If your child is struggling in school, Rochester Center for Behavioral Medicine may be able to help

If your child is struggling in school, Rochester Center for Behavioral Medicine may be able to help

Recently, Dr. Jill Fortain of the Rochester Center for Behavioral Medicine worked with a teenager who was struggling in school. The girl, then a sophomore in high school, suffered from severe anxiety and depression. She was hiding in bathrooms and frequently avoiding going to school and skipping classes as a way of managing her symptoms.

Dr. Fortain, who has a PhD and a background in school psychology, recommended diagnostic screening to quantify the girl’s symptoms, make an accurate diagnosis and plan a course of treatment. She then referred the teenager for medication management and began working with her in therapy to help her build coping skills.

With help from the girl’s family, Dr. Fortain also did some coaching and advocacy to show her how to request help from her school. She wrote a letter to the school advocating on behalf of her patient, citing the results of the diagnostic screening and making specific recommendations to help the child better cope with life in the classroom.

That’s just one example of how the diagnostic screening and comprehensive evaluation services offered by RCBM can help families and students who struggle with mental health issues, learning disabilities, or other disorders that make it challenging to navigate everyday life and to succeed in school.

Diagnostic screenings help to ensure accurate diagnoses and guide evidence-based treatment planning. For many students with disabilities, that treatment often includes collaboration with school personnel, recommendations for school-based accommodations or supports, and further evaluation to pinpoint the root cause of a child’s challenges at school.

The screenings are completed by highly trained clinicians — known as the "RCBMetrics Team” — and supervised by Dr. Fortain and her colleague, Dr. Ashley Ceresnie, PhD, LP. They run three hours — or two hours for children ages 5-7 — and include a mix of standardized tests completed face-to-face with the examiner, computerized assessments, and rating scales. The child’s parents and teachers are also asked to complete several mental health and behavioral rating scales about the child that are designed to measure and screen for symptoms related to ADHD, anxiety, depression, and mood disorders. Sleep issues, academic skills, behavioral challenges and cognitive issues are also addressed and included in the screening.

They’re an option for any parent who’s worried about their child’s social and emotional well being, behavioral challenges, or difficulties learning.

“I think it’s for any parent that has those concerns,” Dr. Fortain said. “With the screening, it’s really useful for diagnosis, but also for making recommendations – usually for coaching or psychotherapy and for supporting patients in advocating for themselves and collaborating with the schools. The screening is also really helpful in determining if further evaluation is needed.”

Comprehensive psychoeducational evaluations meanwhile, take anywhere from three to 10 hours, and are tailored specifically to the needs of the individual child. More commonly referred to as academic or cognitive evaluations, they’re designed to determine whether a child has a specific learning disability or an intellectual disability/cognitive impairment They may also be necessary when pursuing accommodations in college, and they’re often required to request accommodations on standardized tests, such as the ACT, SAT and GRE.

These evaluations include in-depth assessment of a child’s reading, writing, and math skills, and cognitive processing abilities, such as verbal reasoning, fluid reasoning, processing speed, auditory processing, long- and short-term memory abilities, and adaptive life skills. RCBM also offers Autism Spectrum Disorder evaluations for children who display social-communication impairments and restricted, repetitive or stereotyped behaviors. Dr. Fortain and Dr. Ceresnie complete these comprehensive evaluations.

In the case of the sophomore struggling in class, the school was very receptive to working with her and her family. The school team agreed the child qualified as a student with a disability, based on results of the diagnostic screening, and began implementing a Section 504 plan that included almost all of the accommodations recommended by Dr. Fortain.

Instead of pulling the girl out of school altogether in favor of full-time online schooling, as was once proposed, school officials agreed to temporarily reduce the number of hours she spent in school in favor of more online instruction, with a plan to gradually return to a full school day on-site. She also received several other supports, including extended time on tests and quiet testing environments, opportunities to take breaks to use her coping skills to manage her anxiety and depression, and the ability to speak with a counselor if needed, rather than hiding in the bathroom.

“She actually is now starting her senior year this fall,” Dr. Fortain said. “She is back to the full school day on-site, which is such a significant improvement from where she was at, and is going to graduate with her peers, on time.”

Dr. Fortain says the teen will continue to receive accommodations throughout the year as needed.

“The diagnostic screening, the collaboration with the school team, the student and her family’s hard work, and continued therapy and medication management have worked together well to support this young lady,” Dr. Fortain says.

If you’d like more information about these services, call us at (248) 608-8800.