Preparing for your intake assessment.

I complete informal intake assessments with all children I work with. The assessment will take approximately 60 minutes, however, you should expect to be on the call for approximately 1.25hrs. This page contains information on what will happen and how to prepare for the assessment.

Purpose:

The purpose of the diagnostic is for me to get a clear understanding of where your child is in several areas. With this information, I will put together a report detailing what I found, and provide information on my plans on how best I can build skills should you choose to participate in virtual tutoring with me. This assessment is informal, meaning that it is designed to help me customize my teaching for your child. This report does not replicate an Educational Psychologist’s report, nor does it provide any sort of diagnosis.

Beforehand:

Tech:

Take a moment to plan your computer strategy. There are some ideas on how to organize your computer set up here.

You will be accessing two programmes:

• Bitpaper – an online whiteboard.
• Zoom – Web conferencing software.

Emotional:

If your child has anxiety or becomes anxious with a trigger (i.e. timed activities) please let me know beforehand.

Please have available:

• A straw, pipe cleaner, empty toilet paper tube or something similar.
• A piece of blank paper.
• 2 sheets of lined paper.
• Pens / pencils / writing implements your child is comfortable using.

Parent’s role:

As I do not know your child, and I am not in the room with your child, I require a parent to be present during the assessment and subsequent tutoring, until it is clear that your child doesn’t need you to be there all the time.

Interactions should be largely between myself and your child, however, I will need your support in some rare but key situations.

• Your child loses self or emotional control.
• Your child refuses to come to the computer.
• Your child is distracted by something off-screen and is unable to ignore the distraction.

The Language Assessment:

I will be assessing your child with the following skills. The assessment will be customized to be age-appropriate, and include play-based activities for younger children. Please review these skills and if you have any questions or concerns regarding them please contact me beforehand.

*For the laterality assessment, I will ask you to place the straw, tube or similar object in front and directly in the middle of your child.

There are a few skills that pose a challenge to assess online, as I need a different camera angle to see properly. These skills are body position when writing, penmanship & letter formation. For these skills, I will need your assistance. I may ask you to take a photo or change the angle of the camera during the assessment.

If you have any questions prior to the assessment, please let me know.