Functional Assessments
Some children may require a functional assessment in order to access therapy funding through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) or to support with funding reviews. If this is a requirement for your plan, please contact us to book in a time with one of our team members. We are able to complete functional assessments for children/young adults aged 7-19 years.
Functional assessments completed by different organisations can all look a little different and collect information on slightly different topics. The aim of a functional assessment is to investigate and collate information including an individual’s strengths, current supports, areas to develop and goal areas. As part of collating this information, we use a mixture of standardised assessment and observation. They can be a helpful starting point for goal setting and working out a therapy and supports plan, or at other times for checking in with changes for an individual to help keep therapy and support plans informed.
A functional assessment with Calm and Connected typically includes:
- A home or clinic visit to complete a parent interview using the Vineland Comprehensive Parent Interview. This assessment is a standardised assessment used to assess the things that someone can do day to day and the degree of help they need to do this. This is a parent/ caregiver report assessment. The therapist rates areas based on the responses of the caregiver during the discussion in order to complete this assessment. The Vineland includes an overall score, and looks into three domains - communication, daily living skills and socialisation. Ratings are based on the things that someone can do without assistance. It helps to give some numbers and figures that can help to summarise strengths and challenges, and that can be used to compare scores across years as a way to capture changes.
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A home, school or community visit:
Observation options:
Community visit to assess skills including: money skills, social skills, road safety & public transport (if a required skill, or child is 15 years and older)
Home visit to assess skills including: self care tasks, chores/ domestic tasks, organisation, social skills
School visit to assess skills including: social skills, attention, transitions and to aid in identifying stressors and supports - In some cases, having some additional standardised assessments can aid in collecting and collating information. There is an option to complete assessments (such as the Sensory Processing Measure; Caregiver Burden Scale; Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire). Please speak to the therapist working with you to ask about completing additional assessments if you are unsure if this could be beneficial. Any additional assessments are discussed between the therapist and the family and typically add 30 minutes of report writing to the total cost for the report for each additional assessment. Our team do not complete Assistive Technology assessments for items such as beds, bed rails, home modifications etc.
- Written report summarising results from the Vineland, home/ school and/ or community observations, and any other assessments completed as part of the functional assessment process. This report collates information and summarises strengths, areas to develop and recommendations for ongoing learning.
For our existing families who have been on one of our camps, or work with us regularly for therapy, we may not need to complete a formal observation at home/school/in the community as this may have already been done as part of your child’s therapy. In this case, we do not need to do this again, unless this is something that would be beneficial for your child and family when discussed with your therapist. Typically for current clients completing a functional assessment involves:
- a home or clinic visit to complete the Vineland Comprehensive Parent Interview
- a written report provided within 3 weeks following all information gathered.
- additional standardised assessments as above
If you would like to speak more about completing a functional assessment please complete our services intake form and a member of our team will be in touch.
Additional INFORMATION
Costs
Our functional assessments are charged at an hourly rate. Please fill in the intake form above so that our team can be in contact to provide a quote based on what your child needs.