Assessment Psychologist, Wollongong

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects a young person’s ability to regulate attention, activity levels and impulses in ways that can impact daily functioning. These kiddos can be the bouncy ones who never sit still, the ones who talk a mile a minute barely taking a breath, or the ones that zone out and often ask you to repeat the question. Sometimes these young ones struggle academically, sometimes socially and sometimes behaviourally. As we grow into adulthood, ADHD tends to look more like difficulties with executive functioning - struggling to keep up with life admin, repeatedly falling behind at uni/work, starting but not finishing tasks, emotional reactivity and/or general internal chaos.
If any of this rings true for you, perhaps it’s time to consider booking that assessment you’ve been forgetting to follow on for a while now.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how a person communicates, interacts socially and experiences the world, often including differences in sensory processing and patterns of behaviour or interests. These young people are often described as those who “march to the beat of their own drum,” moving through the world with their own ways of doing things. Often highly individual yet still deeply social and emotional, young people with ASD bring a complex combination of needs. The goal of an ASD assessment is to understand the young person’s strengths and challenges, to ultimately determine what areas of support are needed most.

If you think this is you or your child, we’d be delighted to help the world understand you/them better.

Specific Learning Disorders like dyslexia, dysgraphia or dyscalculia affect the way a person learns and uses specific skills like reading, writing or doing math. Generally, we first notice this when our little ones are struggling in the classroom. Maybe you’ve noticed them really avoiding their homework, or maybe they’re fine with reading but when it comes to numbers they get all mixed up. Maybe at parent teacher interviews the feedback is that despite being motivated to learn, they’re not quite keeping up with their classmates in certain areas.

Or perhaps you’re older and you’ve realised that you do fine with some parts of work/uni, but anything that requires reading or writing makes you squirm. Your boss/tutor keeps giving you feedback that your submitted work isn’t up to scratch and while Chat GPT has been an absolute LIFE SAVER, you’ve realised that you rely on it a lot more than your peers. Maybe numbers still don’t make any more sense than they did when you first hated math in year 3. Only now you’re an adult, so you’re supposed to be able to divide the bill in your head or calculate interest repayments on your car.

If you’ve noticed any of the above in your child or yourself, our assessment clinician can help you learn more about what is actually going on.

Building skills like learning, reasoning, problem solving and understanding new information are foundational parts of early childhood. These skills allow us to exist in this world with ease and reciprocity. But sometimes little people’s brains don’t always develop as expected.

These little ones are often identified in the early years by GPs, paediatricians or early childhood centres. Often parents will describe noticing little things over time, which didn’t really stand out until they were seen next to same age peers. These can be things like; being slower in their developmental milestones (e.g., responding to a smile, first word, first full sentence, crawling, walking), struggling to communicate with others if you’re not there to scaffold, struggling to follow instructions and/or repeat daily routines without heaps of support from an adult like getting ready in the mornings, showering etc.

If this is happening in your family, getting an assessment completed can help to identify what’s going on and provide access to greater supports.

There are times when a young person is hit with a double whammy of two areas of neurodevelopmental divergence. This is called Twice Exceptionality (2e). It can be any combination of the above. When this occurs, specialised testing can help to identify strengths and weaknesses, so that classroom and work settings can be adjusted accordingly.

There are also times when a young person displays academic talents that are well beyond the expectations of their age. Often called gifted, these kiddos stand out from the crowd as totally excelling. These kids sometimes describe school as boring, complaining of being under stimulated by their age-appropriate curriculum. In these circumstances, assessment can help to provide a detailed profile of the child’s needs, so that adaptions in learning plans can be made.