Dr Richard Skelton | Child & Educational Psychologist | The Educational Psychologists
The IDS is not only incredibly comprehensive and covers a multitude of different domains but is also an extremely accessible and easily administered assessment. From the conceptualisation of the different subtests to the ease of administration and scoring, the whole of the IDS has the practitioner psychologist in mind. You can instantly tell that many of the issues with other assessments have been addressed within its design, and its intuitive ease of administration means that I have been able to quickly trial new assessments as part of an already tight schedule.
Although I knew that the IDS-2 was a comprehensive assessment, it was surprising to find that it covers all of the current assessments I currently use; and more. This includes the combination of cognitive, language and curriculum-based assessments I regularly have with me, as well as the social skills and executive functions assessments I alternate between.
From my early experiences, each assessment appears to provide more valuable qualitative information, especially the curriculum related tasks, thereby enabling a better shared understanding of what these mean within consultations with teachers and parents.
In time, the IDS will likely replace the majority of my current assessments, and support in better formulations, holistic assessments and targeting of accommodations and interventions for CYP.