A school psychologist needs to take the environment into account when assessing the development of a child.

Action-oriented assessment refers to a theory about how assessment should be done. This should be as goal-oriented as possible. The problems of the child should be specifically assessed and which interventions are needed to help the child.

When assessing a child, the whole school environment needs to be taken into account. This requires taking into account a wide variety of factors. During the school years, there is physical (1), social-emotional (2) and cognitive development (3). This influences a child’s behaviour and responses to the social environment (e.g. bullying influences social-emotional development and this may influence learning).

There are several cognitive conditions for learning. This includes adaptation to different learning levels and providing social-emotional conditions for learning. These different factors also influence teacher demands.

The triangle of student success refers to a triangular relationship between students (1), parents and the school (3). These three factors together determine the success achievement of a child. The basic psychological needs theory (i.e. self-determination theory) states that competence (1), relatedness (2) and autonomy are basic psychological needs. The needs are interdependent. One compromised need leads to other compromised needs. These three needs influence the motivation of a child.

The involvement of the teacher influences the relatedness. The structure of a teacher influences the competence of the student. Autonomy support of the teacher influences autonomy. These three needs influence the motivation of the child.

There is a diversity in activities and levels of interventions. This can include prevention (1), identification (2), assessment (3), advice (4), intervention (5) and evaluation (6). The CHC model of intelligence is typically used for assessment.

There are three levels of intelligence:

1. Intelligence A (i.e. genotype)
   This refers to an inborn capacity to show intelligent behaviour.
2. Intelligence B (i.e. phenotype)
   This refers to the cognitive capacities a person possesses at a specific moment.
3. Intelligence C (i.e. test score)
   This refers to the result of an intelligence test.

Spearman proposed that there is a general intelligence factor (i.e. ‘g’). The Stanford-Binet test was the first test to measure a child’s mental age and predict school success. Guilford proposed that there were 120 components of intelligence. Later, Horn and Cattell came up with fluid and crystallized intelligence. After, Gardner proposed that there were multiple intelligence factors (e.g. being intelligence in one area but not in another one).

According to Ceci, intelligence originates from the interaction between cognitive, biological, metacognitive and environmental processes. This implies that intelligence cannot be assessed without context. Sternberg proposed that there are three types of intelligence:

1. Analytical intelligence
   This refers to capacities to solve abstract, well-known problems (i.e. comparing, evaluating, analysing).
2. Creative intelligence
   This refers to the capacity to solve unknown problems (i.e. discovering, inventing, creating).
3. Practical intelligence
   This refers to the capacity to respond and adapt to the environment (i.e. applying, implementing, using, bringing into practice).

Based on these developments, the hierarchical model of intelligence was proposed. Caroll added to this to form the CHC model. According to this model, there were three forms of general intelligence factors (i.e. 3 gs).

According to this model, general intelligence can be subdivided into fluid intelligence (1), crystallized intelligence (2), general memory and learning (3), broad visual perception (4), broad auditory perception (5), broad retrieval ability (6), broad cognitive speediness (7) and processing and decision speed (8). This, in turn, can be subdivided into different aspects which use different tests to measure it.

There is support for the three-layer structure and the differentiation between cognitive skills in accordance with the CHC model. There is a positive correlation between skills indicative for ‘g’ and the structure is consistent across gender, ages and cultures. In the CHC theory, it was believed that the speed domains of the Gs and Gt might best be represented within the context of a hierarchically organized speed taxonomy with g-speed factor at the top.

The Catell-Horn-Caroll theory of cognitive abilities consists of a taxonomy of cognitive abilities and a set of theoretical explanations of how and why people differ in their various cognitive abilities. It builds on previous theories of intelligence. The Gf-Gc theory states that general intelligence can be split into fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. According to Catell, the positive manifold results from differential success of investment due to fluid intelligence.

The 16-domain model of CHC is embedded in an ability domain dimension which includes cognitive knowledge systems (1), cognitive operations (2), cognitive efficiency and cognitive control (3), sensory functions (4) and motor functions (5). It may be useful to avoid a hierarchically organized CHC structural diagram because it may not explain natural phenomena well.

The newer IQ tests cover all aspects included in the CHC model. The different aspects of the CHC model are related to school performance (e.g. fluid reasoning is related to mathematical skills). Cognitive abilities may contribute to academic achievement in different proportions in different domains. These proportions change over the course of development.

Intelligence tests are not conducted if it is not relevant to the presenting problem. It is necessary to assess cognitive level when it could affect the diagnosis or advice. IQ could affect a diagnosis or advice through explaining symptoms of a learning disorder (2), explain symptoms of a developmental disorder (2), be an indication of an intervention option (3) and be an indication of education grade (4).

Intelligence testing in action-oriented diagnostics should always start with an intake interview. The IQ-test should be combined with other measures. The cognitive profile should be analysed rather than only the total IQ score.

A cognitive profile analysis requires looking at two levels:

1. Inter-individual level (i.e. normative strengths and weaknesses)
   This gives an indication of the normative strength or weakness. This is the norm of the whole group (e.g. a child compared to the whole group; the norm). For example, does the IQ score fall below 85 or above 115.
2. Intra-individual level (i.e. relative strengths or weaknesses)
   This gives an indication of relative strength or weakness. This consists of comparing the total score of the child with several sub-scores (e.g. score on fluid intelligence) to determine cognitive strengths and weaknesses. In order for something to be a strength or weakness, it should fall outside of the confidence interval of the total IQ score.