A psychological assessment can help explain what is going on, why certain difficulties may be happening, and what support may be needed.

I provide assessments for children, adolescents, and adults. Each assessment is tailored to the person, their developmental stage, and the referral question. This means the assessment process may look different depending on whether the main concern relates to autism, ADHD, learning, development, emotional functioning, behaviour, daily living skills, or functional capacity.

Assessments may explore:

• Autism

• ADHD

• Mental health and emotional functioning

• Developmental history

• Learning and school-based difficulties

• Behaviour and emotional regulation

• Daily living skills

• Adaptive functioning

• Functional capacity

• Support needs across home, school, work, services, or community settings

The goal is to provide a clear, practical understanding of the person’s profile. This includes areas of strength, areas of difficulty, likely contributing factors, and recommendations that can be used in everyday life.

Most assessments involve more than one appointment. The process usually includes background information, clinical interview, questionnaires, observation and clinical assessment, scoring, interpretation, formulation, report writing, and a feedback session.

For child and adolescent assessments, information is usually gathered from parents or caregivers, and where appropriate, teachers or other professionals. For adult assessments, information may be gathered from the person being assessed, and sometimes from a parent, partner, family member, or other support person where this is helpful and appropriate.

The total assessment time includes both direct appointments and the clinical work completed outside sessions. This includes reviewing background information, scoring questionnaires, interpreting results, integrating information from multiple sources, writing the report, and preparing recommendations.

Reports are written in clear language and are designed to be practical. Recommendations may relate to home, school, work, therapy, daily living, NDIS supports, or other services.

Autism assessments explore social communication, relationships, restricted or repetitive patterns of behaviour, sensory processing, routines, interests, emotional regulation, developmental history, adaptive functioning, and support needs.

For children and adolescents, autism assessments include parent or caregiver interview, questionnaires, clinical observation, and information from school or other relevant settings where available.

For adults, autism assessments include clinical interview, developmental history, questionnaires, and collateral information where available. I understand that not all adults have access to detailed early developmental information. This can be discussed as part of the assessment process.

Autism assessment reports include a clear summary of findings, diagnostic formulation, DSM-5-TR diagnostic criteria, support needs, and practical recommendations.

ADHD assessments explore attention, concentration, impulsivity, activity level, executive functioning, emotional regulation, school or work functioning, daily routines, developmental history, and the impact of symptoms across settings.

For children and adolescents, ADHD assessments include parent or caregiver information, teacher information where available, questionnaires, and clinical assessment.

For adults, ADHD assessments include clinical interview, developmental history, questionnaires, and collateral information where available. The assessment also considers whether attention or executive functioning difficulties may be better explained by anxiety, mood, trauma, sleep, stress, autism, learning difficulties, or other factors.

ADHD assessment reports include a clear summary of findings, diagnostic formulation, DSM-5-TR diagnostic criteria, functional impact, and practical recommendations.

Cognitive and learning assessments explore how a person thinks, learns, processes information, solves problems, remembers information, and manages different types of academic or everyday learning demands.

These assessments may be helpful when there are concerns about learning, attention, intellectual functioning, school progress, academic achievement, executive functioning, or uneven cognitive development.

I provide cognitive and learning assessments for children aged 6 years and older, adolescents, and adults. Depending on the referral question, additional information may also be gathered about academic skills, developmental history, school functioning, adaptive skills, attention, emotional factors, and any known neurodevelopmental or mental health concerns.

Cognitive and learning assessments include components that must be completed face-to-face. This is because many cognitive and academic assessment tasks need to be administered in person to ensure the results are valid, reliable, and consistent with standardised testing requirements.

I do not currently offer routine in-office appointments. Where face-to-face assessment is required, an appropriate consulting space will be arranged. Clients will need to travel to the agreed location for the in-person components of the assessment, which will generally be within the Adelaide Hills region.

Where appropriate, other parts of the assessment process, such as intake interviews, background information, parent or caregiver interviews, and feedback sessions, may be completed by telehealth.

The report includes a clear summary of the person’s cognitive and learning profile, areas of strength and difficulty, likely functional or academic impacts, and practical recommendations for home, school, work, study, or everyday life.

Functional capacity assessments explore how a person’s disability, mental health, neurodevelopmental profile, or psychological functioning affects their everyday life.

These assessments may consider communication, social participation, learning, self-care, self-management, mobility, emotional regulation, behaviour, daily living skills, decision-making, and community participation.

Functional capacity assessments are often used to support NDIS planning, plan reviews, therapy planning, and service recommendations. The focus is on understanding what the person can do independently, where they need support, what helps, and what supports may be required to build capacity and reduce functional barriers.

Reports are written in practical language and include recommendations that relate to the person’s goals, daily functioning, and support needs.

Some people need an assessment that considers more than one area, such as autism and ADHD, autism and learning, ADHD and emotional functioning, or functional capacity alongside neurodevelopmental or mental health concerns.

Combined assessments are quoted individually. This is because some parts of the assessment may overlap, while other parts may require additional interviews, questionnaires, collateral information, scoring, interpretation, or report writing.

Where a combined assessment is requested, I will consider the referral question and provide guidance about what assessment approach is likely to be most appropriate.

Assessment fees include the time needed for interviews, questionnaires, observation or clinical assessment, scoring, interpretation, formulation, report writing, recommendations, and feedback.

Autism assessment: $2,500.00

Adult ADHD assessment: $1,800.00

Child and adolescent ADHD assessment: $2,000.00

Functional Capacity Assessment: $2,500.00

Cognitive and Learning Assessment: $2,500.00

Combined assessments, such as Autism and ADHD, are quoted individually. This is because some parts of the assessment may overlap, and the total cost depends on the referral question and amount of work required.

I accept private fee-paying clients and NDIS participants who are self-managed or plan-managed.

If extra work is needed, such as extensive record review, additional liaison, multiple informants, or extra reporting requests, this will be discussed with you first. Additional work is billed at $250.00 per hour, in 15-minute increments.