Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital

Transcription

1 Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital Information on cognitive assessments Nuffi eld Hearing and Speech Centre

2 2 What is a cognitive assessment? It is a formal assessment or test of your child s intelligence and abilities in areas such as verbal and non-verbal skills, memory and speed of processing information. The assessment involves a number of different tasks such as puzzles, answering questions and remembering certain things. The cognitive assessment is carried out by a qualifi ed clinical psychologist, or a trainee clinical psychologist under the supervision of a qualifi ed member of staff. Cognitive assessments are usually part of a multi-disciplinary team approach aimed at understanding your child s abilities. Why might your child be referred for a cognitive assessment? Children might be referred because of concerns about: School performance Whether they have specifi c (e.g. language disorder) or broader learning diffi culties Why have your child assessed at this service? We have specialist expertise in assessing children with a hearing loss and/or speech and language disorders.

3 3 How might a cognitive assessment be helpful to you and your child? To give you an idea of your child s learning strengths and weaknesses. Recommendations or advice can be given on how to support areas of weakness. It may also help you in selecting a school placement that would best meet your child s needs. What are the possible disadvantages of having a cognitive assessment? Your child may not do as well as you hope, which may be upsetting. Some parents have concerns about putting fi gures or labels on their children s abilities. Some are concerned that assumptions will be made about the child s potential as a consequence of the assessment. What can you expect when you come for the assessment? We recommend that parents are not present during the assessment itself. Most children work better when unaccompanied. If you choose to be present, we will ask you to sit behind your child so that they do not have eye contact with you, and ask that you do not help them in any way with their

4 4 responses. We are aware that it can be frustrating if your child does not answer a question you believe they know, but we ask that you do not comment if this happens. It is likely your child will need to come to two appointments to complete the assessment. You should allow at least half a day for each appointment. Your child will be able to have breaks during the assessment. We will not be able to tell you how your child has performed on the day, as we will need time to score up the responses and write the assessment report. Contacting other professionals We ask permission to contact other professionals who are involved in your child s care, such as their school teacher. We will ask them about your child s strengths and diffi culties and the support they are currently receiving. This helps us with our assessment and also informs the recommendations we make. We will also ask to see any previous educational psychology reports. What will happen next? We will invite you to another appointment to talk you through the report and explain the fi ndings. Depending upon the age of your child, we may ask you to bring them to this appointment.

5 5 What will the report be like? The assessment report details how your child scored on each of the tests and also overall on the various areas. The results are calculated by comparing how your child performed with how you would expect a child of their age to do. At the end of the report will be a summary of the fi ndings and a list of recommendations. While the report may be used in the process of obtaining a statement of special educational need, we are unable to directly comment on the provision of additional support in the classroom. Who gets a copy of the assessment report? The report is a confi dential document that will only be sent out with your approval. However, for the assessment process to be worthwhile it is important that copies of the report be sent to the professionals involved with your child, such as their class teacher or school SENCo. In this way, those working with your child will have a greater understanding of your child s strengths and weaknesses, and recommendations made can be acted on. If you are not happy for reports to be passed on, please raise this at your fi rst appointment, as it may not be appropriate to continue with the assessment.

6 6 Contact details If you would like to fi nd out more about what a cognitive assessment is, or if you have any questions, please call us. Nuffi eld Hearing and Speech Centre, 330 Gray s Inn Road, London, WC1X 8DA Telephone: or Telephone: Where can I get more information? NHS Direct Telephone: Website: University College London Hospitals 235 Euston Road, London. NW1 2BU Switchboard: Website: UCLH cannot accept responsibility for information provided by external organisations. PALS - If you have any concerns PALS is a patient-friendly, easy to access service designed to provide a personal contact point to assist patients, relatives and carers. If you have a problem that you have not been able to sort out we can help you to resolve it. PALS are open 10:00 till 16:00 Monday to Friday. Telephone: pals@uclh.nhs.uk

7 7 If you need a large print, audio or translated copy of the document, please contact us on We will try our best to meet your needs. How to get here The hospital is near King s Cross Station. There is no car parking at the hospital. Pay and display parking areas are available nearby but these are frequently full. You are advised to travel by public transport.

8 First published: April 2012 Last review date: October 2012 Next review date: October 2014 Leafl et code: UCLH/SH/RNTNEH/NHSC/ICA02 University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Created by Medical Illustration RNTNEH Unique Code: 27087