IQ and Educational Assessment
A thorough educational assessment will help identify why learning might be difficult for your child, identifying their clear pattern of strengths and weaknesses, so that strategies may be implemented immediately to help your child achieve success more easily and reach their potential.
This assessment may identify any of the the following issues that may then be addressed in a range of practical ways, including:
- Problems with memory – verbal or visual
- Problems with concentration and attention
- Problems that may indicate a learning disorder such as dyslexia
- Underlying behavioural or emotional issues that are affecting learning e.g. motivation, anxiety or depression
- Giftedness and the need for additional stimulation to prevent boredom (this is a shorter assessment as it only measures cognitive ability)
At the end of the assessment process you will have a clear comprehensive and practical report with verbal feedback to assist you and the school in providing the best pathway towards your child overcoming the barriers to achieve their full potential.
This is why Attuned Psychology offers these professionally conducted, tailored assessments and why we welcome your questions on 08 8361 7008 or email reception@attunedpsychology.
This step may be one of the most important steps you make towards supporting your child’s cognitive, academic, social and emotional development. It may also be a critical step in solving a mystery that never made sense of why learning in some areas has been extremely difficult.
Adolescents and adults can benefit from an IQ Educational Assessment in Adelaide, too. By using the latest technology and digital format (Q Interactive) for IQ and educational testing using IPads, Attuned Psychology is able to offer IQ testing for giftedness as well as comprehensive educational assessments for adults to determine learning difficulties (also known as learning disabilities) such as dyslexia that may not have been identified as a child.
Educational Assessment for children and adolescents
From pre-kindy to pre-school, school, university and beyond, an IQ or educational assessment can provide invaluable insight into an individual’s learning, which in turn allows you and the kindergarten, school or university to best support your child or adolescent to achieve their full potential.
Educational assessments for children and adolescents measure cognitive ability and academic strengths and weaknesses. The process assists parents and teachers to ensure that learning methods are tailored to a child’s appropriate level, facilitating better understanding and learning.
Sometimes a school psychologist will recommend an educational assessment because they have recognised a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia, dysgraphia or dyscalculia.
And in cases of giftedness, schools will defer to the results from professionally conducted assessments such as the tailored IQ testing conducted by one of our psychologists. Schools will consider these results and recommendations in order to improve their ability to respond to your child’s needs more effectively in the school environment.
However, additionally, as a parent you may also approach us directly to arrange an assessment for your child if you or others (child care centre, kindergarten) have been noticing recurrent issues that are causing ongoing concern.
Educational Assessments for adults
For adults, an assessment may help you answer questions about difficulties experienced at university or in the workplace that may have not ever been identified before. The results and recommendations from these assessments will facilitate accommodations in the university or your work environment to maximise performance and enhance skill development.
When assessed as an adult, you may find that it may finally answer those unanswered questions and help make sense of some of your repetitive problems over time. It may also help resolve why you may have spent your entire life knowing some things seemed harder for you than others. It will also offer new strategies that can be implemented to respond more constructively to issues that arise and help others around you understand you better, while also assisting with confidence, relationships and improving performance in many areas.
More than just learning issues, it’s kids’ behaviour and relationships too
Problems with learning may also affect confidence, social relationships, emotions and behaviour so understanding the underlying nature of your child’s difficulties will allow for resolution of these concerns quickly.
Students with dyslexia or other learning disabilities such as dysgraphia, or students identified as gifted, may all benefit from a professional educational assessment when it produces a clear, outcome-focused report for teaching staff, carers and parents to understand and put into action.
Early recognition is vital so that appropriate educational assistance may be provided. If the child’s learning difficulty is undetected or ignored during the early years of schooling, their experience of failure and frustration is most likely to contribute to secondary problems such as emotional and behavioural problems and poor self esteem and confidence, creating more problems for everyone involved with the child’s learning.
Children and adults with specific learning difficulties are commonly misunderstood and their behaviour may be wrongly labelled as lazy, a reflection of low ability or a problem with motivation. This experience prevents a child or adolescent from enjoying their learning and prevents them from having opportunities for success, something that every parent wants for their child.
This form of assessment will help give you the strategies to help your child overcome any barriers to learning effectively and becoming a confident, self assured child.
Why should my child or adolescent be assessed?
The reasons for seeking an educational assessment are varied but we would recommend making an appointment if your child:
- Is not achieving at the expected level for their age, despite consistent effort
- Can read fluently but has difficulty remembering what they have read
- Achieves well except in one area of learning
- Excels in a particular area of learning
- Appears to avoid schoolwork or homework or develops a dislike for school
- Is achieving at a high level but also seems very bored at school
- Needs an assessment to qualify for early entry to school
At Attuned Psychology, our psychologists conduct comprehensive and tailored educational assessments in order to gather a profile of a child’s abilities, strengths, weaknesses and underlying learning processes using the latest standardised assessment tools mostly in digital format to ensure that children and adolescents
What should we expect will happen in this assessment?
- An initial interview of caregivers (30 mins-1hour in duration) is conducted to gather a picture of the child’s overall development. In the case of working with an adult, this process will be conducted with the adult client who is completing the assessment.
- A formal educational assessment will involve tests of cognitive abilities (IQ testing) and of achievement in a range of learning areas such as verbal and non verbal skills, reading, arithmetic and spelling. This process will take between 1-3 hours depending on the person and the tests that are needed to conduct a comprehensive assessment that is tailored to your needs.
- When important, a brief interview is organised with the child’s teacher or child care worker to better understand the presenting concerns that form the basis for the assessment.
- A comprehensive report is provided, including practical intervention strategies specific to the learning needs, so that caregivers and school can work together to achieve the best outcome for your child.
- When a full educational assessment has been completed, families (in the case of a child/adolescent) or the adult client will receive a feedback session during which the results and the report are discussed and any concerns or questions discussed.
- If therapy is needed as an outcome of the assessment in order to resolve the presenting issues, a referral may be made to one of the Child Psychologists within the team ensuring that your child may have their needs fully met at Attuned Psychology.
- Additionally, the psychologist may be able to conduct the assessments at your child’s school, provided permission is granted from the school and depending on availability.
- Our psychologists are able to talk to or meet with relevant staff to discuss results if required.