Affirming Report Language – Part 2

In a previous post, I mentioned that a former young adult client was astounded by the difference between his neuro-affirming report and his sister’s more tradition, deficit-based report.  

He shared that both reports came to the same diagnostic conclusion (both siblings are autistic), were the same length, included similar tests, and yet his report felt empowered and hopeful, while hers felt “devastating.”

In talking with him, I learned that there were a few key differences between the two reports, including how I wrote up the tests themselves.

To illustrate what that looked like, it may be helpful to think about this 2nd tip for affirming report writing (for Tip #1 click here):

Tip #2: Talk about the client, not the test

Many of us were taught to describe the scores the client achieved; however, the irony is that these scores mean very little to the client, and those who understand the scores do not need them described in the text of our report.  

In other words, leave the scores in the tables.

Instead, in the narrative of neuro-affirming reports, I think about describing the following:

• How did the client interact with the testing materials?

• What did the client say or do that stood out?

• What made certain tasks easier or harder for the client?

• What does this mean for the client’s daily activities, interactions, or learning?

For example, instead of describing the WISC-V like this:

Kyle scored within the average range on tests of Verbal Abilities, including Vocabulary and Similarities. He scored below the average range on Fluid Reasoning tasks, including Matrices and Figure Weights.

A more affirming – and helpful – description may sound like:

Kyle enjoyed the verbal tasks, showing personal strengths in his vocabulary and ability to find connections between words. He was thoughtful and reflective during these tasks.

He had more difficulty on the Fluid Reasoning tasks, where he had to solve problems using visual information. He shared that there were “too many shapes” on the page to keep track of, and he tended to guess at the answer.

For Kyle, this means he is likely to become overwhelmed when given a lot of information at once and is likely to respond best to one piece at a time.

This second write-up describes what it was like to be in the room with Kyle, points out both his strengths and challenges, and connects it to the real world.

By writing this way, we not only help the family understand the results better, but empower them to take action by changing the way they give Kyle information.

Writing Neuro-Affirming Reports

Of course, “leaving the scores in the table” is just one of many ways we can transform our reports to being more neuro-affirming.

To learn more, join me in this on-demand presentation for practical, research-backed strategies for making your reports more empowering, easy to read, and easy to write.

After this workshop, you’ll walk away with:

• Specific language for writing affirming reports

• Templates for easy-to-read documents

• Tech and analogue strategies for making your report writing more efficient

I hope it’s helpful for your practice!