Bespoke Clinical Psychology Assessment
I offer comprehensive psychological assessments, which involve a range of standardised and non-standardised assessment tools, observation, and detailed interviews with parents and caregivers.
Where indicated, information is also sought from schools through a questionnaire/consultation with your child’s teacher, or a school observation.
This leads to a Psychological report, including recommendations for home, school, and ongoing therapeutic support.
Assessment areas may include:
- Your child’s strengths and interests
- Discussion of their early developmental history, family circumstances, educational history, physical health, and emotional/behavioural difficulties (e.g. anxiety, low mood, emotion regulation issues, and trauma)
- Specific neurodevelopmental differences e.g. memory, attention, organisational skills, social communication
- A review of reports from other professionals, to incorporate their conclusions into the assessment
- Screening for difficulties with reading, writing, numeracy, language, and motor skills
(Note: I do not diagnose specific learning difficulties or motor problems such as Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, or Dyspraxia, which are best assessed by an Educational Psychologist or Occupational Therapist. I am able to signpost towards colleagues who can assist in these areas).
Assessment methods may include:
- Cognitive assessment (using an assessment called the WISC-V)
- Mental health (using tools such as the DAWBA or BASC-3)
- Educational attainment (e.g. using an assessment such as the WRAT-5)
- Adaptive functioning (using measures such as the ABAS-3 or Vineland-3)
- Executive functioning (using assessments such as the BRIEF or D-KEFS)
- Parent-child relationships (e.g. using the Marschak Interaction Method, or MIM)
- Paper and pencil tasks to explore your child’s emotions, school, and home life
To arrange a brief 20 minute call to discuss your needs, please contact me by email in the first instance:
Frequently Asked Questions
Cognitive assessment
What is a cognitive assessment?
A cognitive assessment provides an overall assessment of your child’s intellectual skills, and leads to an IQ score. This can be broken down into five main areas:
- Verbal Comprehension
The ability to reason using verbal information.
- Visual-spatial skills
The ability to analyse and synthesise visual information.
- Logical reasoning
The ability to reason and solve problems using novel information
- Working memory
The ability to hold information in short term memory and use this information to produce a result.
- Processing speed
Speed of processing visual information.
Why might a cognitive assessment be helpful?
It can be useful to see your child’s strengths, and whether they may have any specific learning difficulties, which may be contributing to issues at home and school. For example, if your child seems to miss instructions, finds it hard to hold on to information, or completes work more slowly than peers. It can also be used in some cases to determine whether a child has a learning disability (also called intellectual disability), and may form part of an assessment for autism or ADHD.
How long does it take?
It usually takes up to 1.5 hours, including breaks.
What will my child be asked to do?
Your child will be asked to do some activities both on paper and using an iPad, some of which may involve numbers, puzzles, or working with blocks. It is also helpful to collect some background information from parents to inform the results.
Will it lead to recommendations for school?
Yes, if the test shows that your child is below average in certain areas, this could lead to specific recommendations for the classroom and examinations, which will be detailed in a report.
Executive functioning
What does executive functioning mean?
Executive functioning refers to the skills needed to set a goal, break down the steps to get there, maintain our focus on it, and problem solve challenges on the way. Imagine it being like a ‘chief executive’ in your mind, responsible for coordinating different systems, which together are responsible for achieving a task. These skills can be applied to lots of different areas, including tasks such as cooking a meal, but also emotion regulation (keeping our emotions within tolerable limits; not being over or under-activated).
What can lead to executive functioning difficulties?
Executive functioning can be affected by a wide range of different conditions, and environmental or lifestyle-related factors. For example, mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression, can be associated with executive functioning difficulties, as can poor physical health. Children who have experienced trauma or neglect may also grow up with differences in these skills. However, acquired brain injuries or neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism, ADHD and learning disability are areas which are often associated with significant executive functioning issues.
What are the different skill areas that make up our ‘executive functions’?
There are varying definitions of executive functioning in the literature, but it commonly refers to the following areas:
- Working memory
- Impulse control
- Mental flexibility
- Organisation
- Planning and prioritising
- Memory
- Attention control
- Task initiation
- Emotion regulation
- Self-monitoring
How is executive functioning measured?
Executive functioning can be measured either by a behavioural questionnaire completed by a parent/caregiver (such as the BRIEF), or by using objective tests, such as the D-KEFS (which can be completed by the child on an iPad, similar to the WISC-V). Executive functioning can be measured on its own, but it’s often useful to make this part of a broader cognitive assessment. It is helpful to also supplement these tools with some background information from parents/caregivers, to see how these difficulties show up in everyday life.
Educational attainment
Why is it helpful to screen for educational difficulties?
Early identification of educational difficulties is important because some students may have unidentified learning needs, which may instead be seen in terms of disruptive behaviour, emotional difficulties, or disengagement in the classroom. A screening assessment can also identify strengths, which may help students to compensate, and can be used to develop their confidence.
What does the process involve?
Your child will complete subtests from the Wide Range Achievement Test – 5 (WRAT-5). This is a standardised test which measures foundational academic skills in word reading, spelling, maths computation, and sentence comprehension. It can be completed on a iPad and takes between 10-40 minutes, depend upon the child’s age and the number of subtests completed.
The WRAT-V can also be used as part of a broader cognitive assessment (using the WISC-V), in order to determine whether specific processing difficulties are contributing to the child’s academic problems. The results of both assessments can be compared, to see if there is a significant discrepancy between their ability and achievement, which could be related to a specific learning difficulty.
How can the results from a screening assessment be used?
Screening allows parents and schools to see whether additional support is needed, and can help to identify whether a full diagnostic assessment for specific learning difficulties, such as dyslexia or dyscalculia, is needed.
Mental health
Why can a mental health assessment be helpful?
Increasing numbers of young people are struggling with their mental health, which can have a knock on impact on their education, friendships, and self-confidence. This growing demand means that young people often have to wait to access support, which may lead to the problems getting worse. A comprehensive assessment ensures that the nature of the difficulties is better understood, and leads to a psychological formulation, which can be used to provide recommendations that are targeted to your child’s needs.
What does a mental health assessment involve?
You and your child would first be invited to complete an online questionnaire called the Development and Wellbeing Asessment (DAWBA). This is a standardised assessment tool for identifying mental health conditions in children and young people. The results of this are then used to focus the assessment on the main areas of concern.
After this, you would be invited to a 90 minute face to face assessment, where we discuss your concerns in more detail, and take a comprehensive individual and family history. A written report, including recommendations, is also provided. Click the button below to find out more and book an assessment.
Will the results lead to additional support?
The findings of the assessment can lead to recommendations for parents, schools, and other services. Psychological interventions can also recommended, such as individual therapy, family therapy, or parenting support.
