Accessible Evaluation Reports
Short examples of clear psychological reports that connect academic, language, and behavioral findings with practical support.
STEPS in practice
STEPS addresses Structure, Test results, Examples, Psychological jargon, and Sentences. The examples below apply these writing principles to a fictional school-age child, Maya. Each pair uses the same case information. The excerpts illustrate report writing within a completed evaluation.
1. Bring related findings together
Before: Academic assessment indicated difficulty with word reading and spelling. Language assessment indicated difficulty understanding spoken sentences and explaining ideas. Her teacher reported difficulty following oral directions and completing written work.
Revised: Reading and language: Maya has difficulty reading and spelling words, understanding spoken sentences, and explaining her ideas. Direct assessment and her teacher’s descriptions show how these difficulties affect following directions and completing written work.
Why this works: A meaningful heading brings related findings together while keeping the sources clear.
2. Explain the scores
Before: Word reading PR = 4; spelling PR = 5; listening comprehension PR = 6. Performance was below age expectations across measures.
Revised: Maya’s word reading, spelling, and understanding of spoken information were below expectations for her age. Her word-reading score was at the 4th percentile: about 4 in 100 children in the same-age comparison group scored at or below that level. Spelling was at the 5th percentile and listening comprehension at the 6th. Complete results are provided in the score table.
Why this works: The paragraph states the finding and explains the score’s meaning. A percentile describes a comparison with other children, not the percentage of questions answered correctly.
3. Make the finding concrete
Before: Classroom observation indicated task cessation following lengthy verbal instructions and re-engagement following abbreviated instructions with modeling.
Revised: During class, Maya stopped working after lengthy spoken directions. She resumed when the teacher shortened the directions and demonstrated the task.
Why this works: An observable example makes the difficulty and the helpful adjustment easy to understand.
4. Explain clinical terms
Before: The evaluation supports dyslexia, characterized by difficulty with accurate word recognition, decoding, and spelling, and developmental language disorder, with receptive and expressive language difficulties.
Revised: Maya has dyslexia and developmental language disorder. Dyslexia affects her ability to read words accurately, sound out unfamiliar words, and spell. Her language disorder affects understanding spoken information and expressing her ideas clearly.
Why this works: The diagnoses remain explicit, followed by an explanation of what they mean for this child.
5. Make comparisons easy to follow
Before: On both the broad behavior questionnaire and the ADHD-specific rating scale, the teacher endorsed elevated inattention whereas the parent’s ratings were within the expected range on both measures, indicating that reported attention concerns were more pronounced at school than at home.
Revised: Maya’s teacher reported substantial attention concerns on both the broad behavior questionnaire and the ADHD-specific rating scale. Her parent’s ratings were within the expected range on both measures. Reported attention concerns were more pronounced at school than at home.
Why this works: Shorter sentences make agreement across measures and differences between settings easier to see. Rating scales contribute to the evaluation alongside interviews and observations; they do not establish a diagnosis on their own.
From findings to support
For the fictional case above, a proposed plan could read:
Reading: The reading specialist will provide explicit instruction in decoding and spelling. Brief weekly reading measures and work samples will track progress.
Language: The speech-language pathologist will address understanding spoken information and explaining ideas. The classroom teacher will use shorter directions and demonstrate unfamiliar tasks.
Review: The team and family will review reading progress, language goals, and classroom participation after six weeks. They will check that support was delivered as planned and adjust instruction where progress is insufficient.
Using these examples
Choose a section from a draft report. Can a reader identify the main finding, the evidence supporting it, and the next step? Keep clinical terms that readers need, explain them, and place complete scores in a readable table. Preserve meaningful differences between sources.
Research and source materials
Bejnö, Sonning, Backman, and Klintwall studied STEPS using fictional reports. I discussed the approach in Communiqué with Sheila Desai, PhD, NCSP, Director of Equity and Inclusive Practices at the National Association of School Psychologists. These are new teaching examples, not translations of the Swedish study reports.
The STEPS study found improved readability ratings and immediate recall. My broader meta-analysis supports accessible report writing across educational and clinical settings. The academic and language examples also draw on contemporary assessment guidance; these new excerpts have not themselves been tested in a study.
Training and consultation
Workshops and consultation for professionals and school teams on effective communication, assessment, and interpretation.