Education Assessments

Education Assessments

How can an Education Assessment help my child?

By assessing various areas of mental functioning, education assessments help parents and educators gain insight to a child’s unique learning capacity and academic abilities, allowing them to make informed choices about a child’s ideal learning environment and their individual learning needs.

Parents typically become interested in an education assessment for their child for a couple of different reasons. Perhaps the child’s school has requested an assessment or suggested that there may be issues in a child’s learning ability. Perhaps you’ve noticed that your child is facing challenges in learning which may be due to an undetected cognitive deficit, intellectual difficulty, or expressive language difficulty, just to name a few..

The stage when this is often highlighted is in late primary school or early high school.

What process do we undertake during an education assessment for my child?

• Conduct the assessment
• Provide a written report for the parents
• Conduct a feedback session with parents (parents may choose for this to take place in the school)
• Provide recommendations for the child (both Educational and Social / Emotional / Behavioural)

There are different assessments that can be done. We usually start with an overall cognitive assessment and then conduct an assessment on a variety of areas to look at the strengths and weaknesses within your child’s learning abilities. As a result, we identify the specific areas that children need support in and how parents and teachers can best support them.

In Australia, learning materials are provided to students on an incremental basis. What this means is that if a child misses out on understanding a particular stage of these learning materials for any reason, then it will make the subsequent stages of that topic harder to grasp. The assessment process assists in identifying any areas that a child may not have grasped; the subsequent report then offers recommendations to support in correcting this and enhancing the child’s learning capacity.

Normally, the feedback is provided directly to parents. If parents wish for the school to be more involved, teachers are welcome to join us at our office to facilitate a discussion in the one session. For an additional fee, further feedback can also be provided directly to the school after the parent feedback session has occurred.

Through undertaking an education assessment, you will understand your child’s academic level, the areas of strengths and weaknesses, any areas for improvement and how to best support them to achieve enhanced learning outcomes.

What’s included in an assessment?

A Cognitive Assessment typically includes:

1. 1 x 50 minute initial parent interview to gather some history about your child and their development
2. The assessment process:

• 2 x 50 minute sessions to administer the standardised cognitive (intelligence) test (WPPSI-IV, WISC-V or WAIS-IV)
• A detailed report of findings with behavioural and educational recommendations tailored for your child
• 1 x 50 minute parent feedback session to discuss your child’s assessment and answer any questions

An Achievement Assessment typically includes:

1. 1 x 50 minute initial parent interview to gather some history about your child and their development
2. The assessment process:

• 3 x 50 minute sessions (dependent on how many subtests are administered) to administer the standardised achievement (academic) test (WIAT-III)
• A detailed report of findings with behavioural and educational recommendations tailored for your child
• 1 x 50 minute parent feedback session to discuss your child’s assessment and answer any questions

A Full Educational Assessment typically includes:

1. 1 x 50 minute initial parent interview to gather some history about your child and their development
2. The assessment process:

• 2 x 50 minute sessions to administer the standardised cognitive(intelligence) test (WPPSI-IV or WISC-V)
• 3 x 50 minute sessions (dependent on how many subtests are administered) to administer the standardised achievement (academic) test (WIAT-III)
• A detailed report of findings with behavioural and educational recommendations tailored for your child
• 1 x 50 minute parent feedback session to discuss your child’s assessment and answer any questions

A Vineland Assessment typically includes:

1. The assessment process:

• An email with a questionnaire to fill out
• A brief report based on your assessment
• 1 x 30 minute feedback session where your report is presented (and you can take it home)

What are the different types of assessments?

WPPSI – The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence

The WPPSI is a comprehensive measure of a young child’s intellectual ability. This cognitive assessment involves game-like activities, as well as age-specific subtests.

Test age range: 2.5 – 7 years

WISC-V – The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Australian and New Zealand Standardised, Fifth Edition)

The WISC is an individually administered comprehensive clinical instrument for assessing the cognitive ability/intelligence of children.

Test range: 6 years 0 months through 16 years 11 months.

WIAT-III – The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test

The WIAT is a comprehensive, individually administered test for assessing the achievement of children, adolescents, tertiary students and adults.

Test range: 4 years through 50 years, 11 months

WAIS-IV – The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale

The WAIS is a comprehensive measure of an adult’s intellectual ability that includes a full scale IQ score in addition to index scores that measure different facets of intelligence.

Test age range: 16 – 89 years

WMS – The Wechsler Memory Scale

The WMS is a comprehensive measure of adult memory functioning and assessed both auditory and visual memory. The results of a memory assessment help an individual develop effective strategies to retain information to aid future learning processes. Research into the WMS has found the psychological assessment tool to be valid and reliable. The results from the test can also be used to provide further insight into an individual’s performance on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.

Test age range: 16 – 90 years

The Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales – Third Edition

The Vineland is used to assess individuals aged up to 90 years to measure how adequately they can live independently. It assesses the individual’s skills in specific areas and can help with treatment planning as well as helping to identify developmental delays, cognitive disabilities, autism spectrum disorders and other impairments.

*There is some overlap between ages for clinical judgement; ie suspected ‘giftedness’ or suspected Intellectual Disability.

*The above are all in the new format and latest editions; clients are assessed using IPads.

*There are several other assessments available, should clients require further investigation in a particular area, however these are the most used.