Psychometric Assessment Services
At Camden Child and Family Therapies, we strive towards providing comprehensive psychometric assessments and reports that take into consideration the specific presentation and needs of each child and adolescent.
As we are a child and adolescent focussed practice, we have access to a range of tests that allow us to explore various elements of children’s and adolescent’s behaviour and learning abilities. Our assessments draw upon a range of information sources such as parents, teachers and other health professional reports and assessments completed.
Assessments we offer
Cognitive Assessment
A psychometric assessment that is completed to understand an individual’s intellectual capacity or IQ. Read more →
ADHD Assessment
A comprehensive evaluation conducted to understand the individual’s behaviours and determine if an individual meets the diagnostic criteria for ADHD. Read more →
Anxiety or Depressive Disorders
Assessments to confirm depression or anxiety involve the young person meeting with their psychologist to complete a comprehensive interview to discuss their experiences.
Read more →
Intellectual Disability
Involving standardised cognitive testing and an assessment of adaptive functioning such as communication skills, daily living skills and social skills. Read more →
Oppositional Defiance Disorder
A comprehensive behavioural assessment that is conducted to determine if an individual meets the diagnostic criteria for ODD. Read more →
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Autism assessments are thorough evaluations that involve interviews, observations, and various assessment tools.
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Educational Assessment
Specific Learning Disorders e.g., dyslexia, dyscalculia.
An educational assessment is an assessment that is completed to help understand academic performance. Read more →
Specific Learning Disorder in Reading (Dyslexia Assessment)
Involving cognitive and academic testing, as well as gathering information from parents, teachers, and school reports. Read more →
Specific Learning Disorder in Mathematics (Dyscalculia Assessment)
This in-depth assessment examines all cognitive and academic domains to determine whether a child's struggles are primarily focused on reading and spelling or extend to other areas as well. Read more →
About Our Assessments.
For all assessments, we ensure the parent/s and their child/adolescent first meet with the Principal Psychologist, Rebecca Summers. This initial meeting allows Rebecca to understand the parent’s concerns and meet the child. Having this meeting will assist Rebecca to make the best decision as to which assessment could be best for your child or if another avenue would be more appropriate. If an assessment is recommended, you will then be referred to the most suitable and available Psychologist in the clinic to complete the assessment (which may or may not include Rebecca depending on availability and assessment type).
We aim to schedule any assessments in for a morning period when your child is most alert and well rested. We encourage the child to bring along a water bottle and a small snack. Depending on the child’s age, we will have the child attend the testing room alone to avoid distractions during the assessment.
For each test, a block of 2 hours will be scheduled to give your child/adolescent enough time to complete the assessment. It is important to be aware that not every child will need the full two hours, and the clinician will use the remainder of the time to begin scoring the assessment. As the assessment requires time to analyse and interpret the results, we generally will not provide feedback about the child’s performance on the day.
What happens after the assessment is completed?
Four weeks following the assessment, one final appointment is scheduled in to allow the clinician to explain the outcome of the assessment and give the parent an opportunity to ask questions.
Each report will also have recommendations on strategies or further supports the child or adolescent may benefit from in the appropriate environments, such as school or home.
It can be helpful to let your child know in an age-appropriate way about what will be happening when they come in for an assessment. Parents commonly say something to the tune of “We are going to see someone who sees lots of other kids and likes to see how they solve puzzles and learn things. She can give us some ideas on how to help make school more fun / find things you like to do / help us at home”
We also suggest pre-planning with your child to spend some special time together following the assessment to talk about how they are feeling and what happened. Children generally appreciate the opportunity to have a small treat afterward and this can help motivate them to complete the assessment too.
If you have questions or would like more information about our Assessment services, please call us on (02) 4610 7410 or email us at reception@camdenchildtherapies.com.au