Special needs educational/pedagogical check-ups most often take place as a complement to psychiatric and clinical psychiatric examinations when it arises that the child’s development in a certain area differs from the normal (attention, speech perception, reading, writing, numeracy, etc.). In this case the special needs education teacher first meets with the parents and ask questions related to the development of the different areas. In this way the teacher can collect detailed information on the child’s development in relation to age standards and on the relative levels of development in the different areas. This phase is followed by the observation of the child (how he/she communicates, moves, plays, draws, etc.) and on the basis of these experiences the teacher prepares the scheme of the necessary tests (for example, assessment of partial abilities, speech perception examination, test of reading comprehension, writing and arithmetic test). The special needs education teacher then informs the parents, the psychiatrist who initiated the examinations and the psychologist about the results of the tests, so that by getting a more detailed picture of the child they can synthesize the observation results collected by several professionals in several situations. On the basis of the examination results, the teacher gives recommendation for development and therapeutic assistance as well.
A special type of tests is the school readiness test, when we determine the level of a child’s readiness for school attendance, including physical and mental maturity and a wide range of cognitive abilities (movement, drawing, speaking, speech comprehension, self-expression, attention, memory, etc.). Accomplishment of this test is important because the maturity in different fields basically determines the child’s later performance in school; the success in the acquisition of reading, writing and numeracy skills, the achievement of results in accordance with the abilities.
Besides the school readiness test, parents with their children can also apply for the participation in small-group developmental sessions focusing on school preparation.
Applying for the test is subject to prior booking an appointment. Duration of the test always depends on the child’s characteristics, abilities and on the nature of the problem that arises.
