Academic and Cognitive Assessment

Delivery: Combined Face to Face and Telehealth
Cost: $1,650.00

Who is this suitable for:
Children aged 6 to 18 years of age.

Why do an Academic Assessment?
An academic assessment, commonly referred to as an educational assessment, gauges a child's performance across various academic skill domains and compares it with the performance of their peers and age-based milestones.

These assessments assist psychologists in pinpointing a child's strengths and proficiency levels in key academic areas such as reading, writing, mathematics, and written expression.

Academic assessments can help with:

• Identifying learning difficulties
• Cognitive and academic skills
• Memory problems
• Academic assessment help with diagnosing and understanding:
  • Learning disorders such as: dyslexia, dysgraphias, dyscalculia (Dyslexia, dysgraphias, and dyscalculia are all specific learning disorders that affect different aspects of learning, see below for more details).

More about Learning Disorders:

1. Dyslexia is a neurological condition that primarily affects reading and related language-based processing skills. It is often characterised by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.

• • Symptoms: Individuals with dyslexia may struggle with phonological awareness (the ability to recognise and manipulate the sounds of spoken language), decoding words, and reading comprehension. Dyslexia is not related to intelligence; individuals with dyslexia often have average or above-average intelligence.

1. Dysgraphia refers to a specific learning disability that affects writing abilities.

• • Symptoms: Dysgraphia can manifest as difficulties with spelling, poor handwriting, and trouble putting thoughts on paper. Individuals with dysgraphia may struggle with the physical act of writing and organising written language.

1. Dyscalculia is a learning disorder that affects mathematical abilities. It involves difficulties in understanding and manipulating numbers, as well as problems with mathematical reasoning.

• • Symptoms: Individuals with dyscalculia may have challenges with basic arithmetic operations, understanding mathematical concepts, and solving mathematical problems. This is not typically related to a lack of overall intelligence but is a specific difficulty with numerical and mathematical tasks.

It's important to note that these learning disorders can coexist, and individuals may experience a range of challenges across different areas of learning. Early identification and appropriate interventions are crucial for individuals with these learning disorders to help them develop strategies to overcome difficulties and succeed in academic and everyday tasks.

Includes:

• 3 hours of cognitive (academic and IQ) assessments, observations with the child (face to face only)
• Half hour parent interview. Completed on the day of child assessment.
• Access to school reports and school report review
• 1 hour feedback session (offered via Telehealth)
• Comprehensive Diagnostic summary and Report that provides:
  • Recommendations for school support and environmental adaptations
  • Recommendations on how to support your child.
  • Recommendations for contact with a broader health care team if appropriate
  • Recommendations for ongoing therapeutic support

In order to diagnosed Specific Learning Disorder, your child needs to have engaged in targeted intervention for a minimum of six months in that area of difficulty to confirm that despite targeted intervention, minimal to nil gains were made. This is to ensure that your child’s difficulties aren’t a result of environment factors such as poor instruction. Please contact your child’s school and ask for a list of supports that have been put in place to assist with their learning.

Please note, if the assessment suggests your child’s difficulties may better be explained by an intellectual disability, we recommend completing and adaptive assessment. Adaptive tests are dynamic and aim to provide a more accurate measurement of a person's skills or abilities. For children with learning difficulties, adaptive testing can be particularly useful as it allows for a more nuanced evaluation of their strengths and challenges. If further assessment is recommended, this will be discussed with parents/carers and can be added on to the current assessment package.

Add on adaptive tests are $350.00 and can be conducted via Telehealth.

A non-refundable 50% deposit is required to secure a booking. After pay is available. Full payment is due before the initial session.

Note: You may be eligible for a rebate for a cognitive assessment from your private health insurance, contact them to ascertain if that applies to your level of cover.

Prior to your appointments, if relevant, please provide earlier reports by professionals such as a speech therapist, occupational therapist, paediatrician, school counsellor or psychologist to assist with your child’s assessment. Please also include the last 2 school reports. Paperwork to be completed including intake and registration forms will be emailed to you for completion.

If you need further information, our Assessments Manager will be happy to answer your questions. They can be contacted by email at ad***@im***********************.com or call: 0400428593.