Tailored guidance

throughout behaviour assessments with children

  • Over 20 years of combined experience
  • Trusted by over 5000 Australian families
  • Comprehensive and compassionate evaluations

Assessing and Evaluating Behavioural Concerns in Children

Behavioural assessments examine whether a child exhibits challenging behaviour that falls outside the age-appropriate range. Behavioural concerns may include hyperactivity, impulsivity, aggression, difficult sustaining attention, and disruptions to learning and peer relations.

Our behavioural assessments are useful in identifying and diagnosing behavioural disorders in the three main behavioural disorder areas:

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

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Children with ADHD can exhibit behaviours in three broad categories: inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity, and combined. Inattention includes making careless errors, difficulty concentrating, organising tasks, losing things, and getting easily distracted. Hyperactivity and impulsivity involve fidgeting, restlessness, excessive talking, being noisy, blurting out answers, impatience in turn-taking, and interrupting others. The combined type, the most common, includes symptoms from both inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive categories.

Oppositional Defiance Disorder

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Children living with ODD exhibit challenging behaviour, particularly towards adults and those in authority. Such behaviour may include becoming easily annoyed, having frequent angry outbursts, being argumentative with adults, refusing to follow rules and having a low tolerance for frustration.

Conduct Disorder

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Children who exhibit signs of a conduct disorder may frequently bully, use threatening behaviour, physically hurt others, be cruel to animals or steal from others.

Our behavioural assessments are also useful to:

  • Develop individualised treatment plans

    We can provide individualised recommendations to assist parents and teachers to manage a child’s challenging behaviour at home and in the school setting.

  • ‍Evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention

    Behavioural assessments can be re-administered over time to assess the effectiveness of a treatment program in improving the severity and impact of a child’s challenging behaviour.

  • Process of differential diagnosis

    Behavioural assessments can also be administered in conjunction with cognitive assessments to determine if challenging behaviours can be explained by the presence of an intellectual disability, learning disorder or giftedness.

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Assessment Process

Behavioural assessments involve a detailed process. To help formulate an accurate diagnosis, they typically require parent interviews to obtain:

  • A developmental history
  • Diagnostic questionnaires
  • Teacher interviews and/or school observations 
  • A clinical session with the child.

With this knowledge, children and parents can start to better understand the underlying causes of challenging behaviour and formulate treatment plans to modify both the behaviour itself and its impact on everyday life.

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Assessment Tools

We commonly use the following tools for a variety of purposes and age groups when completing this kind of assessment.

The Conners 4rd Edition (Conners 4®)

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Conners 4® is an assessment tool designed to measure a range of behaviours in children aged six to 18. It provides a thorough assessment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and its most common comorbid problems and disorders.

ASEBA Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL)

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The CBCL assesses adaptive and maladaptive functioning in children aged one to five. It examines a child’s participation and skills in certain activities as well as problem behaviours such as aggression, hyperactivity, bullying and defiance.

Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales (Vineland-3)

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The Vineland-3 is the leading instrument for supporting the diagnosis of intellectual and developmental disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder. It assesses skills including communication, daily living, socialisation and motor skills.

Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System (ABAS-III)

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The Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System (ABAS-III) is a multidimensional assessment tool used to assess the functional skills necessary for daily living. It can assist in diagnosing disabilities and disorders.

Our Team

Quirky Kid® would not be the company it is today without our talented, inspring and highly professional team that is as equally committed to the mental health and wellbeing of children as we are.

Assessments and Treatments

Our clinic provides psychological assessments and personalised treatment plans to support your child's needs. Our experienced psychologists gather detailed information to explore diagnoses and deliver effective interventions.

Each assessment results in a comprehensive report with background information, medical history, observations, and practical recommendations.

Our treatment plans address specific challenges and promote overall well-being.

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Get Started Today

Complete the form to schedule an assessment or treatment plan for your child.

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