Early Years Signature Assessment
For Children 3.5 to 6 years of age
Here are questions we are asked about our Early Years Signature Assessment, along with our responses, so you know more specifics about our unique service.
Early intervention is crucial for supporting development. If a skill is lagging early on—and gaps continue to widen as you wait—more intervention will be required to address deficits that have grown much larger over time. Doing what you can do now to strengthen early development as much as possible helps to create a more solid foundation for development going forward.
The Early Years Signature Assessment includes a Physician, a Psychologist, and a Psychometrist, all with expertise essential for understanding early development. These experts explore strengths and why difficulties are happening from several perspectives.
Members of our Multidisciplinary Assessment Team examine many developmental skills. More specifically, they examine cognitive development with a test of intellectual functioning (IQ). They also examine language skills, attention, motor skills and coordination, school readiness, behaviour and emotion regulation, and the ability to function independently in various daily tasks. These skills are assessed through a combination of direct testing by a Psychometrist, information derived from parent questionnaires and clinical interviews with the Physician and Psychologist, and additional information derived from teacher questionnaires if your child attends Daycare or Kindergarten.
This assessment focuses largely on whether development is on track. That means that many results will focus on whether your child is “at-risk” for on-going difficulties and whether specific interventions can be started now to minimize that risk while boosting skills. In some cases diagnoses can be made with the information we gather. For example, ADHD may be diagnosed in older children in this age range who struggle significantly to regulate their attention and behaviour. We’ll examine school readiness, looking at your child’s grasp of concepts like shape, number, and letter sounds, but Learning Disabilities can’t be diagnosed in this age range. LD diagnoses are made after students have been in school for a while—towards the end of Grade 1 at the earliest. If your child is 6 years old and finishing Grade 1, our Signature Psychoeducational Assessment would be more appropriate, allowing a Learning Disability diagnosis to be made if the results indicate academic challenges.
No, we do not diagnose Autism with our Early Years Assessment. If you wonder whether Autism is present because you have concerns about language development, social engagement, and sensory sensitivities, for example, we recommend you do a Comprehensive Autism Assessment prior to an Early Years Signature Assessment. If you are not sure which assessment to pursue first, members of our Next Steps Navigation Team can provide you with a complimentary 20-minute consultation after you have completed an Intake Form to discuss your options.
There are 6 appointments all together. There are 2 appointments with the Physician, 2 appointments with the Psychologist, and 2 appointments with the Psychometrist.
The Early Years Assessment involves a mix of both in-person and virtual sessions. Three appointments are in-person, specifically the first Physician appointment and the two testing appointments with the Psychometrist. The 2 appointments with the Psychologist, and the last appointment with the Physician are over secure video.
Physician appointments in the Early Years Signature Assessment are covered by OHIP. However, fees for Allied Health Professionals like Psychologists and Psychometrists, and the testing materials we use, are not covered. The cost for this comprehensive Early Years Assessment is $4750. Please check with your insurance provider to determine if some of this cost would be covered.
If you would like to book an Early Years Signature Psychoeducational Assessment, or a session with our Next Steps Navigation Team, you can get started by filling out our Intake Form. If you have already completed a Intake Form, please contact us at info@possibilitiesclinic.com or 1-833-482-5558 to request an appointment.
