Psychometric Assessments
What are Psychometric Tests?
Psychometric assessments are scientific measures used to assess an individual’s cognitive ability and identify their strengths and weaknesses.
The Importance of Psychometric Testing
- It enables early intervention for learning difficulties, intellectual disabilities, and global delays, to produce the best outcomes and support for your child.
- It can help to identify barriers such as concentration problems that may be hindering performance in the academic or occupational setting.
- Psychometric testing can also be used to build on strengths and maximise intellectual/ academic/ occupational potential
What is the WISC-V?
The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children in its Fifth Edition (WISC-V), is currently the most widely used tool for measuring children’s intellectual ability. It is a comprehensive assessment of intelligence for children aged between 6-16 years.
The WISC-V can be used to identify your child’s intellectual potential, intellectual disabilities, specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, and intellectual giftedness. The WISC-V measures verbal intelligence by assessing skills such as comprehension. This test also measures performance intelligence which involves assessing picture completion and block design skills.
This test provides a general IQ score for your child, known as the Full-Scale IQ, as well as scores on the following:
- Verbal Comprehension Index
- Working Memory Index
- Visual Spatial Index
- Fluid Reasoning Index
- Processing Speed Index
By assessing these abilities our qualified psychologists can provide you with a comprehensive understanding of your child’s strengths and weaknesses. Importantly, they can identify specific areas in which learning may be compromised and provide appropriate interventions to support your child in reaching their intellectual potential.
Interventions may include; in the case of a learning disability, helping teachers become aware of the disability and to make appropriate adjustments in the classroom setting. Interventions may also involve helping intellectually gifted children get access to gifted and talented programs.
What is the WAIS-IV?
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) is the most current and widely used measure of adult and adolescent intelligence. This test is specifically designed for individual’s aged between 16-90 and can be useful for detecting academic and occupational difficulties. The WAIS-IV consists of 10 core subtests and 5 supplementary subtests.
Similar to the WISC-V, the WAIS-IV provides a Full-Scale-IQ score which represents an individual’s general intelligence.
The WAIS-IV also provides four index scores including:
- Verbal Comprehension
- Perceptual Reasoning
- Working Memory
- Processing Speed
These scores allow our professional psychologists to determine an individual’s strengths and weaknesses across various cognitive domains. The WAIS-IV can be useful for predicting occupational performance and academic achievement, or to help identify possible intellectual disabilities and learning difficulties. This test can also be used to assess intelligence following a brain injury.
What is the WIAT-III?
The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Third Edition (WIAT-III) is a valid and reliable measure of a child’s academic performance. It can provide detailed information on your child’s performance in common school areas such as reading and comprehension, math, oral language and spelling. It is designed for children and adolescents aged 4 to 19. This test is particularly important for outlining specific areas in school where additional support for your child may be required.
The WIAT provides a Total Achievement Score which represents your child’s overall academic performance.
It also provides composite subscale scores on:
- Oral Language
- Total Reading
- Basic Reading
- Reading Comprehension and Fluency
- Written Expression
- Mathematics
- Math Fluency
The WIAT differs from the WISC-V as it measures school performance compared to intelligence. While these tests are different, looking at both together can provide a more complete picture of your child’s cognitive and academic ability. It can also provide insight into whether your child’s performance at school is measuring up to their intellectual potential. The WIAT is also an important tool for teachers creating Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) for students as they can take into account the specific areas a child may need extra support and make necessary adjustments.
If you are interested in psychometric testing for yourself or your child, please do not hesitate to contact us on 02 9600 6619, getting in early can make all the difference!
