Clinical Assessment of Child and Adolescent Personality and ...

chapter 16 report writing359In most situations, we recommend thatthe clinician attempt to make his or herreports accessible and useful to all pertinentaudiences so that interested parties do nothave different reports for the same assessmentof the same child. Our discussion willfocus mainly on the expectation that onereport will be made available to parents,teachers, physicians, etc., with the understandingthat certain presentations of resultsand interpretations will be most useful tocertain audiences.Report Writing as Part ofEvidence-Based AssessmentReport writing has not specifically beenaddressed in recent writings on evidencebasedassessment of children. Instead, thediscussion has focused on the use of toolsand methods that are valid and that demonstrateclinical utility (see Mash & Hunsley,2005). We feel that the move towardevidence-based assessment should, andwill, be reflected in the reports that resultfrom psychological assessments.Mash and Hunsley (2005) point out thatevidence-based assessment is not meant toreplace the clinician or the clinician’s judgment.Similarly, the clinician will continue tobe a key figure in assessment reports. That is,it is unlikely and undesirable that reports willbe completely boiler plate endeavors thatdo not allow for flexibility based on the particularassessment approach used, the client’sparticular presenting problems, or the needsof the client and allied professionals.In contrast, not unlike a scientific manuscript,reports from an evidence-basedapproach to assessment can be seen as themeans by which a client’s history and difficultiesare described, results are obtainedand interpreted, and suggestions for future(treatment) approaches to the difficultiesare discussed.The main sections of most psychologicalreports are discussed later in this chapter, butin many ways, they are analogous to sectionsof journal articles in psychology and otherscientific fields. For example, the “ReferralQuestions” section is essentially a statementof the evaluation’s purpose. “BackgroundInformation” in a report is similar to a literaturereview in a research article, whereinthe previously noted issues are mentionedand the current questions or problems arepresented to the audience. The “AssessmentProcedures” or Psychometric Summary providesthe methods used in trying to addressthe referral question(s). The results of thecurrent assessment begin to be addressedfully in the “Behavioral Observations” section.This section provides a context for theassessment results, particularly any testingthat occurred directly with the client. Theanalogy in a scientific manuscript would beinitial analyses that point to any variablesthat need to be controlled or any conditionsthat might call some results into question.Similarly, testing conditions or client factors(e.g., child was sick on the day of testing)could be important information for interpretingassessment results. The “AssessmentResults and Interpretation” sectionsare ideally a mix of what might be found inthe “Results” and “Discussion” sections ofa scientific article. In the report, the clinicianshould not present data with no interpretation,and the clinician should not makeinterpretations without clearly providingthe data on which they were made. Recommendations,which are critical in an assessmentreport, allow the clinician to suggestwhat should be done in the future to addressthe problem. Researchers routinely do thisas well in their published manuscripts.Pointing to consistencies between assessmentreports and scientific manuscripts isan oversimplification of the report writingprocess in some ways. Nevertheless, manyclinicians-in-training are also well-versedin research methodology and writing, andthis analogy may serve to make reportwriting seem less nebulous and daunting.The collection of background information,the scoring of measures, and inter-