My Child Is Struggling in School: When Should We Consider Psychological Testing?

A guest post by Monarch Learning & Attention Center

When your child starts struggling in school, one of the hardest questions to answer is why. Maybe your child is bright and curious but cannot seem to keep up with reading. Perhaps homework takes hours every night, math facts do not stick, or your child has difficulty remembering instructions and completing assignments independently. Sometimes academic concerns are accompanied by anxiety, frustration, perfectionism, tears, or resistance to school. Parents may hear that their child needs to “try harder,” pay better attention, practice more, or simply mature. Our recent blog post addresses why trying harder can be difficult for neurodivergent students and what works better. 

When a child continues to struggle despite effort and support, it may be time to look more closely at possible underlying factors. This is where psychological or psychoeducational testing can be helpful. A comprehensive evaluation can examine how a child thinks, learns, pays attention, manages information, performs academically, and functions emotionally. The goal is not simply to give a child a diagnosis or label. Instead, testing can help answer an important question: What is getting in the way of my child being able to learn and demonstrate what they know?

Signs It May Be Time to Consider Psychological Testing

There is no single age, grade, or level of academic difficulty that automatically means a child needs an evaluation. Instead, parents can look for patterns. A useful question is:

Are my child's difficulties persistent, significant, or interfering with their ability to learn, function, or make progress? Several signs may suggest that additional assessment could be helpful.

1. Your Child Is Struggling Despite Significant Effort

One of the clearest signs that something deserves further investigation is a mismatch between effort and outcome. Your child may spend hours on homework, study for tests, attend tutoring, or work closely with a parent—and still struggle. You might hear: “I studied, but I still failed.” Or: “I know this when we practice it, but I can't do it at school.”

When the amount of effort required is substantially greater than expected, it is worth asking why. An evaluation can help determine whether attention, memory, processing, academic skill development, or another factor is contributing to the difficulty. Simply telling a child to try harder does not address an underlying learning difference.

2. Your Child Has Persistent Difficulties With Reading, Writing, or Math

Academic concerns are one of the most common reasons families pursue psychoeducational testing.

Reading concerns may include:

• Difficulty connecting letters and sounds

• Trouble decoding unfamiliar words

• Slow or effortful reading

• Avoidance of reading

• Difficulty remembering common words

• Better comprehension when material is read aloud

These patterns may warrant evaluation for a reading-related learning difference, including dyslexia.

Writing concerns may include:

• Difficulty getting ideas onto paper

• Strong verbal ideas but limited written output

• Disorganized writing

• Persistent spelling difficulties

• Significant fatigue with writing

• Handwriting or written-output difficulties

Math concerns may include:

• Difficulty learning basic math facts

• Trouble understanding quantities or number relationships

• Persistent calculation errors

• Difficulty remembering procedures

• Difficulty applying concepts independently

Academic struggles should be investigated rather than automatically attributed to effort or motivation.

3. Your Child Has Difficulty Paying Attention or Completing Tasks

Attention concerns can look very different from child to child.

Some children are visibly distracted. Others appear to be listening but miss important information. Some begin assignments but cannot finish them. Others can focus intensely on preferred activities but struggle with less interesting or more demanding tasks.

Parents and teachers may notice:

• Difficulty following multi-step directions

• Frequently losing materials

• Forgetting assignments

• Difficulty starting tasks

• Frequently shifting between activities

• Careless mistakes

• Difficulty completing work independently

• Needing repeated reminders

• Trouble managing time

These patterns may be associated with ADHD or executive functioning differences.

However, attention difficulties do not automatically mean ADHD. Sleep difficulties, anxiety, depression, learning differences, stress, and other factors can also affect attention. A comprehensive evaluation can help determine whether attention is the primary concern or whether difficulty paying attention is occurring because another aspect of the task is overwhelming.

4. Your Child's Performance Is Very Inconsistent

Some children demonstrate dramatically different abilities from one day to the next.

They may:

• Know material one day and struggle with it the next

• Complete homework successfully with a parent but struggle independently

• Perform well on some tests but poorly on others

• Demonstrate strong verbal reasoning but weak written work

• Understand advanced concepts but struggle with basic tasks

• Perform significantly better when given additional time

Inconsistency can be confusing.

Adults may wonder, “If they can do it sometimes, why can't they do it all the time?”

But variable performance can itself provide important information. Attention, working memory, processing speed, executive functioning, anxiety, fatigue, and task demands can all influence how consistently a child accesses a skill.

An evaluation can help identify these patterns instead of assuming that inconsistency means a child is choosing not to perform.

5. School Is Affecting Your Child's Emotional Well-Being

Academic concerns are not only about grades.

Sometimes the strongest indication that a child needs additional support is what happens emotionally.

Watch for:

• Frequent crying about school

• School avoidance

• Morning anxiety

• Headaches or stomachaches on school days

• Perfectionism

• Fear of making mistakes

• Shutdowns or meltdowns around homework

• Negative self-talk

• Statements such as “I'm stupid” or “I'm bad at school”

• Increasing frustration or irritability

• Loss of interest in previously enjoyable activities

Emotional distress can both result from academic struggles and contribute to them.

For example, a child with an unidentified reading difficulty may begin avoiding reading because it has repeatedly resulted in frustration. Over time, anxiety can develop around reading, making it even harder to engage successfully. In this situation, addressing only the anxiety may not be enough. The underlying academic difficulty also needs to be understood.

6. Your Child Seems Capable of More Than Their Grades Suggest

Parents sometimes describe their child as:

“Very bright, but their grades don't show it.”

Perhaps your child has sophisticated conversations at home, demonstrates advanced knowledge about preferred interests, solves complex problems, or understands material when discussing it—but their schoolwork does not reflect those abilities.

This discrepancy deserves attention.

A child may have strong reasoning abilities while experiencing difficulty with:

• Reading fluency

• Written expression

• Attention

• Processing speed

• Working memory

• Organization

• Task initiation

Understanding strengths is just as important as identifying weaknesses. A child's strengths can become important pathways for learning and can help protect their academic self-confidence.

What Does Psychological or Psychoeducational Testing Examine?

The specific components of an evaluation depend on the child's concerns and the questions being asked.

A psychoeducational evaluation may examine:

Cognitive functioning

This may include reasoning, verbal abilities, working memory, processing speed, and problem-solving.

Academic achievement

Reading, writing, mathematics, and other academic skills may be assessed.

Executive functioning

Assessment may consider planning, organization, task initiation, working memory, flexibility, inhibition, and self-monitoring.

Attention

Evaluation may examine patterns of attention and how they affect functioning across settings.

Social-emotional functioning

Depending on the referral concerns, assessment may explore anxiety, mood, emotional regulation, or behavioral functioning.

Developmental and educational history

Information about development, school experiences, interventions, and previous concerns provides important context for interpreting test results.

At Monarch, we view psychoeducational evaluations as an in-depth exploration intended to identify both areas that are going well and areas that are difficult. Our evaluations are comprehensive because research suggests that nearly 78% of children with ADHD have at least one other area of difference, such as a learning disorder or mental health diagnosis (like anxiety). The goal is not to collect test scores simply for the sake of having them. The goal is to understand the pattern to guide supports

What Can Parents Gain From an Evaluation?

Parents often seek testing because they want an explanation, but the information gained can be much broader. A comprehensive evaluation can help answer questions such as:

• Why is reading so difficult?

• Why does homework take so long?

• Why does my child understand material but struggle to demonstrate it?

• Is ADHD contributing to the academic concerns?

• Could anxiety be affecting school performance?

• Is there a learning difference?

• What are my child's cognitive strengths?

• What types of support are likely to be most effective?

• What should we communicate to the school?

The result should be more than a collection of scores. A useful evaluation provides a clearer picture of how a child learns and where support may be needed. Sometimes an evaluation can also help shed light on support that you as a parent might need. When a child is struggling, parents often focus all of their energy on the child. While this makes sense and is incredibly important, focusing on yourself in these moments can be necessary. Olivia Tomfohrde, therapist and owner of Tomfohrde Therapy and Consulting in Eden Prairie, has a helpful blog post about the importance of parents also gaining support for themselves when their child is struggling. 

You Are Looking for Understanding, Not Just a Label

For many parents, deciding whether to pursue psychological testing comes with mixed emotions. You may worry about labeling your child, wonder whether the concerns are serious enough, or hope that things will improve with maturity. These concerns are understandable. But an evaluation does not create a child's challenges. It provides information about them. And information can be empowering. When parents understand why their child is struggling, they can stop guessing and begin choosing support more intentionally. Children can also begin to understand that difficulty in one area does not define their intelligence, potential, or worth.

There is no perfect moment to seek an evaluation. But if your child is consistently struggling, working much harder than expected, becoming emotionally distressed, or showing a significant mismatch between their abilities and academic performance, it may be worth taking a closer look.

Pay attention not only to grades, but to patterns.

Pay attention to effort.

Pay attention to emotional well-being.

Pay attention when your child says, “I don't know why I can't do this.”

Sometimes that question is the beginning of a much more useful one: “What does my child need in order to learn and succeed?” A comprehensive evaluation can help provide that answer. It can help families understand the factors affecting learning, identify strengths, clarify areas of concern, and develop more targeted supports.

Your child does not need to struggle more before receiving support. Understanding the reason for the struggle is often the first step toward changing the experience.

Monarch Learning & Attention Center is a small team of psychologists specializing in the assessment of differences, like dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, ADHD, and autism. We meet with children (kindergarten and up), adolescents, and adults to help identify strengths, differences, and resiliency beyond a diagnosis. Psychologists at Monarch interact with families and students throughout the evaluation process to allow deeper connections and understanding. Our work is guided by empathy, a deep appreciation of neurodiversity, and excitement about helping individuals understand their unique brains.