What are Behavioral Assessments?
Hi there. My name’s Dr. Kelly Clark, and today I’d like to talk about behavioral assessments. Within psychoeducational assessment. Psychoeducational assessments are school assessments. They have a, an academic and an IQ portion to them. Today though, I want to talk about the behavioral component. So, if a student comes to you, or rather a teacher comes to you and says that your child is having difficulties in the classroom that they’re concerned about, that’s likely what they’re attributing to some of their behaviors is that they might need behavioral assessment.
So if you’re noticing in, in conjunction with the teacher that your child within the home is also displaying behaviors that are just age inappropriate, they’re above and excessive to what you notice with your other kids or maybe other kids that you know in the community, and the teacher is also coming to you and saying that there’s difficulties that they’re demonstrating that’s above most of the kids, you may need a behavioral assessment.
We assess if it is actually a behavioral problem
So I think a, an interesting question is whether the behavioral part of it is, is because there’s a behavioral problem or there’s an emotional problem. I think as parents, most of us have had that fear go through our mind anytime a, a child tantrums or say they fall down and hurt their knee and they’re crying, what we might consider excessively is we have this fear come up sometimes that, well, if I coddle them, then they’re gonna be somebody that’s gonna be, you know, always complaining as they get older.
And so I’m not talking about those kind of normal fears that most parents hopefully don’t overreact to. You know, that when a kid tantrums my, that my kid is gonna be some kind of behavioral terrorist when they get older, most parents have these concerns. And so at the extreme, I, you know, when I talk about, let’s not let fear overly in incite us to do something like a behavioral assessment when it’s probably fairly typical behavior.
Be supportive of your child’s feeling
The other side, and the other extreme with behavioral assessments is parents will, you know, diminish it or that it’s not a big deal. And my kid is like most people. So one of the, when, when somebody comes to you that’s a teacher or professional, and they’re saying, we notice that your child is above most of the kids in the classroom. As far as behavioral concerns, we might talk about a behavioral assessment. And back to my point about is this an emotional problem or a behavioral problem? So kids that demonstrate behavioral problems, one of the, one of the features that is different from them than say an emotional problem is behavioral problem.
Kids will display lots of emotions
Kids often are disruptive, defiant, argumentative, vindictive. There may be less remorse, say in their behavior than somebody that, that has, you know, typical remorse over something. They don’t say sorry easily. So kids that have a, a true behavioral, what we call disorder, might be highly oppositional anti-authority, they, they almost get energy from, from fighting, and they have that argumentative style to them quite a bit.
So if you’re, you’re noticing that at home and the teachers also noticing that there is just almost this energy about fighting, arguing being spiteful and vindictive, getting back at others holding grudges, conduct problems, rule breaking behaviors, then we might want to consider that there’s a behavioral problem. Also, behavioral problems can be associated with impulsivity and ADHD factors, I’ve, I’ve alluded to that in a different video, but also kids that have, you know, disruptiveness and impulsive difficulties in the classroom could be mediated by something like ADHD.
Kids manifest their emotions differently
So in that case as well, we’d look at a behavioral assessment. Now, when we’re talking about behavioral assessment, also there’s an emotional component. So sometimes kids, unlike adults, will manifest their emotional difficulties in overt aggressive behavior. So unlike adults would typically, when adults have depression, they’re thinking about that My life is not that good, or I am not that good, or my future is not that good.
Those are some of the factors that often contribute to adults with, with depression, and they end up isolating themselves, staying at home with their windows drawn down, not going out, typically ruminate that my life is terrible, I’m terrible, my future is terrible. Well, kids don’t think like that, and not typically like adults. They’re more in the moment. They’re emotions are more immediate, and they don’t have that future oriented type of depressive inclination like adults do.
Some kids express their emotions with aggression
Kids can express their emotions and their sadness and their anxiety more overtly and aggressive behavior. So that’s where it becomes confusing. Does my kid have a behavioral problem or is it an emotional problem that’s manifesting into overt aggressive behaviors. So that’s the other side when we can see that it’s more led by things like sadness, difficulties interacting socially not feeling accepted over worrying, fear of making mistakes, confidence issues, avoidance, not joining group activities, mood dysregulation.
So, and also mood liability, which means their mood changes quickly easily upset. These kind of things could be more related to an emotional difficulty, including things like anxiety. Again, worrying about what others think, fear of making mistakes, constantly fretting about little things. Those are things that can manifest into more behavioral difficulties. But the thing that’s leading it is the emotional difficulty. So when we’re looking at behavioral assessments, we’ll look at is it a true behavioral difficulty? In other words, they’re more anti-authority, more argumentative.
Some kids will fight for attention
They almost seem to get energy out of, out of fighting. And I, I can remember working with lots of kids that are like that. They can be quite challenging. They’re, like I said, they almost get energy out of getting a reaction. I remember one kid who was, you know, was telling me that I was way overweight when typically I’m not somebody that struggles with overweight just to try to, and, you know, used a lot of interesting words to describe me that way to try to provoke me into a reaction.
Some kids are looking for a reaction
So kids that wanna get a reaction, they enjoy the audience for that kind of reactivity and like to argue, fight, and get into trouble, are more kids with the behavioral difficulties, the emotional side. More of those kids that have difficulties with self-esteem, interacting with peers, they worry a lot, have they fret about making mistakes. They have emotional liability, can’t regulate or manage their emotions well. Those are kids that have more s the emotional component of a behavioral assessment.
Younger kids might seem more anxious
So when we’re thinking of younger kids, younger kids tend to manifest emotional difficulties like anxiety and depressive features more overtly so that they can actually argue and be fighting at home. But you’ll notice that it’s more emotional. They’ll, they’ll clearly have regret. They’ll, they’ll say they’re sorry and they’re well connected with you. The kids that are more defiant seem to get energy out of, out of opposing you and breaking rules.
Those are the kids that have less of the depressive features and, and clearly do have more of a behavioral difficulty related to a, again, that anti-authority. That’s an important thing where the anti-authority need to fight and argue almost getting energy out of that is more related to a behavioral difficulty than say it is to an emotional difficulty.
Up to 60% of kids with ADHD have been diagnosed with behavioral disorders as well
So anytime that you might know that if your child has difficulties with attention impulsivity they may have more of a, a proclivity towards irritability, snappish, aggression, fighting argumentative. And that’s where we’re getting more into the behavioral difficulty. Again, leading the charge with emotional difficulties. Where you might see behavioral challenges is that these kids have difficulties managing emotions, managing feelings, expressing themselves, are tending to be more isolated, have difficulties with friendships, are more down on themselves, make negative statements about themselves.
Those are some of the differences. And as we move through into later childhood into, you know, junior high years or into adolescence the kids tend to be more isolated, will pull back when they’re, when the depressive features or the anxiety is higher. So it tends to the people with more emotional difficulties tend to be harder on themselves. Those with more disruptive, aggressive conduct related will be harder on others. So those are some of the distinctions you might wanna look for.
Contact Today!
And if you’re noticing in that the home very difficult to manage, also very difficult for, for you to, to reach in and, and make a connection and you have concerns about that, you may want to consult with the school personnel. See if they see that as well. Or for more information, you may want to reach out to myself at drkellyclark.com. Thank you for your time. I’m Dr. Kelly Clark.
