My Run-In with Spectrum Psychological Associates
Okay, so here’s the deal with Spectrum Psychological Associates. It wasn’t exactly something I planned, you know? Life just throws stuff at you. My middle kid, let’s call her Lily, started having a really tough time in school last year. Just wasn’t herself. Grades slipping, lots of frustration, teachers were getting concerned. They suggested we maybe look into getting some kind of evaluation, figure out what was going on.
So, I started digging around. Asked some friends, did some searching online. Kept seeing the name Spectrum Psychological Associates pop up. Didn’t know much about them, honestly. Just another name on a list at first. But we needed to do something, right? Couldn’t just let Lily keep struggling.
Making the first move wasn’t easy. Had to psych myself up a bit. Finally picked up the phone and called their office. Spoke to someone at the front desk, explained the situation vaguely. They were polite enough, took down my info, said someone would call back to talk more.
Got a call back a day or two later from one of the psychologists. Asked more detailed questions about Lily, what the school was seeing, what we noticed at home. Seemed pretty thorough. We decided to book an initial consultation. Had to shuffle my work schedule around, which is always a pain, but you do what you gotta do.
The Actual Process
Went down to their office for that first meeting. Place was okay, nothing fancy, but professional looking. Sat down with the psychologist, talked for about an hour. Went over Lily’s whole history, from when she was little up till now. It felt… okay. Like they were actually trying to get the picture.
Then came the actual assessment part for Lily. This took a couple of visits. Here’s what that involved, basically:
- Lily spent time with the psychologist alone.
- They did various tasks – puzzles, answering questions, some drawing stuff, I think.
- They also wanted input from her teacher, so we had forms for the school to fill out.
- We filled out a bunch of questionnaires ourselves about her behavior at home.
Lily said it was okay. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. Said the person was nice, which was the main thing, I guess. Didn’t want her feeling scared or stressed out by it all.
Getting the Results and What Happened Next
After all the testing and questionnaires were done, we had to wait. Felt like forever, but it was probably a few weeks. Then they called us back in for a feedback session. This was just us, the parents, and the psychologist.
They walked us through the report. It was pretty detailed. Pointed out some areas where Lily was having difficulties, gave it a name, which I won’t get into here. But they explained it in plain English, mostly. Talked about her strengths too, which was good to hear. It wasn’t all negative.
The main thing was getting recommendations. Things we could try at home. Strategies for the school. Ideas for support. It felt concrete, like we finally had something to work with instead of just guessing.
So, yeah. That was my experience dealing with Spectrum Psychological Associates. It was a process. Took time, took effort, cost money. But we went looking for answers, and we got some. They seemed to know their stuff, did the evaluation systematically. It gave us a direction, and that’s what we really needed for Lily back then. Didn’t magically fix everything, but it was a necessary step, you know?
