Week 5
Parent Interview
ECPSP 774
Spring 2026
Professor: Yenny Montenegro
Agenda
● Evaluation Planning
● Rapport Building
● Gathering a history
● Parent Interview
● Write-ups Guidelines
● Send me the case study questions by the end of the class time 7:30 pm
NASP Domain Alignment
NASP Domain 1: Data-Based
Decision Making
NASP Domain 7: Family, School, and
Community Collaboration
Source: [Link]
standards-adopted/nasp-2020-domains-of-practice
Evaluation Planning
Evaluation Planning
● Clarify the referral question
○ What are potential referral questions that may be
asked in the school setting?
● Clarify the purpose of the evaluation
○ How may an evaluation change depending on the
purpose of the evaluation? For example, what would
an evaluation look like if the purpose is to determine
special education placement versus if the purpose is
to determine what type of school the student should
be placed in?
● Identify potential hypotheses
Evaluation Planning (cont.)
● Ask: test or don’t test
● Design the evaluation
○ Developmental considerations:
■ Consider the developmental stage of the student
● Examples?
■ Consider the developmental processes that may be connected to the student’s current
functioning
● What are some examples of processes that may matter?
● Determine what psychological domains are to be assessed
You are the best tool!!!
Evaluation Planning (cont.)
● Identify potential psychosocial factors
(i.e., the context)
○ What aspects of context could potentially impact
a student’s functioning academically or socially-
emotionally-behaviorally?
○ How is this tied to culturally responsive
practices?
● Determine important logistic issues, like
time and cost
Rapport Building
What is Rapport?
“Rapport refers to the interactions between the assessor and the person being
assessed (client) that promote confidence and cooperation in the assessment
process” (Frick et al., 2020, p. 82)
● It isn’t a static, but rather a process that develops throughout the
assessment.
● With assessment, it involves various stakeholders.
● You can use informed consent as a way to build rapport.
○ Consent vs Assent
Ways to Build Rapport: Student
● Be warm and friendly (this includes greeting
the student appropriately)
● Explain the process so the student knows
what to expect
● Don’t spend too much time on unstructured
tasks and instead jump into the more
structured assessment tasks
● Subtly match the student - posture,
tone/volume, pace, vocabulary, etc.
● Be respectful
● Take some time to get to know the student
and find things you two can connect on (not
too much since there is limited time)
Ways to Build Rapport: Adult Stakeholders
Parents/Guardians
● Respect their views, even if you disagree with them
● Be empathetic - this may be a challenging process for caregivers
● Ask unstructured questions - they are one of the primary experts regarding
their child
Teachers
● Be respectful of their time, effort, and energy
Gathering a History
Purpose
To determine:
Age of onset
Course/prognosis
Degree of impairment
Potential etiology
Family psychiatric history
Previous assessment and treatment/intervention
Contextual Factors to Consider with History
Gathering
Methods to History Gathering
● Clinical Interview
○ Allows a clinician to guide the conversation to fit the needs of the student/family
○ Is more flexible and supports a more thorough exploration of referral concern
● Written
○ Requires strong English language skills
○ Strong psychometric properties (e.g., reliability)
○ Example: BASC-3 Structured Developmental History
Parent Interview
Purpose
To build
rapport
Relevant Legislation
IDEA 2004: informed consent to conduct disability evaluations
● Written informed consent is needed prior to any individualized evaluation; consent
must be knowing, competent, and voluntary
● Limits to confidentiality must be explained
Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA): informed consent and
family’s rights for school records
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA): protect privacy
and security of protected health information in hospitals and healthcare settings - not
the legislation used in schools
Examples of Structured Diagnostic Interviews
● McConaughy, 2013
○ This is what you’ll use for the parent interview for this class. It’s in the e-reserve and in
Appendix 6.1 of the textbook
● Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents–IV (DICA-IV; Reich, 2000; Reich,
Welner, Herjanic, & MHS Staff, 1999)
● NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children—Version IV (NIMH DISC-IV;
Shaffer et al., 2000)
● Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA; Angold & Costello, 2000)
● Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children
(K-SADS; Ambrosini, 2000)
Potential Roadblocks
● Fear about what will happen with the information provided
● Worry about being perceived as ignorant, socially inferior, or a “bad” parent
● Particularly with those who have different backgrounds than you:
○ Concern that you will not understand them or their experiences/values/beliefs
○ Valid distrust with school/mental health personnel due to previous negative experiences
Using PACERS as a Strategy
P - paraphrasing
A - attending
C - clarifying
E - eliciting
R - reflecting
S - summarizing
Let’s practice using PACERS!
Reminder, it stands for:
● P - paraphrasing
● A - attending
● C - clarifying
● E - eliciting
● R - reflecting
● S - summarizing
Don’ts According to McConaughy (2013), p. 127
● Don’t ask too many factual questions that make the interview seem like an
interrogation or fact-finding mission.
● Avoid questions with obvious right answers or desirable responses.
● Don’t ask “why” questions that may seem accusatory to parents.
● Avoid using psychological or educational jargon, especially if it may not be
understood, may seem demeaning, or make you appear to be superior to the
parent
Topic Areas (McConaughy, 2013, p. 128)
Culturally Responsive Interviewing Practices
● Be aware of potential language barriers and seek out an interpreter if
needed - remember that just because they speak English does not mean
they prefer it or have the specific language skills needed for a clinical
interview in English
● Find scales and forms that have been formally translated
○ Examples: ASEBA CBCL/1½–5 and CBCL/6–18
● Be mindful of the type of language you use when asking questions
○ Example: We can’t always assume a student’s caregiver is the parent, that they live in a
home with two caregivers, or that if there are two caregivers, they are a man and a woman
Culturally Responsive Interviewing Practices (cont.)
● Norms, traditions, values, and expectations vary between cultures and it is not
our job to judge them for their cultural norms
● Don’t make assumptions about the family’s norms and culture based on
stereotypes about that culture - the family is the expert in these situations
● Ask about discriminatory experiences as this can impact their engagement in the
evaluation process
Culturally Responsive Interviewing Practices (cont.)
Assume:
● “The parent is equally or more concerned than the practitioner about the
problem or difficulty his or her child is facing.
● The parent desires to be involved in each step of the assessment process.
● The parent has information that is critical for accurate assessment of his or
her child.
● The parent has already worked to address the areas of concern or difficulty
at home or through other resources” (Rhodes et al., 2005, p. 106).
Case Example
Varun is a 6th grade student who has been referred by his teachers for special education evaluation. His
behaviors have been progressively declining throughout the year and various interventions (e.g., social
skills groups with the school psychologist, classroom accommodations such as breaks) have not resulted
in significant improvement in what the teachers are seeing in class. Classroom behaviors include
disrupting the teacher during class, difficulty engaging appropriately with peers, off-task behavior when
having to engage in individual assignments, seemingly sudden mood swings that do not have a known
cause, and out of seat behavior. The teachers report that he is rarely responsive to attempts to redirect
him to behaviors that align with classroom behavioral expectations. While he was passing his classes at
the beginning of the school year, he is now failing most of his classes and has not been engaging in
academic material (e.g., classwork, homework).
What are some potential hypotheses regarding Varun?
What further information do you think you need and how would you go about obtaining this information?
Questions?
Assignment for Next Week
● Administer SDH Parent Interview (one child and one adolescent)
● Administer Semi-Structured Parent Interview (one child and one adolescent)
● Two Write-ups (one child and one adolescent)
● BASC-3 Manual (chapters 1-8)
● Frick et al., chapters 6 and 7
● Q-global Accounts
Write-Up Guidelines
Confidential Psychological Assessment
1. Identifying Information:
○ Name:
○ Date of Testing:
○ Grade:
○ Date of Birth:
○ School:
○ Chronological Age:
○ Examiner:
○ Language(s) Spoken at Home
2. Evaluations Procedures:
○ List all evaluation procedures including recent review of records, interviews, classroom observations, etc
○ Use full name of formal tests and put abbreviations in parenthesis, for example: Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test
(Bender or BVMGT)
3. Reason for Referral
○ Who was referred, to whom and why they were referred
Write-Up Guidelines (cont.)
4. Background information (Information from SDH and Semi-structured Parent
Interview)
○ Medical and Developmental History
○ Language Background
○ Educational History
○ Social Skills/Peer Relationships
○ Family Background
○ Social and Cultural Influences
○ Caregiver’s Concerns
5. Prior Testing Results
Write-Up Guidelines (cont.)
6. Behavioral Observations: Objective data -Describe behaviors
○ Physical Appearance
○ Testing Behavior
■ Testing conditions
■ Reactions to test session
■ Reactions to examiner
■ Attitudes towards self
■ Levels of cooperation
■ Work Habits
■ Activity level
■ Ability to follow directions
■ Goal directedness and frustration tolerance
■ Latency in responses
■ Approach to problem solving
■ Reaction to test items
■ Reaction to failure/success
■ Reaction to praise
■ Any atypical mannerisms, habits
○ Language: Articulation, Expressive and Receptive Skills, Any Atypical Verbalizations
○ Motor Skills: Gross and Fine Motor
Write-Up Guidelines (cont.)
7. Student Interview:
○ Activities and Interests
○ School
○ Friendships and Peer Relations
○ Self-Awareness and Feelings
8. Social-Emotional Skills:
○ Sentence completion Analysis: main themes, attitudes towards self, others, future, school and
family, and personality traits
9. Summary, Conclusions and Implications
10. Appendix
○ Structured Developmental History Form
○ Sentence Completion Transcript