Psychological assessments
educational assessments
for children, adolescents and adults
Villars-sur-Ollon (Chesières)
Psychological & Educational Assessments
for children and adults
Psychological assessments
Psychological assessments as well as educational assessments provide valuable information regarding cognitive (IQ), reading, writing and mathematical abilities compared to age-norms and enable identification of strengths and weaknesses, developmental delays or giftedness. An assessment also helps identify signs of learning disorders (ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia etc) and provide clarification / explanations regarding academic difficulties and learning styles. A psychological evaluation may also include an assessment of emotional state in order to gain further understanding of personality, behaviour or emotional state.
Some of the situations in which a psychological / educational assessment is needed are :
- To evaluate a child’s cognitive abilities (IQ) in order to explore the suitability of academic curriculum and goals, understand achievement delays, clarify cognitive functioning, identify strengths and weaknesses.
- To screen for learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, ADHD etc or developmental disorders, understand the child’s learning challenges and implement suitable support (e.g. learning support lessons, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy etc).
- Identify gifted and able students : allows for better understanding of the child or young person’s functioning, personality traits or personal development ; enable adjustment of teaching methods and academic programs ; enable access to specialised schools, gifted classes, extracurricular activities or associations (e.g. Mensa)
- Identify learning needs in order to define IEP ‘s and specific learning support.
- Provide a different point of view and understanding of behavioural or emotional difficulties as well as recommendations for support.
- To determine whether a student needs special arrangements tests/exams (e.g. ECR, BAC, IB, SAT’s, (I)GCSE’s, A Level’s).
- To enable parents to improve their understanding of their child’s developmental and emotional needs, provide them with parenting guidance and support in difficult situations such as bereavement, illness, separation. To help their child and to give recommendations for further specialised support.
- To help adolescents make decisions regarding their future academic or professional projects.
Age
Psychological assessments are available for children aged 3 years and up, teens and adults. In some cases, a multidisciplinary assessment may be organised with specialist colleagues.
Tests
Tests are carefully chosen according to each individual situation or query and may take several sessions to complete. Only the most recent test versions with up-to-date norms are used. Most are available in both English and French.
The following tests are the ones I most frequently use in my practice: WPPSI-IV, WISC-V, WAIS-IV, WIAT-III, NEPSY-II and TEA-Ch2 .
What does an assessment involve?
For further information regarding assessment procedures, please refer to the FAQ section.
