Cognitive Assessment.
Ages 6-16 years
This assessment is designed to understand your child’s cognitive strengths and thinking style.
It involves standardised intellectual testing using the WISC-V, together with adaptive behaviour questionnaires completed by parents, to understand how cognitive abilities translate into everyday functioning.
What does the typical Cognitive assessment involve?
Our cognitive assessment involves a structured session with your child using a range of engaging tasks, puzzles, questions, and problem-solving activities. These tasks are designed to assess areas such as verbal reasoning, visual-spatial skills, working memory, processing speed, and overall intellectual ability.
Parent questionnaires are also completed to better understand how your child’s cognitive abilities translate into everyday skills such as communication, independence, and social functioning. Together, this information provides a detailed profile of cognitive strengths and areas that may benefit from support.
For further details about the assessment process and how to get started, you can download our information pack below.
Cognitive assessment information and Pricing guide.
The Cost.
Assessment fees vary between psychologists and reflect the clinician’s level of experience and the specific assessment requirements.
Eran Bar
Psychologist, Clinical Registrar
$1300 total upfront or;
Assessment appointment on the day $500
Feedback appointment on the day $200
Before the report is written $600
Alex Strauss
Senior Clinical Psychologist
$1520 total upfront or;
Assessment appointment on the day $580
Feedback appointment on the day $235
Before the report is written $705
All prices quoted are inclusive of GST.
Where sessions are held via telehealth, we may request the relevant fees to be finalised before the day.
When is a Cognitive Assessment recommended?
It is often suggested when there are questions about a child’s intellectual profile, learning capacity, or overall thinking style. It may be helpful if there are concerns about learning difficulties, possible giftedness, uneven skill development, or to better understand a child’s strengths and support needs.
This assessment can also provide useful information for school planning, accommodations, and further diagnostic considerations where appropriate.
Did you know?
A cognitive assessment can be completed on its own or combined with academic achievement testing to provide a more comprehensive understanding of learning.
When cognitive ability is considered alongside academic skills, we can better determine whether challenges are related to a specific learning disorder (such as Dyslexia) or reflect a broader learning profile.
If you would like to explore a combined assessment option, please see our Educational Assessment page.
More on the WISC-V.
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Fifth Edition (WISC-V)
The WISC-V is a comprehensive cognitive assessment used to understand how a child thinks, reasons, and processes information. It measures areas such as verbal reasoning, visual-spatial skills, working memory, processing speed, and problem-solving.
The assessment provides an overall summary of intellectual ability, alongside a detailed profile of strengths and relative areas of challenge across different thinking domains. While this overall score is often referred to as an “IQ” score, the broader profile is typically more informative in understanding how a child learns and where support or extension may be beneficial.
The results can assist with educational planning, identification of intellectual strengths or vulnerabilities, and clarification of a child’s overall cognitive profile.
Adaptive Behaviour Questionnaires.
Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Third Edition (Vineland) or Adaptive Behavior Assessment System (ABAS)
Adaptive behaviour measures are questionnaires completed by parents (and sometimes teachers) to understand how a child manages everyday life skills. These tools assess areas such as communication, social skills, independence, daily living skills, and practical functioning.
While cognitive testing looks at a child’s thinking abilities, adaptive measures help us understand how those abilities translate into real-world functioning. This can be particularly important when exploring intellectual disability, uneven development, or differences between cognitive potential and day-to-day independence.
A note on assessment inclusions.
Transparent costs matter to us, and we aim to make pricing clear from the outset. In most cases, the quoted fee includes all components needed to complete the assessment.
Occasionally, additional areas of concern may become clearer as we gather information. If the psychologist believes further testing would be helpful to ensure an accurate and thorough understanding, we’ll talk this through with you first. Any additional recommendations and associated fees (if applicable) will always be discussed with you upfront, so you can decide whether you’d like to proceed.