Neurodevelopment Assessment Unit

Watch our Neuro Development Assessment Unit (NDAU) video.

The Neurodevelopment Assessment Unit (NDAU) draws on internationally recognised expertise to conduct a feasibility study of an innovative approach to the assessment of young children who are experiencing problems.

Young children with emotional and behavioural problems often don't receive the support they need early in life. When they finally receive support it may not be appropriately targeted towards their individual needs.

The primary aim of the The Neurodevelopment Assessment Unit (NDAU) is to collect broad assessment data, informed by the RDoC approach, on a large sample of 500 children (aged 4 to 7 years old) with diverse developmental problems that will enable us to understand the overlapping cognitive and socio-emotional bases of different profiles of children with neurodevelopmental problems.

The results of the assessment are fed back to the child’s referring agent in order to inform and enhance their continued support for the child. The data that we collect will in time inform our understanding of the neuropsychological and biological mechanisms that underlie different neurodevelopmental problems.

The NDAU is a three-year study that has been funded by The Waterloo Foundation.

Who we are

The NDAU team is a multi-disciplinary team, consisting of developmental researchers, educational psychologists, clinical psychologists, child and adolescent psychiatrists, and a GP who work together to assess the problems that children have.

The NDAU provides training opportunities for students, researchers, clinicians and educational psychologists and helps to build capacity in the academic, educational and health sectors in Wales.

The Waterloo Foundation has given us funding to set up the Neurodevelopment Assessment Unit as a demonstration project that illustrates a way forward to address the needs of children who show emotional, cognitive or behavioural difficulties and problems.

We are conducting a three-year study of the feasibility of working in partnership with families and schools to provide evidence-based assessments of children who may have developmental problems. We intend to help families and those who work with the children at school by providing them with detailed information about the strengths and weaknesses of the child. This report can also inform any later referrals to educational or clinical services.

Specifically, children aged 4 to 7 years are assessed for a few hours in our Neurodevelopment Assessment Unit (NDAU). We i) assess general scholastic abilities such as verbal/nonverbal ability; ii) administer cognitive tests of attention, inhibition and working memory; iii) provide research-based socio-emotional tests of emotion recognition, empathy, affect processing, and theory of mind, and iv) ask the accompanying parent/guardian to complete a clinical interview to identify the main challenges for the child (i.e., the Development and Well Being Assessment; DAWBA), and questionnaires regarding the children’s strengths and difficulties, behaviour, and their development and health.

The outcomes of this detailed assessment will help those who work with these children at school or home select appropriate educational provision and prioritize interventions and inform any later referrals to educational or clinical services.