After weeks of testing, the report can feel like the most important part - and also the most confusing. It's often 20 to 30 pages long, full of scores and clinical language. Here's what's actually inside, section by section, so you know what to expect before it lands in your inbox.
Why the Report Matters as Much as the Testing
The testing sessions answer Dr. Brinkley's questions. The report answers yours. It's the document you'll hand to a school, a pediatrician, or a therapist, and it needs to stand on its own - clear enough that someone who wasn't in the room understands exactly what was found and what to do about it. A good report is the bridge between a few hours of testing and months or years of decisions about school, therapy, and support.
Identifying Information and Reason for Referral
Every report opens with the basics: name, age, grade, and the date of testing. Right after that comes the reason for referral - a plain statement of why the evaluation happened in the first place. Maybe a teacher flagged reading struggles, a parent noticed social differences at home, or an adult wanted clarity about a lifelong pattern of attention difficulties. This section sets the frame for everything that follows, because the rest of the report is built to answer that specific question.
Background and Developmental History
This section pulls together everything Dr. Brinkley learned from intake forms and the parent or self-report interview: developmental milestones, current functioning across developmental areas, medical history, family history, school history, and any prior evaluations or services. For a young child, this might include when they walked and talked. For an adult, it might include how they did in elementary school or what their first job was like. None of it is filler - patterns from years ago often explain what's showing up in testing now.
Behavioral Observations During Testing
Numbers only tell part of the story, so the report also describes how the person actually behaved across testing sessions: their effort, attention, mood, and how they approached difficult tasks. Did they give up quickly on hard items, or push through? Were they anxious at first and relax over time? These observations help explain whether a low score reflects a real limitation or something situational, like fatigue or nerves on a particular day.
Assessment Results
This is the most detailed section of the report, where we share the actual scores from the tests your child took. But we don't just list numbers and move on. For every test - whether it looked at thinking skills, academic subjects, or behavior - we explain what the scores mean in everyday language. When relevant, we will mention specific behavioral observations for individual tasks as well, to provide more context for what might be an unexpected score.
Test Summary and Discussion
This is where we bring all the pieces of the puzzle together. We look at your child's history, the test scores, and the observations to explain why they might be struggling or succeeding in certain areas. If the results point to a specific diagnosis - like anxiety, ADHD, autism, a learning disability, or something else - we will state that clearly and explain how we reached that conclusion. However, human brains are complex, and sometimes a child's profile doesn't fit neatly into a single medical label. If that is the case, we will explain the nuances of what is going on rather than forcing a label that doesn't fit. Our goal is to give you an accurate, honest, and useful picture of your child.
Recommendations
This is the section schools and therapists turn to first. It translates everything above into action: specific accommodations, therapy referrals, classroom strategies, or follow-up testing if something needs more time to clarify. Recommendations are written to be usable - specific enough that a teacher or treatment provider can act on them without having to call and ask what was meant.
How to Use the Report
A report from Brinkley Psychology can support a request for accommodations through an IEP or 504 plan in Henrico County Public Schools, Chesterfield County Public Schools, Richmond City Schools, or any other division. It can also go to a pediatrician, a speech-language pathologist, or a therapist who's coordinating care. You're not expected to interpret it alone - Dr. Brinkley reviews the findings with you directly before it's finalized, and the office is available afterward if a school or provider has questions about anything in it.
Brinkley Psychology is located at 5006 Monument Avenue in Richmond, VA, near Willow Lawn and St. Mary's Hospital, and works with families across the metro area, including Midlothian, Short Pump, Glen Allen, and Bon Air.
- What Are the Different Types of Psychological Assessments? — an overview of the evaluations we offer
- Common Testing Tools Used in Psychological Evaluations — what's behind the scores in your report
