Understanding Your Child’s Evaluation Report: A Parent’s Decoder

Evaluation reports are often 20–40 pages of tables, acronyms, and standard scores. Even well-educated parents leave feedback meetings unsure what they just read. This decoder covers the parts that matter most.

Standard Scores and Percentiles

Most subtest scores are reported as either a standard score (mean 100, standard deviation 15) or a percentile (your child compared to peers). A standard score of 100 is exactly average. 85–115 is within normal range. Below 85 is below average; above 115 is above average.

The Cognitive Profile

This section typically reports subscores — verbal comprehension, visual-spatial reasoning, fluid reasoning, working memory, processing speed. Uneven profiles (high on some, low on others) are diagnostically meaningful. A very strong verbal score combined with a low processing speed, for example, often shows up in kids with attention or learning differences.

Academic Achievement

This compares your child's actual academic performance to their cognitive potential. A gap between the two is one of the markers used for diagnosing learning disabilities.

Executive Functioning and Attention

This section uses rating scales, performance tasks, or both to measure focus, impulse control, working memory, and organization. Elevated scores (clinically significant) here are a flag for ADHD or related executive challenges.

The Diagnoses Section

Any formal diagnoses — learning disability, ADHD, anxiety, etc. — appear here with the rationale. If there are no formal diagnoses, the report will often still describe a pattern of strengths and challenges.

The Recommendations Section

This is the most actionable part of the report for parents. It specifies accommodations (extended time, preferential seating, etc.), interventions (structured literacy, executive functioning coaching), and referrals. At Fort Lee Psych, we walk through this section line by line in the feedback meeting.