Educational Assessments

A developmental interview is completed to discuss early development, academic skills, any targeted intervention undertaken (such as tutoring), strengths, interests, and any current concerns. This conversation helps us understand you or your child’s history.

A cognitive assessment is used to help determine cognitive strengths and challenges which helps us understand how your brain works and how you learn best. This helps us personalise recommendations to support you or your child’s needs best. A cognitive assessment involves tasks that look at:

• Verbal Comprehension – using and understanding language
• Visual Spatial – understanding and processing visual information
• Fluid Reasoning – problem solving skills
• Working Memory – remembering and manipulating things in our short term memory
• Processing Speed – quickly completing simple tasks

A cognitive assessment is chosen based on age. At Minds of All Kinds, we use the following cognitive assessments:

• Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Fourth Edition (WPPSI-IV)
• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fifth Edition (WISC-V)
• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV)

An achievement assessment, or learning/educational assessment, helps us understand your skills in areas such as reading comprehension, listening comprehension, writing, and maths.

At Minds of All Kinds Psychology, we use the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Third Edition: Australian and New Zealand Standardised (WIAT-III).

The assessment typically takes around two hours and can be broken up into more than one assessment session depending on your needs. For example, some children may require additional breaks and benefit from shorter testing sessions. This will be discussed in your initial interview so we can understand how to obtain the best assessment results from your child based on their needs.

After completing all assessments, we compile the findings into a detailed, written report that outlines strengths, challenges, and diagnosis (if applicable). This report provides specific recommendations for interventions and strategies to support you or your child’s development.

A feedback session will be scheduled to review the results with you, answer any questions, and discuss recommendations. This is an important step in understanding the findings and planning the next steps.

Two weeks after the feedback session, we schedule a ‘check in’ call. This gives you a chance to ask any additional questions you may have after reading the report and processing the whole assessment.

Unfortunately, Medicare do not cover educational assessments.

Some health insurance policies may cover assessments; please contact your insurer directly to check your coverage.

NDIS does not fund diagnostic assessments. If you have an NDIS plan, it is recommended you contact your Local Area Coordinator (LAC; listed in your NDIS plan) to enquire directly about if an assessment can be covered in your circumstances.