B1
Tracks
Track 2 | Shaping the future of assessment
| Friday, February 13, 2026 |
| 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM |
| Ballroom B |
Overview
Adapting with Integrity: Approaches to assessing clients with diverse and complex needs
(2 hour WORKSHOP) Karen Oakley & Anastasia Davy
Speaker
Dr Karen Oakley
Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology
University Of Canberra
Adapting with Integrity: Approaches to assessing clients with diverse and complex needs
11:00 AM - 1:00 PMSubmission/ Abstract
Psychologists are ethically bound to conduct assessments using established psychological knowledge and practice within their areas of competence (APS, 2018a; Psychology Board AHPRA, 2024). We also need to ensure equitable access to psychological testing for people with disability (APS, 2018b) to enable equitable access to accurate diagnostics and understanding of individuals, and program and service access. Psychologists receive solid training and have access to ongoing instruction in the administration of standardised assessments of functioning. However, many encounter clients who, for various reasons, cannot meaningfully engage with such standardised tools.
Participation in standardised assessments requires a range of “access skills,” including communication, self-regulation, hearing, vision, fine motor, and attention skills (Thompson, 2018). Significant limitations in one or more of these make standardised assessments challenging or unfeasible. Existing guidance for psychologists assessing individuals with diverse access support needs is limited. It often focuses on adaptations to testing procedures for single impairments (e.g., Stadskleiv, 2020; Wolf-Schein, 1998), rather than offering comprehensive frameworks for those with multiple or more complex needs that require substantial modifications to standard assessments. This presents both ethical and practical challenges for psychologists in their ability to provide equitable access to rigorous cognitive, educational, and developmental assessments.
Our research has explored how Australian psychologists assess intellectual functioning in clients with significant access skill limitations. In-depth interviews with 12 clinicians were combined with qualitative survey responses from 39 psychologists with experience in assessment across the lifespan. The findings will be used to develop a draft framework for conducting assessments with clients with diverse and complex access skill support needs. The findings from this research will be integrated with published research to inform this masterclass.
In this this interactive masterclass, participants will be supported to reflect on their own practices and build knowledge and skills in conducting assessments with clients with diverse and complex access skill support needs. Participants will be introduced to practical and ethical frameworks for adapting or departing from standardised assessment procedures derived from our own research and the published literature. Discussions will consider how to document, interpret, and communicate results when working outside standardised assessment practices. The limitations and risks of these approaches will be discussed, with a focus on ethical reasoning, empirical justification, and sound formulation practices.
This masterclass addresses core professional competencies and aims to strengthen participants’ capacity to provide equitable and ethically sound assessment for clients with complex needs.
Participation in standardised assessments requires a range of “access skills,” including communication, self-regulation, hearing, vision, fine motor, and attention skills (Thompson, 2018). Significant limitations in one or more of these make standardised assessments challenging or unfeasible. Existing guidance for psychologists assessing individuals with diverse access support needs is limited. It often focuses on adaptations to testing procedures for single impairments (e.g., Stadskleiv, 2020; Wolf-Schein, 1998), rather than offering comprehensive frameworks for those with multiple or more complex needs that require substantial modifications to standard assessments. This presents both ethical and practical challenges for psychologists in their ability to provide equitable access to rigorous cognitive, educational, and developmental assessments.
Our research has explored how Australian psychologists assess intellectual functioning in clients with significant access skill limitations. In-depth interviews with 12 clinicians were combined with qualitative survey responses from 39 psychologists with experience in assessment across the lifespan. The findings will be used to develop a draft framework for conducting assessments with clients with diverse and complex access skill support needs. The findings from this research will be integrated with published research to inform this masterclass.
In this this interactive masterclass, participants will be supported to reflect on their own practices and build knowledge and skills in conducting assessments with clients with diverse and complex access skill support needs. Participants will be introduced to practical and ethical frameworks for adapting or departing from standardised assessment procedures derived from our own research and the published literature. Discussions will consider how to document, interpret, and communicate results when working outside standardised assessment practices. The limitations and risks of these approaches will be discussed, with a focus on ethical reasoning, empirical justification, and sound formulation practices.
This masterclass addresses core professional competencies and aims to strengthen participants’ capacity to provide equitable and ethically sound assessment for clients with complex needs.
Learning outcomes
On completion of this masterclass, participants will be able to:
- Describe research-based frameworks for adapting or departing from standardised assessment procedures for clients with diverse and complex access skill support needs.
- Describe documentation, interpretation, formulation and result communication considerations when working outside standardised assessment practices.
- Discuss and reflect upon limitations and risks of using non-standardised assessment processes to ensure ethical reasoning and empirical justification drive decisions about assessment and formulation.
- Describe research-based frameworks for adapting or departing from standardised assessment procedures for clients with diverse and complex access skill support needs.
- Describe documentation, interpretation, formulation and result communication considerations when working outside standardised assessment practices.
- Discuss and reflect upon limitations and risks of using non-standardised assessment processes to ensure ethical reasoning and empirical justification drive decisions about assessment and formulation.
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Dr Karen Oakley is a Clinical Neuropsychologist, Board Approved Supervisor, and Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology at the University of Canberra. She teaches child and adolescent development in initial teacher education courses, supporting future teachers tailor teaching strategies to meet diverse developmental needs. Her clinical and research work focuses on understanding and supporting individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions. Karen has worked across community health, schools, private practice, and university teaching clinics. She supervises and trains psychologists at all career stages, strengthening their applied understanding of neurodevelopmental conditions and promoting evidence-based assessment and formulation practices informed by the integration of observations, developmental history, and test performance. Her current research explores assessment approaches for individuals who cannot engage with standardised tools, particularly in the context of diagnosing intellectual disability. This work is being undertaken in collaboration with Honours student and co-presenter, Anastasia Davy, who has been instrumental in advancing the project.
Anastasia Davy
Research Assistant
University of Canberra
Adapting with Integrity: Approaches to assessing clients with diverse and complex needs
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM.....
Anastasia Davy has been training people who work with neurodivergent people in a variety of settings for over 20 years. She has a Masters of International and Community Development and a Graduate Diploma in Psychology. She has worked in diverse sectors including international development, social inclusion policy, fundraising, and senior management and governance of not-for-profit organisations. A common theme has been finding innovative approaches to increase the inclusion of marginalised groups. She is currently retraining as a psychologist and provides neurodiversity consulting services to organisations.
