Educational Assessments
Assessments vary greatly depending on the age and socio-cultural background of each child, as well as the reason for the assessment. Generally four types of assessments are done, these include: school readiness assessments, assessments to ascertain whether learning difficulties are present, subject choice assessments and career choice assessments.
The first step in all four types of assessment is to administer an aptitude test. This will determine exactly what the child is capable of as it determines the child’s IQ, intellectual strengths and weaknessess, and performance on a variety of cognitive tasks essential to learning.
School readiness assessments also include a screening of the child’s gross motor skills, fine motor skills, conceptual development (knowledge of concepts such as colour, shape, quantity,laterality, etc), visual perceptual skills and auditory perceptual skills. These skills are all essential to the development of literacy and numeracy in young children.
Finally a basic emotional assessment is done to establish whether the child is emotionally mature enough to cope with the demands of formal education.
Assessments that purport to establish the presence (or absence) of learning difficulties also include a basic screening of gross motor skills, fine motor development, auditory discrimination and visual acuity. Thereafter a battery of scholastic tests are administered. These tests aim to establish the child’s knowledge of basic arithmetic, ability to perform mathematical computations, work speed, reading rate, reading accuracy, level of reading comprehension and spelling ability. Finally a basic emotional assessment is done to establish whether emotional difficulties may be impacting on the child’s ability to perform optimally.
Subject and Career choice assessment include a personality test, career interest test and values questionnaire. All the information is integrated and recommendations are then made as to which subjects to choose or career paths to follow.
Anel Annandale is a prominent Educational Psychologist with a passion for early childhood development and a special interest in neuropsychology.
She is experienced in the field and has established herself as an expert, often appearing on television shows such as Exspresso. She is also available as a guest speaker at relevant events and functions.
For any queries call her on 021 423 0739 or email her at anel@childpsych.co.za
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