Comprehensive Educational & Mental Health Assessment

This assessment is offered by Leanne Cowan, a Clinical Psychologist who specialises in educational testing and has 20+ years of experience doing educational assessments. Children who have an opportunity to have this assessment will be having a complex clinical psychology and educational psychology assessment simultaneously.

All of our psychological assessment begins with an initial session where we discuss your concerns about your child and think together to consider whether formal assessment is required. We offer comprehensive assessments of educational functioning and underlying issues that may be preventing your child from achieving their potential. These assessments include obtaining an understanding of what might be contributing to lack of motivation, challenging behaviour, a lack of confidence, anxiety or low mood and includes assessing for learning difficulties such as Dyslexia as well as differences in thinking and focusing, such as ADHD. This is a thorough assessment and may involve input from parents, liaison with schools and formal testing. Parents are consulted before any information is requested from or shared with third parties.

A comprehensive assessment would identify and offer advice for dealing with emotional and behavioural difficulties, slower academic progress, social problems, relationship challenges, developmental differences, mental health issues, learning difficulties and specific difficulties such as ADHD, Dyslexia or the challenges associated with Autism.

Our psychologists help your child to feel at ease and children and teenagers tend to enjoy the assessments. Upon completion, a full psychological assessment report is compiled with details about your child’s strengths and difficulties, and with suggestions and recommendations for supporting your child to reach their emotional, social and academic potential.

Comprehensive Psychological Assessment includes all of the following:

  • Questionnaires
  • Meeting with Parents only

This is an initial discussion with the psychologist to get a better understanding of your child’s academic, social and emotional strengths and concerns. This will focus on your child’s developmental history and any support they have received. We will also look at school reports and will send you detailed questionnaires to complete before we meet.

  • School Observation

If needed, this is completed prior to meeting with your child. . This is usually suggested where there may be concerns about a child’s concentration or socialising, and observation in a busier environment helps to complete the overall picture of what might be getting in the way of your child’s learning or engagement with others. There is an extra cost if this is required.

  • Cognitive Assessment

This is a formal standardised cognitive assessment. This will provide the psychologist with an understanding of your child’s Verbal Ability; Perceptual Skills, Fluid Reasoning, Working Memory, Attention and Concentration, and Processing Speed. These scores provide the psychologist with a cognitive profile in the areas assessed. This assessment is also called an intelligence test and provides a Full Scale IQ score. The results of this assessment will give you an idea of your child’s learning strengths and challenges, as well as provide an understanding of what is getting in the way of them achieving their potential. Recommendations can then be made on how to support your child to attain the best that they can. Understanding their approach to their schoolwork, their ability to manage their work and their relative strengths and weaknesses are key to providing them with appropriate support and helping to kindle the development of self-confidence.

  • Educational Assessment

A standardised assessment of skills in the classroom including literacy and numeracy.

We are not only interested in the scores that your child obtains, but also how they approach tasks and the effect this has on their attainment.

Assessed areas include:

    • Reading
    • Reading Accuracy
    • Reading Speed
    • Blending Skills
    • Reading Comprehension
    • Spelling
    • Writing Skills
    • Mental Maths
    • Written Maths
  • A diagnosis of dyslexia or other learning or emotional difference, if it is applicable.
  • Emotional Wellbeing Assessment

This assessment of emotional functioning includes obtaining an understanding of the nature of emotional, social or behavioural difficulties that your child may be experiencing. As part of this, we talk to the child or teenager being assessed to get an idea of what they find easy or difficult, their preferred learning styles and their perception of themselves and their strengths as well as a detailed understanding of their emotional and perceived social functioning or difficulties. This part of the assessment provides a greater understanding of factors that may be contributing to uncontrollable emotions or challenging behaviour, and facilitates recommendations and strategies for supporting you and your child.

  • Feedback Meeting with Parents

This is a meeting with parents to discuss the results and recommendations in detail.

  • Comprehensive Report

A detailed report of all the results and specific recommendations for your child, with a view to obtaining appropriate support and strategies to support your child to reach their potential. This report includes details about your child’s strengths and difficulties, strategies for supporting learning and motivation, strategies to manage their emotions and/or behaviour both in and outside the classroom, identification of ADHD, learning difficulties, dyslexia or giftedness, and identifying additional support or special considerations that a student might need in class or for exams.

Please use the contact form to enquire about fees or for further information