Educational Assessment

It can be frustrating if your child seems to be struggling in school more than their peers. An educational assessment can help you learn more about why they are having trouble and what you can do to help.

 

Educational assessments, also known as learning assessments, measure a child’s academic skills in reading, oral language, comprehension, mathematics, or spelling. The assessment and testing can identify potential impairments in reading, written expression and/or Mathematics.

  
They can lead to a diagnosis-specific learning disorder, which can help teachers and school counsellors provide an individualised education plan (IEP) for your child.

 

Who benefits from an educational assessment?

 

If any of the following sound familiar to you, your child may benefit from an educational assessment:

 

Academic difficulties – challenges with literacy, numeracy, speech or language, writing, motivation, or a combination. This could also be an inconsistency in academic performance, whether across school subjects or within one subject area.

 

Cognitive challenges – having trouble focusing, remembering, processing, understanding, or following instructions. This could also include social, emotional, or behavioural challenges that interfere with your child’s learning.

 

Unusual psychological behaviour – aggression, self-destruction, or overly oppositional behaviour. This could also be thoughts, beliefs, or behaviours that seem unusual.

 

How educational assessments help

 

An educational assessment can help explain why your child might be struggling academically and can help you better understand their learning needs.

 

If a specific learning disorder is diagnosed, this can lead to special provisions in the classroom that will help your child reach their full academic potential. It can also help teachers and school counsellors create an IEP (Individualised Education Plan) to best meet your child particular academic needs. 

 

What an educational assessment involves

 

As a start, an educational assessment will include an achievement test and (usually) a cognitive test to objectively measure your child’s academic abilities, strengths, and weaknesses in relation to peers of the same age.

 

In addition to the achievement and cognitive tests, the educational psychologist might also want to perform other testing for one or more of the following:

 

• Adapative Skills testing - Vineland or ABAS-3

• Assessment of specific learning disabilities (SpLDs) - Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, etc.

• Behavioural assessment

• ADHD assessment

• Autism assessment.

 

The exact assessments involved will vary based on your child’s particular challenges, needs, age, and ability level.

 

Gold standard educational assessment tools

 

At Dolphin Tribe, our educational and developmental psychologists use the most highly regarded assessment tools available, including:

 

WIAT®-II | Wechsler Individual Achievement Test Second Edition

 

Age: 4 years - 19 years, 11 months

 

Testing the academic skills and achievements of children, adolescents, and teenagers.

 

WISC®-V | Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children® Fifth Edition

 

Testing children’s intellectual ability using the five cognitive domains that impact performance: verbal comprehension, visual spatial, fluid reasoning, working memory, and processing speed.

 

WJ IV | Woodcock-Johnson IV Cognitive Battery - Australasian Adaptation

 

Age: 2-90

 

An intelligence test that can be used for a broad range of ages from young children to elderly individuals.

 

WJ IV Tests of Achievement and WJ IV Tests of Oral Language 

 

Age: 2+

 

Used together, these two tests can help diagnose learning capabilities and difficulties.

 

How Dolphin Tribe can help

 

If you have any concerns about your child’s learning abilities, our educational psychologists can offer a comprehensive assessment to help you figure out what’s going on. Request an educational assessment at our Sydney, NSW clinic today.

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