A Framework for School-Based Psychological Evaluations: Utilizing a ‘Trauma Lens’

Abstract

Despite an increased recognition of the prevalence of exposure to traumatic stress in the lives of children, relatively little attention has been devoted to their socioemotional functioning and learning experiences at school. This article identifies a framework for trauma-informed psychological evaluation practices adapted to a school setting to facilitate the development of intervention strategies to account for trauma-related obstacles to learning. Specifically, the goals of the current article include the following: (a) to provide a discussion of critical considerations or roadblocks that create challenges for the assessment of traumatized children at school, (b) to identify several primary functional domains in which children manifest trauma-related difficulties at school, (c) to identify core issues that characterize each functional domain, and (d) to propose a general framework for evaluating these issues.

Keywords:

• trauma
• children
• evaluation
• school
• psychological evaluation
• traumatic stress
• trauma and learning
• assessment
• trauma assessment
• school-based trauma assessment