At Mind Matters, our approach is calm, transparent, and tailored to your child, creating a safe space to explore their strengths, challenges, and unique way of thinking.
While assessments are a really helpful way to explore some of these, we understand that assessments can feel intimidating. Parents often worry about what the process will involve and whether it will truly benefit their child.
At Mind Matters, our approach is centered on providing personalised, insightful services that prioritise your comfort. Our clinic rooms are designed to be child-friendly and create a calming environment, ensuring that you and your child feel safe to openly discuss any challenges.
We will always be transparent and explain our assessment process clearly, helping you understand exactly what to expect.
Signs your child may need additional support with behaviour or learning:
School drop-offs feel heavy, with ongoing reluctance, worry, or upset about going
Your child seems to learn differently, falling behind or struggling to keep pace with their peers
Constant movement, restlessness, or difficulty sitting still compared to other children
Noticeable gaps, either excelling far ahead or struggling more than others their age
Difficulty focusing, staying on task, or following through on instructions
Our transparent, 6-step assessment process is designed to be child-friendly and calming and provide you with detailed insights.
We conduct an interview with the parent/s to understand concerns, discuss in greater depth what the assessment will cover, and decide on the most suitable assessment to address the concerns.
We have a dedicated session with the child to administer assessment tools relevant to the concerns raised by the parent/s. Depending on the nature of the assessment, 1-2 testing sessions are required.
We send online forms to parents and teachers to get information regarding the child’s social-emotional-behavioural functioning. This helps us gain a thorough understanding of what they are experiencing and how this might relate to any initial concerns.
Following the testing phase, we score and interpret the assessments and collate the results to generate a comprehensive overview.
We compose a detailed report that incorporates the assessment outcomes, insights from the interviews, and an analytical perspective on the collected data and relevant recommendations.
We’ll hold a feedback session to review the report and any potential diagnoses and recommendations. Additional feedback sessions can be arranged by the parent if required at the clinician’s hourly rate.
Once the assessment is complete, you’ll receive a report with the results as well as a comprehensive list of recommendations for both home and school. These recommendations are based on a thorough investigation of your child’s strengths and weaknesses, and can help you understand them better, find them the right support and intervene where necessary to help them reach their full potential.
Have a question about our fees or want to book an assessment for your child?
Contact our friendly team today or give us a call on (02) 8080 9601.
Our assessments are comprehensive, multi-informant and are a staged clinical process rather than a single appointment.
The total time for an assessment can range between 8-13 hours depending on which assessment you are coming for.
Child assessments at Mind Matters range from $2450 to $4000.
The fee covers multiple hours of the clinicians time which includes both the time you are face to face with them for your initial, in person testing sessions and feedback session, as well as the behind the scenes work such as scoring and interpretation of standardised measures, integration of information from multiple informants (such as parents, teachers and the client) and detailed report writing.
If you would like a more detailed breakdown of the cost of your assessment, please reach out to our client support team who can provide you with this information via email.
There are typically multiple appointments and informants as part of the comprehensive assessment process and it can take 2-4 weeks to complete the initial components of the assessment. Once all necessary information has been gathered, it takes approximately 3-4 weeks to complete the report.
If the assessment findings meet the required clinical criteria, a formal diagnosis can be provided. Psychometric assessments are designed to determine whether someone meets diagnostic thresholds using standardised measures, clinical interviews, and information from multiple sources.
In some cases, results may indicate traits or areas of difficulty that don’t meet full diagnostic criteria; this is still clinically meaningful and allows us to provide clear explanations and targeted recommendations.
The goal is always diagnostic clarity and practical guidance, rather than assigning a label unnecessarily.
A referral is not required to have an assessment at Mind Matters. However, multidisciplinary assessments are encouraged and a GP/psychiatrist/paediatrician may refer for psychologist input.
Generally assessments are not funded by medicare or the NDIS. Your private health fund may provide some funding and we encourage you to confirm if this is available. For ASD assessments for clients aged under 25, there may be a medicare rebate available. It is best to talk to your GP about this. However, at present most comprehensive psychometric assessments aren’t covered under Medicare, even when a GP provides a referral.
Assessments are often scheduled in the morning because that’s when most children and adults are at their freshest. Psychometric testing requires concentration, effort, and consistent performance, so morning sessions help ensure the results accurately reflect abilities rather than fatigue or distraction later in the day.
This timing helps provide the most reliable and valid picture of strengths and challenges.
