Developmental Assessment

Developmental Assessment is a psychological assessment process that seeks to understand a child's developmental path, identifying their skills, strengths and the areas that may benefit from more specific support.
It is intended for children from the first months of life up to approximately 6 years of age, allowing an overall assessment of child development across different domains, namely:

- Cognitive development;
- Language (receptive and expressive) and communication;
- Practical reasoning;
- Executive functions (such as attention and planning);
- Psychomotor skills;
- Visuoperceptual skills;
- Autonomy and social-emotional development.
The assessment draws on different sources of information, including clinical observation, interviews with parents or carers and the use of validated psychological instruments, allowing a rigorous and individualised understanding of the child's development.
It can be particularly useful when there are doubts about development, when difficulties are observed in one or more areas of a child's functioning, or when an assessment is needed to support educational decisions — for instance regarding early, delayed or conditional entry into the first cycle of basic education.

Child development does not happen in a straight line. Each child has their own pace, their own history and their own way of growing. Our commitment is not to compare children with one another, but to understand each child in their singularity.
A developmental assessment does not only look for difficulties. It seeks to recognise skills, understand needs and provide information that helps support the child, the family and the different settings in which they grow.
We believe a psychological assessment only makes sense when it answers a concrete clinical question and when it can contribute to better-informed decisions and to care better matched to the child's needs.
Whenever necessary, the results allow recommendations to be drawn up and guide psychological or psychoeducational intervention, or liaison with other health and education professionals.
More than assigning a label, we seek to understand the child in order to better help them grow.
The whole process is conducted with scientific rigour, ethical responsibility and absolute respect for the individuality, dignity and potential of each child. Child development rarely happens in a straight line. Growing up involves progress, challenges, different rhythms and very particular ways of learning and adapting to the world.