Assessments

Radiant Minds Psychology is able to provide a range of behavioural and psycho-educational assessments to understand individual strengths and weaknesses and better assist with treatment, educational or occupational planning. Radiant Minds Psychology strongly believes in undertaking a thorough approach to assessment such that the unique needs of the person is understood through not just test scores, but through the psychologist’s keen observation of and interaction with the individual. We provide these assessments for children, adolescents and young adults. Older adults who are interested in being assessed can contact Radiant Minds Psychology to discuss their needs and the type of assessment they are seeking.

Cognitive assessments

This is conducted to better understand and individual’s pattern of strengths and weaknesses. Understanding a person’s cognitive profile can assist people around the person understand better how the person learns and processes information.

Cognitive assessments are sometimes used to assess the presence of an intellectual difficulty or to explore whether a student has exceptional/gifted abilities. Knowing this can assist with educational planning. These assessments are sometimes required by schools to support a request for additional funding.

Academic assessments

Academic assessments involve testing a student’s reading, writing or mathematics abilities to gain a clear picture of current academic functioning and further assist with educational planning.

Learning difficulties/specific learning difficulties assessment

Sometimes, individuals may have difficulties with specific academic areas even after receiving some form of intervention. To assess for these difficulties, a comprehensive assessment is conducted to understand both the person’s cognitive profile and specific skills that make up the academic area. Difficulties such as dyslexia and dyscalculia can be understood by undertaking these assessments.

Developmental, behavioural and social-emotional assessmentsnt

Radiant Minds Psychology also offers assessments to determine the presence or absence of:

ADHD autism spectrum disorders (ASD)
anxiety
depression
behavioural
difficulties
executive functioning (e.g., planning, organising) difficulties.

Specific instruments are used for more specialised conditions. For example, for autism spectrum disorder’s Radiant Minds Psychology uses the Autism Diagnostic Interview- Revised (ADI-R) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule – 2 (ADOS-2).

Assessments for toddlers and very young children

Parents are sometimes concerned about their young children’s development. Radiant Minds Psychology is able to provide either standardised developmental assessments or informal observational assessments to help you gauge your child’s cognitive, language and motor development. With the results, strategies to aid your child’s development can be formulated and future assessments can be completed to track your child’s progress.

Home or school-based assessments

It may be important to observe how your child behaves at home with the family or in school with peers and teachers. Home or school-based assessments can be useful to supplement other forms of assessment or stand alone to better inform the treatment strategies that would specifically target difficulties encountered by your child. For example, behavioural issues in the classroom, task completion or issues with social relationships may require such assessments to better understand your child’s behaviours and reactions.

Assessment tools

Some of the assessment tools used by Radiant Minds Psychology includes the following:

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – 5th Edition Australian and New Zealand (WISC-V)
Woodcock-Johnson 4th edition – Australasian Adaptation – Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJ IV COG –Australasian)
Woodcock-Johnson 4th edition – Australasian Adaptation – Tests of Oral Language (WJ IV OL – Australasian)
Woodcock-Johnson 4th edition – Australasian Adaptation – Tests of Achievement (WJ IV ACH – Australasian)
Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing – Second Edition (CTOPP-2) – selected subtests
Test of Orthographic Competence (TOC)
Conners 3 Rating Scales
Comprehensive Executive Functioning Inventory (CEFI)
Autism Diagnostic Interview – Revised (ADI-R)
Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule – 2nd edition (ADOS-2)
Autism Spectrum Rating Scales (ASRS) – 6-18 years Parent & Teacher Ratings
Psychoeducational Profile – 3rd edition (PEP-3).