Teaching Psychological Report Writing

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss the process of teaching graduate students in school psychology to write psychological reports that teachers and parents find readable and that guide intervention. The consensus from studies across four decades of research is that effective psychological reports connect to the client’s context; have clear links between the referral questions and the answers to these questions; have integrated interpretations; address client strengths and problem areas; have specific, concrete, and feasible recommendations; and are adapted to the language and literacy level of the reader. The Hayes and Flower model of the writing process is the conceptual framework used to describe the process of teaching report writing. This involves a constructivist approach to supervision and the use of specific strategies that may be effective in teaching graduate students to formulate the case, adapt their writing to the language and literacy level of the reader, set goals, and generate and organize the text.