IQ Assessment

Sometimes it is necessary to test a person’s intellectual/cognitive functioning, or IQ. An IQ test can help provide information about a person’s cognitive strengths and how to capitalise on these, or identify areas of weaknesses and determine what level of support a person needs.

An IQ test can be completed as a stand-alone assessment (for example, assessing giftedness or intellectual disability), or as part of a wider assessment for other neurodevelopmental or learning disorders.

Bowen Hill Psychology has extensive experience in conducting IQ assessments in children, adolescents and adults. We are approachable, child-friendly and use gold standard assessment processes.

In general, we offer IQ testing for children age 6+. It is noted that the there is less reliability when assessing very young children due to testing factors such as attention and motivation and IQ stabilising as the child enters primary school. We do have tools available to test children from age 2y6m (WPPSI-IV) when necessary.

What the Assessment Involves 

At a minimum, the assessment process involves one session of a few hours where an intake interview is completed with the client and parent or guardian, behavioural observations are conducted by the psychologist, an ABAS-3 questionnaire is completed about the client’s adaptive functioning and a cognitive assessment is administered with the client (WISC-V or WAIS-IV).

The cognitive assessment is usually conducted with just the psychologist and client in the room, with as many breaks and reinforcers as they need. It consists of a series of activities which measure the persons visual and verbal reasoning skills, attentional capacity and processing speed. People of all ages often enjoy the activities, as the tasks are similar to puzzles and riddles.

The persons’ scores are then compared to peers of a similar age, in order to see where strengths and weaknesses lie.

In some cases we may ask to complete behavioural observations outside the clinic if needed (e.g. at home or school).

After testing, we provide you with a comprehensive report including recommendations for different settings. Our reports often confirm what is already known, but can help parents and guardians advocate for their child’s needs and can be used as supporting documentation for NDIS applications or school verifications.

Book An Assessment

If you are interested in an IQ assessment for you, or your child, please contact our team at Bowen Hills Psychology on (07) 3252 7114.