What is a psychoeducational assessment?
By Aoife McNally (Educational and Developmental Psychologist)
Maybe your child’s teacher, GP or medical specialist has recommended that your young person complete a psychoeducational assessment - but what is a psychoeducational assessment and how can it be helpful? Psychoeducational assessments are usually used to understand why your child may be experiencing challenges at school, although they can also be helpful in identifying intellectual and academic giftedness. They typically consist of a range of assessment tools and tests that, when interpreted altogether, provide us with valuable insight into your child’s cognitive and academic functioning (reading, spelling, writing and maths skills), and allows us to provide targeted recommendations as to how to best support your young person in their learning environment.
Psychoeducational assessments typically include face-to-face assessment of your child’s intellectual ability, phonological processing, literacy and numeracy skills, and/or executive functioning skills. They may also include questionnaire data from parents and teachers to understand more about your young person’s social and emotional wellbeing, and/or attention and organisational skills at home and at school. Results from these assessments are then analysed and interpreted to provide detailed information regarding your child’s unique profile of strengths and developmental needs. Psychoeducational assessments can also assist in diagnosing specific learning disorders, such as dyslexia and dysgraphia, as well as identifying attentional and executive functioning challenges that may be associated with ADHD. They can also help to identify intellectual disability and intellectual giftedness.
At The Kidd Clinic, we provide psychoeducational assessments for young people aged between 6 and 16 years. The face-to-face component of our psychoeducational assessments usually takes about four hours in total, although we typically split this into two 2-hour sessions on two different days and give your child lots of opportunities for breaks during the assessment sessions! All psychoeducational assessments at The Kidd Clinic include a comprehensive written report with tailored and practical strategies to best support your child’s learning and developmental needs. We also offer face-to-face feedback sessions to discuss your child’s results in more detail and to answer any questions you may have following the assessment.
I think my child would benefit from a psychoeducational assessment at The Kidd Clinic - what is the next step?
The first step is to call our Client Care Team or complete the New Client Enquiry form on our website and indicate that you are seeking a psychoeducational assessment for your young person. From there, we will be in touch to provide you with additional information regarding our assessment services and processes. For any other questions or information, please feel welcome to contact our friendly Assessment team via email (assessments@kiddclinic.com.au) or phone (08 6237 7940).
