to you completely free, these guidelines allow you to comply with social distancing requirements while continuing to serve those in need.

The IGT2 is a computerized assessment that assists in the evaluation of decision making, while the WCST is used primarily to assess perseveration and abstract thinking. The remote administration guidelines can also be used with the WCST-64These white papers continue our series of resources to help you serve your clients while you’re apart. Our recently released white paper on the RAIT and TOGRA offers similar instructions to help you evaluate intelligence via PARiConnect and a videoconferencing platform.  

  

  

  

  

  

 

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Recently, PAR Project Director Carrie Champ Morera, PsyD, NCSP, LP, interviewed Kirby Wycoff, PsyD, EdM, MPH, NCSP, the coauthor of Essentials of Trauma-Informed Assessment and Intervention in School and Community Settings to learn more about what inspired her to write this book, who would benefit from reading it, why it’s important to assess trauma in schools and community settings, and what she learned while writing it.

Check out the article under the Resources tab on the product page to learn from childhood trauma expert Dr. Wycoff!

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The COVID-19 crisis has changed the world as we know it. On a professional level, social distancing and safer-at-home guidelines mean that many practitioners are now using the internet and other technologies to stay in touch with their patients, clients, and students.

Although they can no longer come into the office, older patients with conditions causing cognitive impairment or dementia still need to be evaluated and monitored. Many of these patients may not be familiar or comfortable with video chatting or other common online tools.

The Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS) can help. In clinical and research use for more than 30 years, the TICS was the first measure developed specifically for remote cognitive assessment. It provides a quick and easy way for clinicians to screen patients and clients for cognitive impairment and has proven itself in hundreds of studies and clinical trials. It has also been translated into several foreign languages and is available for licensing.

“The TICS is meant for remote assessment,” said test coauthor Jason Brandt, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Even if you can’t see the patient in person, you can still get an indication if he or she is having difficulty thinking, remembering, or communicating.”

Consisting of just 11 items, the TICS takes about 10 minutes to administer by telephone. A family member or other proctor is required to be with the examinee to ensure the environment is appropriate for testing. An S-level product, it can be administered by anyone with appropriate training, including nurses and trained research assistants.  Results are reported using a qualitative impairment range and T scores.

With the current constraints of COVID-19, checking up on elderly patients who have or are at risk of having cognitive impairment is essential. “In just minutes,” Brandt said, “the TICS gives you a snapshot of the person’s cognitive functioning and allows you to make more informed clinical decisions.”

Learn more or order.

 

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It’s time for the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) Annual Convention. This year’s event will take place February 18 to 21 in Baltimore and PAR will be there. If you’re going to NASP, please stop by the PAR booth (#413) to visit us. You can see samples of our products, pick up some giveaways, and enter a raffle to win a BRIEF2 or FAR kit!

While you’re at NASP, make sure to attend some of the many presentations being hosted by PAR authors. For a complete listing of sessions, dates, and times, see our author presentation schedule.

Yet another reason to visit the PAR booth—we will be offering special discounts on all purchases made at our booth during NASP. You’ll save 15% on your order plus we’ll include free ground shipping!

We’ll be looking for you in Baltimore! 
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In December 2019, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) updated their recommendations for the screening of autism for the first time since 2007. Here is a brief summary of the new guidelines issued by the AAP.

·       All children should be screened for symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at all visits.

·       Developmental and behavioral screenings should be performed at the 9-month, 18-month, and 30-month visits.

·       Standardized autism-specific screening tests should be performed at 18 and 24 months of age.

One of the primary reasons for the change is that children with ASD can be identified as young as toddlers. As with many conditions, early intervention is crucial and can influence outcomes.

PAR is proud to publish an instrument that can help clinicians adhere to these new guidelines. The PDD Behavior Inventory™ Screening Edition (PDDBI-SV) can be used to screen children at risk for autism spectrum disorder as young as 18 months. It can be administered in 10 minutes or less, letting you know quickly if the child is at risk.

If further evaluation is warranted, PAR’s PDDBI and the PDDBI ASD Decision Tree can also be used with children as young as 18 months of age.

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The National Academy of Neuropsychology is holding their 39th Annual Convention this week in San Diego and PAR will be there!

If you’ll be at the convention, please join Melissa A. Messer, MHS, PAR’s Director of Product Development, for these poster sessions:

Both take place during Poster Session A, 5:30 to 7 p.m., Wed., Nov. 13.

While you’re in San Diego, make sure to stop by the PAR booth (#301) to say hello. We’ll have samples of our latest products and you can enter our raffles to win a free BRIEF2 or ChAMP kit. Plus you can take advantage of our conference discount: all orders placed at the PAR booth during NAN will receive 15% off plus free ground shipping.*

We look forward to seeing you in San Diego!

*This offer cannot be combined with any other promotion, discount, coupon, or special offer. Promotion may not be applied to previously placed orders.

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In order to facilitate research using the NEO Inventories, we are now offering a comprehensive bibliography through Mendeley, a free reference management tool. In addition, a white paper describing this research repository and explaining its creation and use it has been created.

After accessing the Mendeley link, you will be prompted to create an account. Mendeley includes a desktop application and a cloud-based system for ease of use when finding references and citing them within a document. Use of this free resource is encouraged to facilitate research on the topics related to that particular assessment. Individuals who do not wish to create an online account may visit the Resources tab on the product page to view a Word documents of the bibliography.

In addition to the NEO, PAR offers Mendeley bibliographies for many of our products. Links are provided on the white paper.

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