Told to assess my five yr old

[Inertia]

I will say that as parents of GTC and children with ASD, one of the biggest challenges we face is teaching some teachers the difference between "Learning Difficulty" and "Learning Differently".

The assessment certainly can't hurt and it is hard to hear, I know, but really it can help prepare the teachers for the unique style of your child.

[Smoke Jaguar]

Just to clarify my previous post:
As some of the other girls have said, it's not going to be a 'schooling' test - it will be assessments for cognitive ability, and there will be follow up assessments because of the way these results change in this age range. If they don't talk about monitoring it like this then ask the questions of them. These are not really predictive tests, just tests to see where children are at at the time of testing and indicative of what they need, if anything, to 'catch' up to a certain range.
The test can be suggested and recommended by the teachers, but they are conducted by people competent and qualified to do the testing (not like the stupid MCHN 'development' tests that are conducted like a game of monopoly...unless that was just MY nurse, grrrr!!) - they are not done by the teachers. It's then up to you to take the results and discussions back to the teacher or the school to see how you can best serve your daughter's educational needs.
It's not a reflection on you, it's just about giving your daughter a fair start

[LimeSlice]

I am a little confused...You are in WA?
Is your daughter in Pre-Primary or Grade one? Generally speaking they will not take a child into grade one that has not done pre-primary anyway would they? It is only a few days a week too and half days. It could be worth looking into anyway.

I wish you luck with the assessment should you take the teachers' advice and have it done.

[*Ali*]

Unfortunatly Alexis in WA kindy and pre-primary are pre compulsary so even though it is desirable a school can not actualley exclude a child that has not attended. However there is a very noticable difference between kids who have attended and kids who have not.

This is the quote from the DET website

Is attendance at kindergarten and pre-primary compulsory?
Although attendance at kindergarten and pre-primary is not compulsory (in accordance with the School Education Act 1999) more that 90% of children in Western Australia attend kindergarten and 95% of children attend a pre-primary program.

The Department of Education and Training is committed to providing a place for all eligible children.

Like others have said, I would get the assessment done, if it has been picked up by 2 consecutive teachers, then they are obviously seeing something. As teachers we do not suggest testing likely, thre is usually something that has caught our attention for us to be suggesting it. The test are not reading and writing tests at this age, more picture and conversation based.I am of the opionion the sooner the better, at least if there is a problem it is dealt with and you are on the road to finding some help for your child. Imagine how you would feel if your daughter did have a problem and a school ignore it, at the detriment to her learning!

[MantaRay]

Mayaness, I wouldn't think they'd necessarily do a cognitive assessment at that age. During our assessments so far they have suggested doing that at age 7 (although our issue is that DS is cognitively advanced and delayed in other areas, I still think that would apply). The assessments are more to do with overall development etc.

[LimeSlice]

ah I see, thanks Ali