Assessing 7 year olds

When assessing young children, it's critical to strike the balance between identifying an underlying specific learning difficulty and allowing enough time for things to 'click' as some children just need a little longer than their friends...and then they're fine.

Our professional bodies guide us about best practice and advise that the following are the situations where an assessment would be appropriate for a young child:

• If a child continues to have difficulties with their learning despite appropriate, sustained and monitored interventions being implemented.

• If a child appears to be able to sustain progress in literacy only with a high level of support and intervention.

• If a child is showing signs of distress and/or behavioural difficulties that appear to be linked to difficulties in literacy attainment.

• If a child’s difficulties in literacy are highly unexpected, given other aspects of their achievement profile.

• If other (non-developmental) explanations for persisting difficulties have been considered or excluded, such as frequent school moves, frequent school absence due to ill-health, trauma, the impact of learning loss during the COVID 19 pandemic, inappropriate or inconsistent instruction/intervention strategies etc.

You may wish to speak with the school about which of these applies to your child or whether the school would suggest that you wait until your child turns 8.