The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Psychoeducational Diagnostic and Intervention Clinic (PEDIC) delivers training, conducts research and provides specific and customised diagnostic assessment, consultations and intervention programmes to children with learning, behavioural and emotional difficulties.
To provide accessible, low cost, and high quality consultative and diagnostic services to the community. To confidentially use assessment for formative and diagnostic purposes and intervention guided by sound educational theory. To provide an on-site setting for practicum training and internships and offer opportunities for skill development by providing training, teaching and supervision to special education instructors and to students and recent graduates from education and psychology programs. It is the mission of the clinic to play a role in advocacy and policy and to conduct educational research in related areas.
A Psychoeducational Assessment uses a combination of interviews, behavioural observations and psychometric instruments to help ascertain the cause of a person’s learning or behavioural challenges. These challenges can be specific to problems such as learning to read, write or doing math. They can also be general in nature, such as problems grasping or remembering academic concepts, and problems focusing (paying attention) or sitting still in the classroom.
At PEDIC, our psychologists are qualified to conduct assessments on children as young as two years old to adults (over 18 years old) of any age.
After you request an assessment, you will be invited to come in for a preliminary intake session with one of our clinical psychologists. This initial interview is done to obtain information on your/your child’s presenting issues, medical, birth, family, social and educational history.
During an intake interview you will meet with one our psychologists to provide background information about yourself/your child. You will be asked about your/your child’s health before and after birth; major injuries or illnesses and your family background. We will ask specific questions about your/your child’s learning or behaviours.
You may also be asked to bring in any medical documents or samples of school work that can help us understand your child better.
An assessment session can last between 2 hours to 6 hours depending on the client. Your psychologist will provide breaks as necessary and will work with your child to ensure that he/she is comfortable during the assessment session.
Approximately 4 to 6 weeks after testing, your psychoeducational assessment report will be completed and ready for collection. You will be invited to come in for a feedback session with your psychologist. He/she will discuss the findings of the assessment, diagnosis and recommendations and present to you the final report.
The report is valid for three (3) years.
Do you know a child who reads slowly, labouring with much effort through the text, yet is quick at solving problems? Are you aware of a child who struggles with spelling or pretends to read text that is not actually on the page? Or perhaps your child has a wide vocabulary but has difficulty pronouncing written words or responding to higher order questions after reading text.
At PEDIC we offer a range of reading assessments that identify the specific aspects of reading that prove to be challenging for the individual child. PEDIC develops reading intervention plans, provides professional development for teachers, models best practice for parents wanting to work with their children and delivers evidence-based reading intervention services for individual learners, small groups and whole classes. Our goal is to enable parents, teachers and students to achieve success as we work with them.
Highly qualified and effective reading specialists work with readers who are challenged with reading proficiently - a complex linguistic achievement. The direct, explicit, systematic instruction that is designed based on the needs of the child is targeted but delivered in ways that your child will come to love reading rather than see it as a chore or hurdle to overcome. Years of delay in achieving reading milestones can see a closing of the gap with a few months of instruction. Our flexible schedule and mode of assessment and instructional delivery will accommodate the preferences of both you and your child.
Many parents spend hours shuffling their children between school, lessons and extra-curricular activities. Our services can efficiently be brought to your doorsteps as we also utilize online technologies to work with your child.
Reading Assessments use standardized instruments to assess specific reading skills such as phonemic awareness, phonics skills, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency. The results of these diagnostic assessments are used to assist with intervention and instruction planning.
PEDIC offers both individualized, in-clinic and in-school group assessments and intervention.
Reading Assessments identify strengths and areas of challenge with respect to a child’s ability to read. Once an Assessment is completed, our Reading Specialist will provide recommendations. PEDIC provides Intervention Services which target underlying challenges in reading.
Reading Assessments can be done on children aged 4 and upwards to adults aged 79.
Yes. It is never too late to get support in reading and writing.
During a Reading Assessment, clients are engaged in tasks and activities related to the processes of reading and writing. After tests are completed, the Reading Specialist reports on the assessment findings and the areas needing to be addressed. Following our assessment of reading (stand alone or packaged with psychoeducational assessments), parents not only get access to the report containing the assessment data, diagnosis of the data, and graphical representations that show the specific dimensions of reading that are personal strengths or challenges for the child, but they also benefit from parent friendly explanations of the type of instruction and resources that would assist their child.
During all assessments (except the Shaywitz dyslexia screener), learners are engaged in tasks and activities (not tests) that are related to the sub skills and processes of reading and writing but in an atmosphere where the child is only required to do their best.
Woodcock Reading Mastery Test Third Edition (WRMT- III)- [ages 4:6 to 79:11]. This assessment offers diagnostic capabilities that allow for very targeted instruction, weighting the performance of the children, adolescents and adults in the different dimensions of reading and how their personal strengths and weaknesses relate to their overall reading abilities and to the individual sub skills that contribute to reading proficiency.
During a Reading Intervention session, our Reading Specialist works with your child to provide individualized instruction for reading that has been designed and tailored to the child’s specific profile of strengths and challenges using best practices. The child’s progress is monitored and assessed at intervals to observe their progress and to further update the individualized instruction plan so that it can be constantly tailored to target alleviating the student’s reading challenges and build their strengths.
Consultations are offered to our clients to provide information, advice and guidance on the nature of learning challenges, to conduct screenings, to provide guidelines about strategies that can likely address the learning and behavioural concerns of the client, and to make appropriate referrals.
After the consultation, the psychologist will decide the best way forward. He/she may make a recommendation for a psychoeducational assessment, reading assessment or psychosocial support. Your psychologist may also make a referral to one of our partner service providers to better aid your child.
PEDIC offers counselling to clients to address social and emotional issues which are impacting on their ability to learn to their fullest potential: such as anger management, stress management, interpersonal skills, resilience. At PEDIC we will work with our clients to identify the barriers to their learning and also provide needed interventions in academic, social, emotional and behavioral areas.
PEDIC’s training programmes are designed to enhance professional practice in the areas of assessment, diagnosis and intervention.
Professional development workshops are offered to educators and special education teachers at both public and private schools. In addition, training opportunities are offered to parents to provide support in caring for a child with cognitive and behavioural challenges, as well as children who face challenges to learning.
Topics covered in past programmes include training on ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Practicum based training and work-based learning opportunities are available to students and graduates of professional psychology and education Masters and PhD programmes who need additional experience and skill development in their specialty areas.
In response to the Covid-19 global pandemic, we at PEDIC have expanded our services to include remote consultations, intervention and diagnostic testing to better serve our clients.
If you are interested in a virtual consultation, intervention or assessment, send us an email at pedic@sta.uwi.edu. Alternatively, you can fill out our Request for Services form.
To be eligible for remote or online sessions, you will first have to fulfill the necessary technological requirements. Some of these are listed in the table below:
|
TECHNOLOGICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR TELEPRACTICE |
|||
|
|
Consultations |
Diagnostic Assessments |
Interventions |
|
Computers with audio and video capability
|
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Stable internet connectivity (No Public WIFI)
|
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
A stationary web camera
|
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
Microphone
|
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Speakers or Headphones
|
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
High-quality video (HD preferred)
|
|
Yes |
|
|
Computer screens used for teleconference assessment are a minimum of 15” measured diagonally |
|
Yes |
|
|
A stand-alone peripheral camera or smartphone to provide a view of your child during testing.
|
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
Private room with good lighting. |
|
Yes |
Yes |
Please see below for a full listing of fees. Kindly note that a 3% charge is added for online payments. All fees are listed in TTD.
|
Service |
Fee (in-person) |
Fee (online)* |
|
Dyslexia Assessment |
$1,500 |
$1,545 |
|
Reading Assessment |
$2,500 |
$2,575 |
|
Psychoeducational Assessment |
$4,000 |
$4,120 |
|
Consultation (1 hour) |
$200 |
$206 |
|
Psychosocial Support Session (1 hour) |
$200 |
$206 |
|
Reading Intervention (1 hour) |
$200 |
$206 |
(i) In-person payments: Payments can be made in-person at The University of the West Indies.
(ii) Online payments: Alternatively, payments can be made online.
*Kindly note that there is a 3% processing charge for online payments (see table above).
For more information on the payment process, email us at pedic@sta.uwi.edu.
Office hours: Monday to Friday, 8am to 4pm
Telephone: (868) 662-2002 ext. 84511/84512; (868) 663-8914
Email: pedic@sta.uwi.edu (for general enquiries and appointments)
PEDICReadingClinic@sta.uwi.edu (for enquiries on reading services and appointments)
Address:
The University of the West Indies - School of Education
Psychoeducational Diagnostic and Intervention Clinic (PEDIC)
Family Development Centre Building
43 St. John Road
St. Augustine
330610
Trinidad and Tobago.
School of Education
UWI St. Augustine
Tel: (868) 662-2002 or 663-1334
ext. 82118
