Ms Carmel Ryan:

The first question was about how children are assessed if they are non-verbal. They are assessed on a predominantly verbal test. The psychologist might leave out parts of it and use part of the test that might have materials that one can manipulate. The instructions will be verbal and children may not understand what is being asked of them. They are asked to respond to a series of questions, to point to a series of pictures or to match things. They may not understand what the question is. They certainly would not have the verbal skills to say what matches what. They rely on pointing or looking at something. One does not get an accurate picture of what the child can do. There does not seem to be any appetite to develop or look at other methods of assessing children. This is what we use and what Fiacre will have to do. If he cannot do it, his assessment will say he does not have the intelligence for that test. That was Fiacre's experience at four years of age. That assessment went the whole way through school with him until he was assessed by a National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, psychologist in fifth or sixth class and he was able to use his letter board to answer most of the questions on the test.