Assessment Services

About our service...

Our assessment service is flexible and offers the ability for your child to complete an assessment at their school mid-week or our Hawthorn East consulting rooms on a Saturday. The service aims to increase access and reduce wait times for psychological and educational assessments, to support children as early as possible.

The ECA Psych difference...

We pride ourselves on understanding busy families, run intake and feedback sessions virtually, and can independently visit your child's school for the assessment or complete the assessment on a weekend, to help streamline the process.

Our Assessments

Assessment of kids mental development. Professional woman psychologist watching little boy

Cognitive Assessments

Measure general intellectual functioning (WPPSI-IV, WISC-V, or WAIS-IV) to better understand each child's cognitive strengths and weaknesses. If required, an assessment of daily living skills is included (Vineland-3). This assessment can be used to evaluate school readiness and school placement in the kinder years, typically recommended by a paediatrician. For school-age children, teachers or other allied health professionals typically recommend cognitive assessments. For assessment fees, please click here.

Educational Assessments

Measure a child's academic performance (WIAT-III) and provide insight into unique strengths, challenges, and missed areas of learning. A formal educational assessment involves both the academic (WIAT-III) and the cognitive (WISC-V or WAIS-IV) assessments. The findings of this assessment guide future intervention and/or academic accommodations for individual learning differences. If required, the DSM-5 TR diagnostic assessment of specific learning disorders ('dyslexia' or 'dyscalculia') is offered within the report. For assessment fees, please click here.

Kids go back to school. Children study and learn for preschool. Little boy of elementary c

Psychological Assessments

Our experience and the clinical research highlight that an early diagnosis helps guide an understanding of differences and needs. This further supports communication of unique differences, strengths, and needs to family members and teaching staff.

Psychological assessments consider two factors:

1) Emotional and behavioural functioning (CBCL or BASC-3).

2) Neurodevelopmental presentations such as Autism or ADHD.

Autism

Our DSM-5-TR diagnostic autism assessments involve a comprehensive understanding of a child's history, unique differences, sensory profile, and individual needs. These are available for children and adolescents. For assessment fees, please click here.

ADHD

Our DSM-5-TR diagnostic ADHD assessments also involve a comprehensive understanding of a child's history, unique strengths, challenges, and ways of best supporting your child's functioning within their school and home environments. These assessments include a cognitive assessment (if required), school observation, and a diagnostic assessment. These are available for children and adolescents. For assessment fees, please click here.

Child sitting and talking to a psychologist

The Process

Assessments typically include the following:

1. Enquiry - online, school, GP or paediatrician recommendation.

2. A parent intake session to gather background history.

3. Information obtained from relevant professionals
(i.e. teacher or paediatrician)

4. Assessment completed in person with the client.

5. The final report is written.

6. Feedback session explaining findings and answering questions.

Fees

Open to new clients

Assessment FAQ's

What is a registered psychologist?

A psychologist is a health professional that has completed six years of university education, training and research specialising in the human experience. Once registered, there is a requirement to continue with ongoing training and skill development.

Psychologists must practice in line with current ethical and professional standards and use evidence-based approaches to assess, diagnose and support a wide range of concerns.

Psychologists specialise in different areas; our staff have completed specialised training in child and adolescent development and have a strong understanding of neurodevelopmental differences, educational needs and academic assessments.

The benefits of an assessment are an increased understanding of your child, their learning, and individual needs. The report includes insights and recommendations to better support the child's functioning at school and at home. The findings will also assist in communicating your child's individual needs to family members and teaching staff.

With younger children, parents and teachers often look to psychologists for help with a child's development, behaviour, emotional or learning needs.

For adolescents, psychologists are called to help navigate parent-child relatonships, friendship challenges, identity development, self-esteem, challenges related to managing workload (procrastination) and associated anxiety or low mood.

Why complete an assessment?

This varies for each child as it depends on their specific challenges or differences. However, the earlier the understanding, support and accomodations, the better the school and/or home experience may be for the child.

Therefore, early understanding is beneficial to prevent later challenges, such as school disengagement or behavioural difficulties.

Ultimately, we aim to support each child to thrive in their home and school environments.

When is the best time to complete an assessment?