What is an Educational Assessment?
Comprehensive Educational Assessments (containing both the Cognitive and Academic Assessments) help parents and educators gain insight into a child’s unique learning profile and academic capacity. Educational Assessments assess areas of mental functioning related to memory, the ability to pay attention to tasks and to solve problems. They assist parents and educators to make informed decisions regarding their child’s educational placement, optimal learning environment, and individual learning needs.
A Cognitive Assessment enables the exploration of a child's general thinking and reasoning skills to determine learning capabilities. The assessment is conducted through the administration of standardised psychometric tools that cover various domains of cognitive ability, for example, verbal comprehension, visual-spatial, fluid reasoning, working memory and processing speed.
An Academic Assessment measures a child’s academic skill levels against their peers. This provides an in-depth understanding of a child’s intellectual and academic strengths and weaknesses for better education planning and support. The academic skills assessed include reading, written expression, oral language and Mathematics.
Educational Assessments
Process of Educational Assessments
An academic assessment typically includes:
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Initial appointment – a parent interview to gather some background information, including developmental history, academic ability, medical issues, family relationships, and issues raised in order to gather a detailed picture of your child’s environment. In this session it will also be determined which assessment is appropriate.
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Testing – depending on your child’s ability and engagement with the test, the testing will be done over one or two sessions.
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Scoring and interpreting results – each assessment will be scored and interpreted against standardised results.
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Report writing – the behavioural observations during testing will be recorded, along with the results of the testing, and recommendations.
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Feedback session – the psychologist will discuss the outcomes of the testing in this session and provide recommendations for parents or schools as required.
A full educational assessment typically includes:
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Initial appointment – a parent interview to gather some background information, including developmental history, academic ability, medical issues, family relationships, and issues raised in order to gather a detailed picture of your child’s environment.
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Testing – depending on your child’s ability and engagement with the tests, the testing will be done over two or three sessions.
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Scoring and interpreting results – each assessment will be scored and interpreted against standardised results.
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Report writing – the behavioural observations during testing will be recorded, along with the results of the testing, and recommendations.
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Feedback session – the psychologist will discuss the outcomes of the testing in this session and provide recommendations for parents or schools as required.
As each assessment is uniquely tailored to the individual needs of the child, we encourage you to give us a call about our assessment services. This can be an emotional and difficult time for families. Eden Psychology can sensitively guide families through the process of obtaining an educational assessment while offering support and advocacy for prompt intervention options.