Bluebird Psychology provides cognitive (intelligence) and learning assessments for school-aged children, teenagers, and adults. Our assessments encompass a thorough exploration of your developmental history, and other factors influencing your mental and physical well-being. We utilize standardized assessment materials tailored to measure cognitive abilities and learning styles.

Our practice utilizes two widely recognized and comprehensive tools, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Fifth Edition (WISC-V) and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV), to assess intellectual performance across various dimensions.

Understanding the WAIS-IV and WISC-V:

The WAIS-IV and WISC-V are advanced intelligence tests designed to measure intellectual performance as a multidimensional construct. Departing from traditional views of intelligence, these assessments recognize the importance of different types of intelligence, each contributing uniquely to an individual’s cognitive profile.

Key Features of the Assessments:

• Test Results: Our assessments yield valuable information, including Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient (IQ) scores, age-equivalent rankings, and composite scores for specific cognitive domains such as Verbal Comprehension, Visual Spatial, Fluid Reasoning, Working Memory, and Processing Speed.

• Applications: The WISC-V and WAIS-IV serve various purposes, including identifying intellectual disabilities, assessing giftedness, diagnosing specific learning disabilities, determining eligibility for specialized programs, and guiding clinical interventions.

• Administration: These assessments are typically administered over one-and-a-half to two hours using iPads, ensuring a streamlined and efficient process.

• Experienced Clinicians: Our assessment scores are analyzed and reported by experienced clinicians, providing accurate and insightful interpretations.

Skills Assessed with WISC-V and WAIS-IV:

• Visual-Spatial Index: Measures the ability to evaluate visual details, understand visual-spatial relationships, and construct geometric designs. This skill involves visual-spatial reasoning, integration of part-whole relationships, attentiveness to visual detail, hand-eye coordination, and efficient processing of visual information.

• Fluid Reasoning Index: Assesses the ability to detect conceptual relationships among visual objects and apply reasoning to identify and apply rules. This involves inductive and quantitative reasoning, broad visual intelligence, simultaneous processing, and abstract thinking.

• Working Memory Index: Measures the ability to register, maintain, and manipulate visual and auditory information in conscious awareness. Tasks assess attention, concentration, mental reasoning, visual, and auditory discrimination, closely related to learning and achievement.

• Processing Speed Index: Evaluates speed and accuracy of visual identification, decision-making, and implementation. Performance is linked to visual scanning, discrimination, short-term visual memory, visuomotor coordination, and concentration. This skill is crucial for reading development and quick thinking.

Full-Scale IQ Score: Summarizes cognitive ability across Verbal Comprehension, Visual-Spatial, Fluid Reasoning, Working Memory, and Processing Speed indexes. It provides a comprehensive view of a child’s or adult’s general intellectual functioning.

The Wide Range Achievement Test measures a wide range of academic skills, like reading skills, mathematics skills, spelling and comprehension.

The WRAT-4 has 4 subtests:

• Word Reading: measures word decoding through letter identification and word recognition

• Reading Comprehension: assesses ability to identify meaning of words and to comprehend ideas and information in a sentence using a modified cloze technique

• Spelling: evaluates ability to identify sounds and transfer them into written form

• Math Computation Test: measures ability to count, identify numbers, solve simple oral math problems and calculate written math problems

The Word Reading and Sentence Comprehension scores are combined to give a total score for reading ability.

It is useful for diagnosing learning disabilities, the assessment of academic progress over time, and the evaluation or re-evaluation of learning and cognitive disorders. Given its focus on distinct areas of academic learning, the test helps improve understanding of an individual’s needs in the classroom.

Assessment materials commonly utilised include (these are subject to change with updates in materials and depending on appropriateness for client’s presentation):