Initial Assessment
All children receive formal assessment on entry to the program. This process is designed to assist both in individual programming and in evaluation. The initial 1-2 hour assessment is where, the child comes with his/her parents. It is strongly encouraged for both parents to be involved at all stages of programming. At this meeting, a clinical/teaching staff work with the child and family to start developing a profile of the child’s individual learning needs, learning strengths and deficits, communication profile and behavioural profile. Staff also start to work with families to identify developmental and functional areas for prioritisation; this also includes a family needs assessment (the issues important to the family). Families are important members of the Early Intervention Team and are involved in all stages of the assessment and intervention process.
As we are aware that children can perform differently over different days and in different environments, the assessment process continues over a period of around 6-8 weeks in the chosen setting established in this initial meeting (centre sessions/home/school). The developmental level assessment is used to assess a child’s current skill level in all developmental areas, to compare the child’s skills to same-aged peers and to determine the individual child’s curriculum needs. During this period, an assessment of the child’s communication skills is completed by one of the Early Intervention Speech Pathologists. Over the assessment period, clinical and teaching staff can establish a baseline of skills for each child, so individualised programs can be developed.
The key areas assessed in the initial assessment are:
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Assessment of cognitive and language precursors
• Representational skills
• Play skills
• Expressive and Receptive Language
• Social skills
• Attention
• Cognition
• Sensory difficulties
• Gross and fine motor skills
• Psychological and emotional issues
• Self care
• Mechanisms of support for the family
• Family coping
• The environments in which the child participates
