The Psychology Digest

Pearson invites passionate clinical professionals and educators to join us on a journey to advance our fields and empower the individuals we serve. By submitting your proposal, you have the unique opportunity to help shape the future of clinical practice and empirical knowledge in Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, Mental Health, Early Childhood, and other focal areas.  Your expertise can make a lasting impact—transforming knowledge into meaningful change for clients and inspiring fellow Occupational Therapists (OTs), Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs), and Psychologists around the world. Become a catalyst for innovation and help drive our community forward! 

Submitted proposals will be considered for inclusion in a variety of Pearson-hosted initiatives, such as upcoming summits, professional development webinars, and other training events. By contributing your insights, you help ensure that our educational content remains relevant and impactful, reaching clinicians and educators in diverse settings and fostering ongoing professional growth.

How CAT-MH^® helped one practice save lives

In the world of behavioural health, every moment counts. When someone reaches out for help, there’s often a narrow window of opportunity—one that can close quickly if the right support isn’t available immediately. For Bernie Dyme, a licensed clinical social worker with over four decades of experience, finding ways to maximise that critical window became essential as his practice grew.

What if the young people involved in community violence were just individuals struggling with untreated mental health conditions?

This question lies at the heart of groundbreaking research that’s changing how we understand and address violence in our communities.

Dr Michael Brook, associate professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, has spent years studying this connection. His work reveals something most people don’t realise: the majority of young people who become involved in community violence have significant histories of trauma, depression, hopelessness, and other mental health conditions that directly increase their risk.

Dr. Lisa Pellegrin, a licensed clinical psychologist in Tennessee, discovered exactly how to make this happen—and it's changing how she delivers care in her private practice.

What if you could spot undiagnosed ADHD in a 40-year-old father who came in for marriage counseling? Dr. Jared Minkel did exactly that—and it changed his patient's life. But first, the backstory...

WAIS®-5 A&NZ and WMS®-5 A&NZ Together to Assess Cognition and Memory

In the poem “The Blind Men and the Elephant,” by John Godfry Saxe, six men set out to learn about an elephant and all six of them have different perceptions based on the different parts of the elephant they experienced and argued their points mightily. “Though each was partly in the right. And all were in the wrong!” Professionals who utilise psychological assessments in their practice are very much in danger of being ‘partially right but in the wrong’ by limiting their testing to a narrow scope of cognitive functioning. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale®, Fifth Edition: Australian and New Zealand Language Standardised Edition (WAIS®-5 A&NZ) and the Wechsler Memory Scale®, Fifth Edition: Australian and New Zealand Language Standardised Edition (WMS®-5 A&NZ) provide clinicians with a battery of tests that sample a range of cognitive functions and have psychometric properties that allow for the integration of test results across batteries for enhanced interpretations.

If you're an occupational or physical therapist, you probably spend a lot of your day thinking, talking, and reading about motor skills. But have you ever come across the term “Fundamental Movement Skills”? Until recently, I hadn't, but it turns out there is a whole body of literature devoted to studying and discussing this construct that is, well, fundamental to children's ability to engage in play, recreation and activities of daily life. Sounds pretty relevant to what we do, right?

There’s a lot happening over here as we develop the new WAIS-5 A&NZ. We wanted to share our latest updates as we get closer to releasing this new assessment. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale®, Fifth Edition: Australian and New Zealand Language Standardised Edition (WAIS®-5 A&NZ) is the most advanced psychometric measure of cognitive abilities and now it can be administered in less time. And that is not all! WAIS-5 A&NZ also features updated norms, expanded clinical utility, and improved user experience.

Check out the latest details on these enhancements, plus learn about five of the new subtests.

The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency™, Third Edition (BOT™-3) is one of the most-anticipated product updates of the year, and we know you’ve got questions! We sat down with the BOT-3 authors, Drs. Brett and Bob Bruininks, to talk about customer- and research-led updates to this widely used motor skills assessment, and all the new features you can expect to see when it releases later this year.

Questions answered by Lancaster University Lecturer, Dr Calum Hartley, and Lancaster University student with ASD, Mollie Lee.