Assessment FOR INTERVENTION
Identifying strengths, learning styles and areas for development
Rebecca is qualified to administer and interpret psychometric tests that allow for a holistic picture of a learner’s areas of strength and need to be identified to inform the design of a personalised, tailored intervention programme.
Assessments include standardised tests for:
- Underlying ability
- Phonological processing (phonological awareness, phonological memory and rapid naming)
- Short term and working memory
- Word reading accuracy and speed
- Prose reading fluency (includes accuracy and speed)
- Word spelling accuracy
- Speed of handwriting
- Dyscalculia Screening
- Basic maths facts
- Broader maths capabilities.
A standardised test is one that is normed against a US or UK population, depending on the test battery administered, which therefore allows for age-appropriate comparisons.
Such tests are useful because they provide more detailed information to better understand how a learner can harness his/her strengths to support areas of need, or to identify a learner’s preferred learning style. Tests can support awareness-raising for individuals, parents and schools because they may identify underlying cognitive processing difficulties that a learner has worked hard to overcome, or which may be impacting upon literacy or numeracy attainment. They help to guide the design of a specialist teaching programme that takes into account areas of need to be focused upon. They may offer a learner confidence about how his/her efforts are supporting current levels of attainment in literacy and/or numeracy.
Please note that although many of the tests that Rebecca uses are the same / equivalent to those that a Level 7 qualified assessor or educational psychologist may administer during a full diagnostic assessment for a specific learning difficulty (SpLD), she does not offer assessments for dyslexia or dyscalculia that lead to a formal diagnosis. However, she is trained to understand and interpret full diagnostic assessment reports, can advise on their meaning and implications, and uses these to design personalised 1:1 teaching programmes. Appropriately qualified practitioners who prepare full diagnostic assessment reports can be recommended should this be of interest.