Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment How long, typically, from testing to report?

Wisc IV and Connors were done as preliminary tests on July 19-20.

We start back to school in 1 week+, and she had wanted to possibly do more testing as a result of some things that came up during the first tests.

I am now nervous and worried, because no word yet has come from the PhD psychologist who performed testing, on either the initial test results, a new appt to meet her again to discuss those, or re-testing.

She said a complete report, plus follow up visit would arrive in time for us to go over it before school began; so I sent a brief email requesting an appointment time for that.

The response was that she would reply when the reports were ready.

Is it normal for this to take this long? Or even longer?

July 20 to today is almost 1 month.

In New Zealand it can take six weeks. I don't know why though.

Ours took 6 agonizing weeks too. I think writing the report is the hard part for the diagnostician and you want them to take their time and be thoughtful about the conclusions they are drawing so I guess it's good that they don't rush it too much.

I don't think you are out of line reminding her that school is about to start

Ours took about 1-2 weeks, but I don't know what would be typical. I've read reports here ranging up to many months to get testing results, but IIRC those were from testing by a school psychologist.

I think that no matter what's typical, I would be frustrated too. I think what's most likely happened is that your tester put your report on the back burner, and is most likely working on it now. I would be politely persistent, remind her of her prior promises and the possible need for further testing, and ask her for an appointment at least 4 days in advance of starting back to school. There's no reason she can't get a report done in several days, after letting it go for so long.

With regard to the follow-up testing, it doesn't seem like you will get the results by the first day of school no matter what you do, even if you go elsewhere for further testing. If you commit to further testing with this psychologist you may want to get her to commit to a date when the results will be ready, stressing that time is of the essence because school will already be underway.

It took us 6 weeks to get the comprehensive report with all the touch ups etc in the mail, however they went over the results at the post test conference the 2nd day of testing and gave us a prelim. report. Did they not go over the results with you, just left you hanging? That would drive me crazy...( crazier than I already am ) wondering for that long! I would call and explain that it was stated a meeting would be set up to discuss it all before school started, and that the tester is running out of time quickly, and you would like a date selected in the time remaining before school starts for obvious reasons.
I wouldn't continue with email reminders, they are impersonal and people on the other end can get away with just giving "back burner " answers because you cannot reply right at the time.

Usually 1-2 months, but I have had it take 6 months.

we addressed the need for the report quickly and he said he'd have it before school - but yet to be seen.

I also requested the scores w/o report as I can have everyone here help me understand them!

Being a part of the mental health community, I would say her curt response was unprofessional. I would suggest calling back using the "I understand how busy you are but we have a meeting next week to review the results..." approach.

Perhaps she can give you the scores before she's written the whole report?

i had mine in a week from one in a month from the other. is your tester very busy? the one that delivered the goods quickly was private and cost 3x the other.

She's a private psychologist (PhD) who specializes in pediatric psychometric testing, and sees patients out of her one-person office. She sees mostly kids from two international schools in our area.

Most of those students go to the private community health clinic where multiple doctors of many kinds see international patients on a regular basis for all sorts of things. We chose to go private for this to get an appointment sooner, and to get access to the info faster, as we were told might be possible.

I didn't see this reply as curt; just not very helpful to me.

This is a typical sort of response for teachers, doctors and most other professionals here. No nice bedside manner, smiles or thorough explanations. It's just how they do things, and I generally ignore that sort of thing now.

I don't know anything concrete; I posted the WISC IV scores (I only have what I guess are called the composites) under the Twice Exceptional section a few days ago. VCI: 144, PRI: 136, PSI: 88, WMI: 89. No idea of the subtest scores yet.

I suspect he may be gifted; I think she thinks he may be, too and also that he may have something like dysgraphia and need an OT consult for that. He may have ADD, like his previous teacher suspected and wanted us to evaluate for. No real idea yet.

I would like to have the report before school starts, at least, even if we can't get back in to see her and hear her sum it up for us in person. She said she does this summing up at the end of every evaluation--but only AFTER the report is complete and we have a chance to see it.

I am in the same boat as you. I have a meeting with the school tomorrow and nothing in hand yet. The school tested him in June, and I just got the report in hand today from them. We had him tested through a University two weeks ago. They called with partial results, but I am still not so patiently waiting for the full written report. They said I would have it through yesterday, but I still have nothing in hand. As long as I have it tomorrow I will be happy.

Edit; It came through about an hour ago. OP I hope you get yours very very soon!