Best Practice in the Psychological Assessment of Early Years Children With Differences

This paper explores the importance of theoretical and practice frameworks in educational psychologists’ work. It focuses on the effective psychological assessment of young children (aged three to five) who seem unsettled, different, or to be struggling with school routines and requirements. The challenges of meeting the assessment and intervention needs of this complex and heterogeneous group are explored. Woolfson et al.’s (2003) Integrated Framework is proposed as potentially useful to encourage cross-stakeholder collaboration, to structure the assessment process, and to encourage shifts in meaning. The practicalities and challenges of its application are discussed.