Designed for children that exhibit challenging behaviour which falls outside the range of what is expected at their age and stage of development. Concerns addressed include hyperactivity, impulsivity, aggression, anxiety, inability to sustain attention sustaining attention and disruptive behaviour in relation to peer learning.
In order to arrive at accurate diagnosis, behavioural assessments typically rely on parent interviews to attain a developmental history. This is then usually combined with diagnostic questionnaires, teacher interviews, observation at school in addition clinical consultation with the child. Armed with this knowledge and understanding, both children and parents can start to address the underlying causes of challenging disruptive behaviour and formulate treatment plans to modify both the behaviour itself and reduce its impact on everyday life.
My behavioural assessments are often helpful in the following ways:
Diagnosis and identification of behavioural disorders:
Three main behavioural disorders in children include:
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Children manifesting symptoms of ADHD can display some or all of the following behaviours:
Inattention: Making careless errors, difficulties concentrating, challenges organising tasks, often losing things and being easily distracted.
Hyperactivity and Impulsivity: Fidgeting and being restless. Talks to excess. Being noisy and loud. Blurting out answers. Impatience and interrupting others.
Combined: Children fit the criteria for this type if they have symptoms of both inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive types. This is the most common type of ADHD.
- Oppositional Defiance Disorder:The child with ODD often exhibits challenging behaviour towards adults and particularly towards those in authority. Behaviour may include being quick to anger, manifesting frequent angry outbursts, a propensity to argue with adults, refusing to follow rules and a propensity to become excessively frustrated.
- Conduct Disorder:These children are frequently guilty of bullying behaviour and of using threatening behaviour. They also frequently physically hurt others, stealing and are often cruel to animals.
I have found behaviour assessments to be helpful in the following scenarios:
The development of individualised treatment plans.
I provide tailored recommendations for parents and teachers to help manage a child’s challenging behaviour both at home and at school.
- Evaluation of intervention efficacy.
Assessments can be re-administered to measure how effective a treatment program has been in improving the severity of a child’s challenging behaviour an in the lessening of its impact on others.
- Differential diagnosis
Behavioural assessments administered in conjunction with cognitive assessments can help determine if challenging behaviours are the result of an intellectual disability a learning disorder or even giftedness.
