What is the role of the educational psychologist in the assessment and treatment of children with special needs?
by Angela Weeks, SPELD SA Clinical Director A key role of the educational psychologist is to measure a child’s intellectual abilities. They do this by giving the child a number of brief tests which provide an overall IQ score and a profile of the child’s intellectual strengths and weaknesses. Intellecual Assessment involves testing in the following areas: Intellectual Abilities • verbal and nonverbal reasoning abilities • spatial problem solving skills Information Processing Skills • memory • processing speed • phonological skills There are now nine major psychological batteries suitable for use with school-age children, the best known in Australia being the WISC-IV, the DAS, the BAS – II and the Stanford-Binet V. An educational psychologist will also assess the child’s achievements in reading, spelling, written work and mathematics to see whether their skills are at the level expected based on their intellectual abilities. Educational Achievements • reading (accuracy, fluency and comp
