At The Hummingbird Centre, we are ready to guide you and your family through every step of the assessment journey. Our goal is to make the process a positive and meaningful experience—one that provides clarity, understanding, and the support needed to thrive.
We offer high-quality assessments for Autism, ADHD, cognitive, trauma (NMT), and learning or behavioural differences, using a thorough and personalised approach. Our team combines their skilled clinical judgment with carefully selected, evidence-based tools to ensure accurate and insightful assessments.
At the Hummingbird Centre, our assessment style is thorough and personalised, focusing on understanding your needs. Our assessments combine evidence-based tools with compassionate dialogue to uncover unique strengths and challenges. This process informs tailored strategies that promote growth and well-being, ensuring clients feel heard and supported throughout their journey.
We respect neurodiversity and celebrate the unique ways individuals think, learn, and engage with the world. We believe in a transparent, supportive process that values the voices of clients, families, and professionals.
We can help people of all ages and backgrounds, including children, adolescents, and adults. Our services support those with neurodiversity and learning challenges, as well as their families. We also work with schools and workplaces to create inclusive environments. We aim to empower everyone we serve, providing them with the tools and strategies to thrive. Whether facing everyday challenges or significant hurdles, we are here to help.
We offer a range of assessments tailored to meet diverse needs, including ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, learning difficulties, behavioural concerns, and cognitive evaluations. Our comprehensive approach ensures that we capture a complete picture of each individual’s strengths and challenges. Each assessment is conducted using evidence-based tools and methodologies, allowing us to provide insightful recommendations and support strategies. Our goal is to empower clients with a better understanding of their unique profiles, facilitating personal growth and effective interventions.
Our team of skilled assessors is dedicated to providing high-quality evaluations. With extensive training and ongoing supervision, they are well-equipped to deliver comprehensive assessments. Each assessor brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in understanding neurodiversity, learning challenges, and behavioural concerns. We prioritise professional development, ensuring our assessors stay current with the latest research and best practices. This commitment to excellence allows us to provide insightful, tailored recommendations that support the individual needs of our clients.
We are dedicated to making assessments more accessible through flexible, distance-friendly options. By combining phone consultations and specially arranged virtual or in-person sessions, we can provide high-quality, personalised assessments that cut down on travel requirements. For regional areas and community groups, we also offer customised packages for administering multiple assessments in your local area. If you’d like to learn more about our tailored outreach services, contact us today on 02 4946 0919. We’d love to hear from you!
Assessments
The Hummingbird Centre regularly provides Autism (ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), behavioural, cognitive, learning and trauma assessments to children and adults within the Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Hunter Valley region. We also offer assessments for Disability Support Pension applications and Individual Education Plans. Using gold standard assessment tools and clinical observations, our clinicians can assist you with a formal diagnosis and provide guidance for reaching full potential.
Our process is built on four key foundations:
We take the time to understand each client’s developmental, medical, social, and educational history. By gathering insights from caregivers, educators, and other relevant professionals, we ensure a comprehensive understanding of strengths and challenges.
Our approach recognises each individual’s unique abilities, differences, and support needs. We use gold-standard structured interviews, observations, and standardised tools to assess cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioural functioning in relevant environments.
We carefully select empirically validated tools to assess Autism, ADHD, learning, and cognitive differences. Our assessments align with best-practice guidelines, ensuring accuracy while avoiding unnecessary testing.
An assessment is more than just a diagnosis—it’s about understanding and empowering the individual. Our reports and feedback sessions provide tailored recommendations to support daily life, learning, and wellbeing
Autism assessments typically involve 4 to 6 assessment sessions, and are available through our Newcastle, Broadmeadow and Warners Bay clinics. Our clinicians will evaluate the individual’s development history and behaviour to discover whether they show symptoms of Autism and how those symptoms impact their ability to interact with their environment. An Autism assessment includes the ADOS-2 which is a systematic observation tool involving play and social activities used to observe social and communication behaviours, which are central to an Autism diagnosis.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) assessments are available through our Newcastle, Broadmeadow and Warners Bay clinics. Our Psychologists assess for ADHD in children over 6 years, as well as adults. ADHD evaluations include a range of psychological assessments as well as a formal diagnosis process including a paediatrician and/or psychiatrist. Depending on the individual circumstances, an ADHD assessment may involve the:
At the conclusion of your ADHD assessment, if you are an adult seeking medication, we can internally refer you to our Psychiatrist Dr Lindsay Gale.
Behavioural assessments can help identify challenging behaviour patterns and guide appropriate management strategies. Depending on the individual’s circumstances, a Behavioural Assessment may include:
Cognitive and Adaptive assessments are available through our Newcastle, Broadmeadow and Warner’s Bay Clinics. Cognitive assessments can help to identify learning strengths, weaknesses and difficulties, and provide recommendations for learning strategies. They can also support examinations of giftedness, intellectual disabilities, Autism and ADHD. Adaptive assessments assess daily living skills, and are vital in generating a holistic understanding of the individual’s functioning. Cognitive and Adaptive assessments used by our clinicians include:
Learning Assessments are available through our Newcastle and Warner’s Bay clinics, and provide insight into a person’s learning needs. Learning assessments used by our clinicians include the Weschler Individual Achievement Test 3rd Edition (WIAT-III). The WIAT-III can identify academic strengths and weakness, provide intervention recommendations, and support eligibility for educational services or specific learning disability diagnosis. The WIAT-III is suitable for people aged 4 years through to 50 years. Our learning assessments are typically completed alongside a cognitive assessment to support a global assessment of strengths, weaknesses and specific learning needs.
Individual Education Plans or learning advice from our Education Specialist Kim Bullock can be instrumental in navigating the school system when your child is neurodivergent.
An Individual Education Plan (IEP) is a customised educational program designed to meet the unique needs of a student who has learning difficulties, disabilities, or other special educational needs. It outlines specific learning goals, the services the student will receive, and how progress will be measured. Read more about IEPs here.
The Hummingbird Centre’s Trauma-Informed Psychological Wellbeing Assessments provide a developmental understanding and intervention plan for children who have experienced trauma, and is available through our Newcastle clinic.
This assessment is informed by the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) and contains a complete developmental history and collated information from a wide range of sources. The Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) is an approach developed by a world expert in neuroscience and childhood trauma Dr. Bruce Perry from the Child Trauma Academy in the USA.
This assessment pulls together all the information known about the child in a systematic way and links it to what we know about brain development and how trauma affects the developing brain. Rather than looking at “what is wrong with this child?”, we explore “what has happened to this child”, and “how can we help them to heal?”. The assessment generates a brain map summarising functioning in 32 areas and looks at which systems are working well and which systems need additional input. It looks at the question of which strategies will help THIS child at THIS given time, given their current brain functioning. This helps the team working with the child to make a plan that helps the child’s whole brain.
The purpose of this assessment is not to diagnose the child with a disorder, and it is not a specific therapeutic technique; it is a way to understand the child’s history and current functioning to provide a pathway forward and plan for supports.
Our Psychologists can provide supporting evidence towards a Disability Support Pension application in either of 2 categories:
From 2023 the Australian Government recognises evidence provided by a Psychologist, not just a Clinical Psychologist.
