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Cognitive and Educational Assessment

A cognitive assessment (also known as an IQ test or intelligence testing) looks at a person’s ability to process, understand, and then use information – your thinking and reasoning skills. A cognitive assessment does not directly test academic skills (reading, writing, numeracy), but it can be used alongside achievement testing (academic skills testing) to diagnose dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia, also known as specific learning difficulties.

Overview

Cognitive assessment will provide information regarding the following areas:

  • Verbal comprehension: general knowledge and how we think with words

  • Visual spatial reasoning: reasoning with visual detail, processing relationships between spaces and patterns

  • Fluid Reasoning: using concepts, classification and relationships between ideas

  • Working Memory: remembering and manipulating visual and verbal information

  • Processing Speed: how we quickly and correctly use simple visual information, and how we use our attention and concentration.

 

Schools, allied health, and parents can use the information to understand a person’s strengths and weaknesses, to identify learning difficulties, and as part of understanding the person as a whole. Cognitive assessment may be part of an assessment for:

  • Giftedness and ‘twice exceptional’ assessment

  • Intellectual disability

  • Specific Learning Difficulties (such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia)

  • Autism Spectrum Disorder

  • Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Cognitive Assessment | Educational Assessment | Psychology
Child at Psychologist | Cognitive and Educational Assessment

Steps...

1st Session: A cognitive assessment is always conducted with a comprehensive developmental history using interview

2nd Session: Administration of standardised psychometric tests

3rd Session: Feedback of assessment outcomes

Finally: A comprehensive report summarising the assessment observations, diagnosis (where given), and recommendations for intervention.

 

Tests used at Take Time Psychology include, but are not limited to:

  • Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scales of Intelligence – Fourth Edition (WPPSI-IV) for children 2 and a half years of age to 7 years of age

  • Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children – Fifth Edition (WISC-V) for children 6 to 16 years of age

  • Woodcock Johnson - Fourth Edition Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ IV – Cognitive)

  • Woodcock Johnson - Fourth Edition Tests of Achievement (WJ IV – Achievement)

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