Sometimes we need to burrow a little deeper into what is going on for a young person to understand how they learn or think as well as gaining an understanding of how the important people in their life observe them to be at home and school.
The goal of these more in-depth assessments (sometimes referred to as neurodevelopmental, psychometric or psychoeducational assessments) might be to decipher neurodiversity (ADHD or Autism) as well as learning disorders in areas such as reading, writing or maths, or we may be trying to understand more about a person’s cognitive ability and how this affects their functioning in the world.
We use standardised and globally recognised gold standard tests and questionnaires to provide as much objective information as possible and importantly, and using all that we know about that young person (gathered through conversations with parents and teachers and the young person themselves) to interpret this objective data to create a clinical picture of what might be going on.
Unfortunately there is no blood test or brain scan to do this and instead our understanding (including diagnoses) relies on the use of excellent tools as well as well informed clinical judgement to come to an understanding of what might be going on for this young person. With this knowledge, a plan can be developed with prioritised recommendations that will make the most impact.