To Assess or to Intervene?

A frequent question is whether it is better to invest money in an assessment, or in an intervention. The answer is simply “it depends!”.

I encourage parents to ask themselves - what do we already know about our child? What questions do we have that we need support to answer? Often parents are already well aware of their child’s needs, and can identify specific areas in which they need support. In this case, it is often best to invest money in accessing this support, for example if they have always had specific difficulties with reading then investing in Structured Literacy tutoring will be beneficial.

However if parents are not entirely sure what their child needs then an assessment can be worthwhile. Questions to consider include:

• How long have you had concerns with your child’s development? Have issues only been noticed since they started school, or was there anything you worried about in the preschool years?

• Are there any factors from their early childhood to consider, for example a traumatic birth or any significant head injuries during early childhood?

• Is there a family history of neuro-diversities, including Dyslexia, Intellectual Disability, Dyspraxia, Autism, ADHD?

• Do your concerns go beyond attaining literacy or numeracy skills? Have they had challenges in other areas of development including (but not limited to) language, social interactions or emotional regulation?

• Are these difficulties causing your child significant stress?

If you can identify more than one area of development which may be creating challenges for your child, an assessment would be recommended. This will help to untangle what is happening so you are more likely to then access the right type of support.