Assessments

Our comprehensive assessments utilise a range of evidence-based tools and techniques to assess diagnose and provide recommendations for a range of educational and behavioural difficulties including:

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Assessments

Autism Spectrum Disorders (including updated diagnoses and identification of DSM V level)

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by difficulties with social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behaviour.

Parents generally notice signs during the first three years of their child’s life. These signs often develop gradually, though some autistic children experience regression in their communication and social skills after reaching developmental milestones at a normal pace.

Individual’s with autism can present in many and varied ways, and some can get very good at “masking” in certain settings. It is also very much a neurodivergence that occurs on a spectrum, with large variances in abilities and support requirements. All of this makes an ASD Assessment a highly specialised task, best performed by clinician’s with a breadth of experience in working with this particular kind of neurological divergence.

Educational & Learning Problems – Cognitive Functioning (intellectual impairment and giftedness). Specific Learning Disorders eg dyslexia, dyscalculia

If your child is not achieving to the expected level at school, it can be useful to gain an understanding of the underlying reasons for this, where their strengths and weaknesses lie and whether it is an issue with cognitive ability (IQ), a Specific Learning Disorder (eg dyslexia), focus and attention (eg. ADHD), mood (eg. Anxiety) or some combination of the above.

Cognitive Ability

Intellectual disability involves problems with general mental abilities that affect functioning in two areas:

  • Intellectual functioning (such as learning, problem solving, judgement).
  • Adaptive functioning (activities of daily life such as communication and independent living).

Intellectual disability affects about 1% of the population, and of those about 85% have mild intellectual disability. Intellectual disability is identified as mild (most people with intellectual disability are in this category), moderate or severe. The symptoms of intellectual disability begin during childhood. Delays in language or motor skills may be seen by age two. However, mild levels of intellectual disability may not be identified until school age when a child starts to show difficulty keeping up with their classmates academically. At this point, a teacher or parent may request an educational assessment to determine whether an intellectual impairment is present, or if the difficulties are better explained by a Specific Learning Disorder.

Specific Learning Disorders

Are you frustrated by your child’s lack of progress in a key learning area? It’s hard when you have a bright and even articulate child but they are unable to read, write, or spell words they have seen many times. Or when your otherwise intelligent child just can’t get their ideas down on paper, or seem to retain simple number concepts.

You may have others comment on how careless your child is or that they don’t seem to be trying hard enough. Or you might find that they are unable to get support because they are doing “ok”.

What you really may notice is that your child feels they are not smart. They are struggling with their self-esteem or sense of worth — and they are easily frustrated or emotional. But you know your child, and you know they are not silly, and have so many strengths in so many ways —your child may well be living with a Specific Learning Disorder (SLD)

SLD’s are present where an individual is experiencing significant difficulty learning in a particular key learning area (reading, mathematics or written expression), without the presence of an intellectual impairment. In order to diagnose a specific learning disorder, your child’s psychologist must first ascertain that their overall cognitive ability is within the normal limits, therefore confirming that this is not explanatory of the learning issue. Further testing must then be conducted in order to ascertain how far behind their same aged peers they are in the key learning area they are struggling with, as well as consideration given to what has been attempted in terms of interventions.

There are three main types of Specific Learning Disorders

What is dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a difficulty learning to read.

Children and adults with dyslexia often have difficulties with accurate and fluent word recognition and may also have difficulties with spelling, writing and reading comprehension.

Dyslexia is the most common learning difficulty impacting between 5-10 percent of people. Dyslexia also often runs in families. Dyslexia does not impact on a person’s intelligence and is not caused by vision difficulties.

Dyslexia is a brain-based (neurological) disorder or disability. People with dyslexia have difficulty working with the sounds in language (phonology) and the written form of language (orthography).

How is dyslexia identified?

Dyslexia is generally diagnosed by a psychologist. The psychologist will investigate learning strengths and difficulties by way of a full educational assessment. A speech pathologist may also look at the child’s specific skills around phonological awareness, and can often assist with ongoing strategies.

Before a diagnosis of a specific learning disorder in reading (or dyslexia) is able to be made, it is essential that the child or adult being assessed has received at least six months of intervention focused on improving their reading skills.

Before seeking an assessment or diagnosis of dyslexia it is also important to check eyesight and hearing.

How do you support a person with dyslexia?

Students with dyslexia can improve their reading and spelling skills. Such students benefit from explicit and structured instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics (systematic synthetic phonics) along with the other essentials skills for reading (oral language, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension).

Students with dyslexia will generally need lots of opportunities to practise reading and spelling skills and so can benefit from working with learning support teachers, systematic synthetic phonics intervention programs or working with experienced tutors or speech pathologists. Decodable readers are an essential tool for students with dyslexia while they are learning to read.

Students and adults with dyslexia can also benefit from adjustments made to their school or work environments. Such adjustments include:

  • the use of audio books and text to speech software;
  • limits to the amount of reading and writing required;
  • assistance with spelling, writing and editing for example, predictive spelling, scaffolded writing tasks, speech to text software.

More information can be found at https://www.speldnsw.org.au/

https://dyslexiaida.org/fact-sheets/

What is dyscalculia?

Dyscalculia is a difficulty with maths.
Children and adults with dyscalculia often have difficulties with understanding and manipulating numbers and learning mathematical facts.

Dyscalculia is a brain-based (neurological) disorder or disability. People with dyscalculia often have difficulties mastering number sense, facts and calculations.

How is dyscalculia identified?

Dyscalculia is generally diagnosed by a psychologist. The psychologist will investigate learning strengths and difficulties by way of a full educational assessment

Before a diagnosis of a specific learning disorder in mathematics (or dyscalculia) is able to be made, it is essential that the child or adult being assessed has received at least six months of intervention focused on improving mathematics skills.

Before seeking an assessment or diagnosis of dyscalculia it is also important to check eyesight and hearing.

How do you support a person with dyscalculia?

Students with dyscalculia can improve their mathematical skills. Students benefit from explicit and structured instruction in number sense, number facts and calculations.

Students with dyscalculia will generally need lots of opportunities to practise mathematical skills and so can benefit from working with learning support teachers, systematic mathematics intervention programs or working with experienced tutors.

Students and adults with dyscalculia can also benefit from adjustments made to their school or work environments. Such adjustments include:

  • use of memory aids for math facts;
  • use of manipulatives to learn concepts;
  • calculators.

More information can be found at https://www.speldnsw.org.au/

What is dysgraphia?

Dysgraphia is a difficulty with spelling and written expression.

Children and adults with dysgraphia often have difficulties with handwriting, spelling, grammar, punctuation and organisation of written tasks.

Dysgraphia is also known as a specific learning disorder in written expression. Dysgraphia is a brain-based (neurological) disorder or disability. People with dysgraphia often have to work much harder and longer to produce written work to the same standard as another individual. Their skills and ability to produce written work will typically vary from day to day according to a range of factors.

How is dysgraphia identified?

Dysgraphia is generally diagnosed by a psychologist. The psychologist will investigate learning strengths and difficulties by way of a full educational assessment. Handwriting and fine motor difficulties can also be identified by an occupational therapist.

Before a diagnosis of a specific learning disorder in spelling and written expression (or dysgraphia) is able to be made, it is essential that the child or adult being assessed has received at least six months of intervention focused on improving their spelling and written expression.

Before seeking an assessment or diagnosis of dysgraphia it is also important to check eyesight and hearing.

How do you support a person with dysgraphia?

Students with dysgraphia can improve their writing, handwriting and spelling skills. Occupational therapy may assist with hand writing and fine motor skills. Students benefit from explicit and structured instruction in spelling, grammar and written expression.

Students with dysgraphia will often need more opportunities to practise spelling and writing skills and so can benefit from working with learning support teachers, systematic synthetic phonics and morphology intervention programs or working with experienced tutors or occupational therapists.

Students and adults with dysgraphia can also benefit from adjustments made to their school or work environments. Such adjustments include:

  • the use of speech to text software;
  • limits to the amount of writing required;
  • assistance with spelling, writing and editing for example, predictive spelling, scaffolded writing tasks;
  • typing and scribes.

More information can be found at https://www.speldnsw.org.au/

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

What is ADHD?

ADHD is a common, neurodevelopmental disorder with onset typically before the age of 12, and affects 6–10% of the population to varying degrees.

ADHD will either impact mainly the individual’s activity levels and impulsivity / behaviour, their focus and attention, or a combination of both.

Common difficulties that may affect ADHD symptoms or result from them are regulating emotions and switching attention when required, accurately perceiving time, and initiating tasks that are not engaging (even when the importance of a task is understood). Severity of ADHD symptoms and associated impairments, may vary over time due to many factors such as stress or personal interest. Secondary impacts of ADHD include issues such as learning difficulties, anxiety, sleep disorders, oppositional symptoms, depression, and reduced self-esteem.

When occurring in girls, or boys with few behavioural issues, it can present in a non-typical way and thus go “under the radar” during the primary school years. However this does not mean that the condition will not go on to cause other issues in high school or later life eg. Mood-related, organisational, executive functioning, and/or other mental health issues. It frequently runs in families, so if one child is diagnosed, you may wish to screen the other family members as well.

ADHD Screening and Assessment

Wavelengths Allied Health follow the recent Australian Evidence-Based Clinical Guidelines put out by the aadpa (Australia ADHD Professionals Association), a summary of which can be found here.

As the treatment for ADHD very often includes medication prescribed by either a paediatrician or a psychiatrist, some client’s choose to simply undergo basic ADHD screening by a psychologist prior to seeking treatment from their specialist. This is a valid option for those clients who are reasonably clear on what is happening for them or their child, and are fairly sure that they wish to discuss pharmaceutical options as a first line treatment for their ADHD.

For other clients, the road can be less simple. They may not be as clear about what is happening for them or their child, whether ADHD is the only issue at hand, or whether there could be other difficulties at play (such as autism, behavioural disorders or an intellectual impairment or learning issue). In these cases, it is best practice to have a comprehensive ADHD assessment carried out by your psychologist prior to pursuing treatment, in order to ensure that all of the contributing factors are being properly considered, understood and treated.

As set out in these Guidelines, our assessment includes a full clinical and psychosocial ADHD Assessment, including discussion about the person’s symptoms and strengths and how these present in the different domains and settings of the person’s everyday life, a full developmental, mental health and medical history, observer reports and assessment of the person’s symptoms and mental state (often by way of teacher survey’s and school reports). Depending on whether the individual’s learning is being impacted, an educational assessment may also be recommended.

Global Developmental Delay

The term Global Developmental Delay, or GDD, is used when a child shows delays across several areas of development. It is a general term used to describe any delay in the developmental period of a child between birth and 18 years.

These delays must have continued for at least 6 months, and are usually accompanied limited communication abilities.

GDD is believed to affect about 1-3% of the population, and may be caused by factors such as premature birth, genetic condition such as Down Syndrome, chromosomal condition such as Fragile X, metabolic conditions such as thyroid function, problems in pregnancy or during birth such as heavy bleeding or lack of oxygen to the baby, vision or hearing loss, Speech and language difficulties, injuries or infections of the brain such as head injury or meningitis, ongoing illness and lengthy hospitalisation.

Child development is complex and each child with GDD may present differently. There are many areas in child development that they may be delayed in. The delays may be in:

  • Speech and language development
  • Gross motor development (walking, crawling)
  • Fine motor development (holding toys, drawing)
  • Thinking, understanding and learning
  • Social interaction and how they relate to others (make friends)
  • Emotional regulation
  • Tasks of daily living (getting dressed, toileting)

The combination of delays and degree of delays will have different impact on how the child and their family can function and how much support they may need.

The diagnosis of a Global Developmental Delay, or a significant delay in one or more key areas of development prior to the age of 6 will likely attract NDIS funding for early intervention supports. Early intervention is crucial for assisting and supporting your child to meet their full potential in areas they may be more challenged in.

Developmental delays can be diagnosed either by the relevant allied health practitioner eg. Speech pathologist or a psychologist or paediatrician through a comprehensive developmental assessment.

Behavioural Disorders

All young children can be naughty, defiant and impulsive from time to time, which is perfectly normal. However, some children have extremely difficult and challenging behaviours that are outside the norm for their age, and pervasively hinder their ability to function, learn and socialise with their peers.

The most common disruptive behaviour disorders include oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD). These behavioural disorders share some common symptoms, and frequently coexist with other difficulties such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD and trauma-related attachment difficulties so diagnosis can be difficult and time consuming. A child or adolescent may have two disorders at the same time. Other exacerbating factors can include emotional problems, mood disorders, family difficulties and substance abuse.

At Wavelengths Allied Health, our philosophy is that children and young people’s behaviours are generally in response to other difficulties, rather than being a “stand-alone” diagnosis. In other words, Children are not simply “born bad”, rather their behaviour is a means of coping with or responding to their environment or internal challenges. As such, our clinicians tend to take a holistic approach to behavioural issues and screen children and young people for behavioural disorders as a standard part of our other assessments.

Likewise, if a child or young person presents with primarily behavioural concerns, our clinicians will take a comprehensive look at what else might be happening for the child or young person, both in terms of other possible diagnoses as well as the potential environmental stressors that may be contributing.

This is simply so that we may gain a proper understanding of what is driving the behaviour, so that we may put together the most appropriate intervention that will work for the individual child, their family and broader support network.

Attachment difficulties, Anxiety Disorders, Mood Disorders, and Trauma

When children are not functioning at their best, exhibiting significant distress, “acting out”, or not learning to their potential, it is important to look at “the big picture”, and collect as much data as possible about the potential contributing factors.

For example, often children with attention or learning difficulties also have significant anxiety or depressive symptoms, which can serve to further impair their ability to pay attention and learn at school. It is important for your psychologist to be aware of this information, so that all aspects of the child’s difficulties can be properly addressed.

This is why you will be asked to complete extensive surveys and to answer lots of questions about all aspects of your child’s functioning when you bring them for an assessment at Wavelengths Allied Health.

Assessment Types

Appointment 1

A semi-structured, standardized interview will take place with the child or young person’s parent/s or carers. We ask that children do not attend this first session with their parents, as it is an opportunity for the parents or carers to speak candidly about all aspects of their developmental history, their strengths and the current concerns.

Appointment 2

Your psychologist will conduct an ADOS assessment with the child or young person. This standardised, play-based assessment allows the assessor to observe and score a large range of markers including communication, social interaction, play and restricted or repetitive behaviours as well as sensory interests. It is important that accompanying parents or carers try not to prompt or intervene with the child during the testing, but continue to interact normally when initiated by the child. Your psychologist will be keen to find out what your child is able or willing to do without your help!

Appointment 3

All of this information is put together with the supplementary information collected via teacher and carer surveys etc. in order to make a well-founded conclusion with useful recommendations. These findings and recommendations will be explained and discussed with you at this appointment, along with an opportunity for you to ask questions about the findings and “where to from here”. This is an important appointment for gaining knowledge and understanding about your child’s, so we recommend that all parents or carers come along if at all possible.

Generally administered over a total of 4-5 sessions, a full educational assessment at Wavelengths Allied Health will include an IQ (intelligence) test, a WIAT (individual achievement test in key learning areas), teacher and parents surveys, as well as a parent or carer interview to ascertain developmental, psychosocial history, strengths, weaknesses and current concerns.

Cognitive assessments or intelligence tests (IQ tests) are used to determine a child’s learning capability by identifying their cognitive strengths and weaknesses.

A WIAT will then ascertain a precise measure of where your child or young person is functioning in terms of their reading, numerical and spelling ability, when compared with their same-aged peers.

When interpreted in combination with comprehensive background information and parent and teacher interviews, the results of these 2 cognitive tests can not only diagnose cognitive impairments, and specific learning disorders, but can also assist with the development of individualised intervention and learning plans for children.

It will also provide information to develop effective plans or accommodations in the classroom that are tailored to meet a child’s specific needs. Results can also assist in making applications to access government or school disability funding, special needs teachers or special provisions (eg scribe) in formal school examinations. The above assessment processes also screen and provide diagnosis for ADHD types.

Again, the final appointment is an important opportunity for parents and carers to develop a better understanding of the child or young person’s unique profile of strengths and weaknesses, as well as to receive helpful information on how they can better assist, support and advocate for their child’s individual learning needs now and into the future. As such, it is ideal if both parents can attend this final session wherever possible.

Wavelengths Allied Health follow the recent Australian Evidence-Based Clinical Guidelines put out by the aadpa (Australia ADHD Professionals Association) which can be found here.

As set out in these Guidelines, our comprehensive ADHD assessment includes a full clinical and psychosocial assessment, including discussion about the person’s symptoms and strengths and how these present in the different domains and settings of the person’s everyday life, a full developmental, mental health and medical history, observer reports and assessment of the person’s symptoms and mental state (often by way of teacher survey’s and school reports).

Developmental Interview

At the initial appointment the clinician will gather comprehensive and detailed background information by interviewing the primary caregiver/s. Our clinicians prefer to conduct this interview (1 hour ) without the child or young person present, as this allows a candid approach to information sharing, and avoids causing humiliation or distress for the child.

Questionnaires and surveys will also be distributed to the carer/s and teachers at this appointment. They include Child Behaviour checklists and Teacher Report forms (0-5year 11 months) or a series of Conners CBRS Parent and Teacher surveys (6yrs + to Adult) and ABAS3 Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System Parent and Teacher surveys.

N.B. Please raise any concerns you may have about your child’s learning or academic progress at this appointment, as it may be necessary or worthwhile to conduct a cognitive assessment at the time of the second appointment, that can ascertain the individual’s working memory, processing speed and other levels of cognitive functioning.

Appointment 2 (child’s / young person’s appointment)

Clinical Observation Appointment

Let us meet and interview your child during this 1 hour appointment. Our clinicians prefer to conduct this interview alone with your child or youth, learning about their strengths and weaknesses from their perspective and observations.

N.B Depending on the outcome of this appointment, and whether a cognitive exam was required, an additional appointment may be required for the child or young person at this time.

Appointment 3 (Parent/s / Carer/s only)

Report and Diagnostic Appointment

At the final appointment (1 hour duration) feedback from the parent and teacher surveys, observation appointment will be provided to the parents / carer/s. Detailed advice including recommendations and additional supports are discussed and navigated at this time.

At this time, clinicians will inform people receiving a diagnosis of ADHD (and their families or carers as appropriate) about the following:

  • environmental modifications that can be made to help to the person function to meet their own realistic goals
  • educational and occupational issues and rights to reasonable adjustments at school, university and in the workplace
  • Options around receiving a referral to a paediatrician or psychiatrist to discuss medication options.
  • local and national support groups and voluntary organisations (also known as consumer groups)
  • up-to-date, reliable, and reputable websites
  • support for education and employment
  • eligibility for disability support
  • eligibility for government benefits and allowances, including Carer Allowance provisions

People who have had an assessment, but whose symptoms and impairment do not meet criteria for a diagnosis of ADHD, may benefit from similar information.

The Griffith Mental Development Scales are widely used by paediatricians and psychologists to measure the rate of development of infants and young children from birth to eight years. The GMDS assess a child’s strengths and weaknesses across all major developmental areas and can be used to determine if a child is in need of an early intervention program and if so, where the areas of focus are required.

This is a standardised assessment administered that can only be administered by highly trained psychologists or paediatricians, and is done by interacting directly with your child, utilising a number of test items designed to be appealing to young children. The Griffiths III is not a cognitive assessment or assessment of intelligence. The test items have not been developed to measure advanced development (greater than age-appropriate skills). The areas of development focused on are as follows;

  • Foundations of Learning – assesses critical aspects of learning during the early childhood years.
  • Language and Communication – measures overall language development, including expressive language, receptive language, and (to a lesser extent) use of language to communicate socially with others.
  • Eye and Hand Coordination – considers fine motor skills, manual dexterity and visual perception skills.
  • Personal–Social–Emotional – measures constructs relating to the child’s developing sense of self and growing independence, interactions with others, plus many aspects of emotional development.
  • Gross Motor – assesses postural control, balance and gross body coordination.

A summary report is prepared by your clinician, outlining your child’s profile of developmental strengths and weaknesses. This report can then be utilised for retesting as a comparison point in order to measure outcomes of interventions and progress made.

More info

Melissa Cox – Principal Psychologist, All Assessment types

Dr Ayesha Peckham – Consultant Psychologist, ASD Assessments

Michelle Kent – Senior Consultant Psychologist, ASD, Behavioural Assessments

Dr Marea Murray – Paediatrician, ADHD, Anxiety, Mood and Behavioural Disorders.

Jasmine Abbott – Psychologist, Educational & ADHD Assessments

  • ASD Assessment $2141.41
  • Full ADHD Assessment incl full comprehensive psychologival report $1244
  • ADHD screening incl summary report $725.00
  • Educational Assessments from $1638.00 – $2141.00
  • Developmental Assessment (Griffiths) $1853.00
  • Griffiths extension from ADOS $1086.89
  • Adaptive Behaviour Assessment $753.00
* Rebates or discounts may apply depending on individual circumstances. Please speak to our practice manager about your unique situation for a customised fee structure based on your needs.