Comprehensive Evaluations: Case Reports for Psychologists, Diagnosticians, and Special Educators

I'm a school psychologist intern, and try to conduct thorough evaluations and write excellent reports. I was really looking for help with explaining some of the test batteries, such as the CAS, NEPSY, WRAML-2, etc. I saw a preview of this book on Google Books and found a fantastic piece on the BASC-2 Self Report (they explained it so simply, beautifully, and yet were detailed on the important parts). I thought the rest of the book would be this way - but it's really hit and miss. Some parts are great, most other parts are interesting but not that useful to me.The book is a collection of reports done by a variety of examiners, many very well-known. Each have their own style, some I like, some are jargony or just too wordy. Most reports were quite long, and are filled with those daunting WJ-II tables of scores that take up three pages and most readers don't know/need what all that data means anyway. They all organize their reports differently, most do not introduce each individual test but rather integrate everything under "Test Results and Interpretation" with no subheadings. Most of the cases don't follow the Cognitive Ability -> Academics -> Processing -> Social/Emotional format that most school psychologists in California use. I can't find any that have a "Processing" section; many times they assess processing through the WJ-II COG or similar and integrate that into the cognitive findings. This doesn't really work for me, especially since when I'm assessing for a learning disability I want to be very clear that I assessed all processing areas. Besides, it's the format that the district advocates using. The WJ-III COG and ACH batteries are heavily used, along with (and even alongside) the WISC-IV.So I was looking for some great pieces to steal for my reports, but it was really hit or miss if something would work for me (most of the time it didn't). Many are lengthy, the writing is very case-specific and not very template-friendly (not the best practice, but it's necessary for our heavy case loads), and each case is written very differently. There is also no index, so it is hard to search for which cases have the tests that you want to look at!! Time consuming. But don't get me wrong, this is a great resource and I would love to keep it on my shelf, but for fifty bucks it doesn't help me enough and is too time consuming to use.

I recently worked with a student teacher in my K-12 special education classroom. I purchased this book for her along with 4 other books to begin her professional library. I found this resource to be invaluable in my work. With Nancy Mather, you can't go wrong.

I just wish they had an updated version!

great resource, very informative, definitely recommended!!!

Helpful cases for your class but not necessary

GREAT RESOURCES -

Great book!!

As a school psychology Intern working with low incident populations (Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Blind students K-12) I have found the book to be of monumental help. I have had this book for two months now, it remains on my desk for easy reference. It is invaluable to read how the experts in the field interpret results and explain complex cases. Just starting out, I often second-guess my language choices and the clarity of my message. It is wonderful to have a reference in which I can find examples of how experts in the field have learned to explain things in a way that is professional and parent friendly.The reports in this book also provide insight into the test battery selection that other professionals in the field are using. Often when working with low incident populations it is necessary to become creative with assessments to get an accurate picture of a child's current functioning. The book possesses an array of approaches that demonstrates unique assessments. This book also provides a variety of assessment reports from multiple theoretical models, not grounded a one size fits all approach of some other books.Comprehensive Evaluations: Case Reports for Psychologist, Diagnosticians, and Special Educators was well worth the price, and I have since recommended it to all my classmates and colleagues. I wish this book was around when I was first learning to write psychological reports!

I bought it as a resource for a "green" psychometrist that I was training. I found it to be informative and with good examples of how to write the reports (what to consider, wording, etc.). Sattler has more comparisons and more technical information, Ideally, we would have a book that would be a mix of both.