Assessment in Counseling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Assessment in Counseling - Essay ExampleAssessment being an integrated assortment of info gathered from both informal and formal interactions with the client by the counselor provides a more holistic insight into the problems of the client (Juhnke, 1995, p. 2). The assessing process is found to let when the counselor starts to see a clear picture of the outcomes a client expects from counselling (Hiebert, 1996). The assessing process should focus on client learning outcomes as considerably as client impact outcomes (Hiebert, 1996). It can be seen that client learning outcomes are easy to realize while impact outcomes may remain rocky to attain yet (Hiebert, 1996). This is shown in the below given example School counsellors can feel confident about teaching children conflict resolution procedures or anger management skills (which are learning outcomes), but they may be less successful in making a child less self-asserting (which is an impact outcome), because they cannot have suf ficient impact to counteract the effects of contextual factors such as family violence and many years of practice using infringement to resolve conflict (Hiebert, 1996). When a counselor tries to bring about both these outcomes through estimate, the opinion techniques are used in harmony with each separate so that it becomes a continuous process, throughout treatment (Juhnke, 1995, p.2). ... circumstances and the range of client learning outcomes make it unlikely that appropriate standardized assessments could be unquestionable (Hiebert, 1996). Informal assessment techniques comprise of informal, yet systematic, procedures for documenting the evidence that client progress has been made (Hiebert, 1996). Some informal assessment techniques are, goal attainment scaling, checklists, self-monitoring, thought listing, intellect mapping, life line, role play, and photograph safari (Hiebert, 1996 Juhnke, 1995). Here, the process of assessment itself is viewed as part of the change pro cess that happens in the client ((Juhnke, 1995, p.2). The five major uses of assessment according to Wall (n.d) have been selection and placement, diagnosis, accountability and evaluation, identifying trends or progress (and) self discovery (p.69). Wall (n.d) has also listed the advantages of using assessment, namely, objectivity, cost effectiveness and justice (p.71-72). Two situations in which I would use formal assessment While dealing with children with language disabilities, I may use developmental screening system (Gullo, 2005, p.45). Gullo (2005) has described developmental screening tests as norm-referenced assessment instruments that allow one to compare an individual childs score with those of other children of similar chronological age (p.45). These tests will also enable me to gauge the visual-motor and adaptive skills of these children and design special learning packages for them. I can use another formal assessment method, diagnostic tests, while handling children w ith dyslexia. The purpose of such a test is that we identify and measure the existence of a disability or specific arena of academic weakness in a child (Gullo, 2005, p.46). I will