Aim High: Growing the Motivational Potential of Youth Psychological Assessment

In AIM High, Jacqueline Pei and Lia M. Daniels combine their decades of theoretical and applied expertise to bring motivation theory alongside the practice of psychological assessment. The book highlights the opportunity to stand with children and their support teams to aim high, offering a picture of children and youth that meaningfully considers growth and movement for goal attainment.

The book explores ways in which all participants in the assessment process - including psychologists, caregivers, and allied professionals - share responsibility to build relational systems, seek understanding about the child, and engage in intentional communication. Pei and Daniels highlight ways in which the referral, assessment, and communication processes of assessment may grow through motivational perspectives that recognise the inherent movement of children. These ideas are leveraged to advance professional practices through the AIM Model (Assessment for Intervention and Motivation) a framework on which readers can organise and evaluate their existing experiences of the practice of psychological assessment, while emphasizing the shared understandings necessary to pursue healthy outcomes for all children.

Whether you are just beginning your training to work with children or have been at it for decades, AIM High reveals compelling ideas to help you see the evidence of growth in yourself and the youth with whom you work.

Jacqueline Pei is a professor in the School and Clinical Child Psychology Program and assistant clinical professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Alberta. Lia M. Daniels is a professor of educational psychology at the University of Alberta and a fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association.