Parents - name and address
Date
Dear Parent
CHILD DEVELOPMENT REPORT
The attached report has been developed for research purposes and is a summary of
the tests undertaken during the assessment. This should not be considered as
providing a comprehensive clinical assessment.
Research Project: Selection, definition and evaluation of important early morbidities
associated with paediatric cardiac surgery (13/LO/1442): A study of complications
associated with children’s heart surgery
Funding Source: NHS National Institute of Health Research (NIHR)
Ethical Approval: NHS Health Research Authority – 13/LO/1442
We would like to thank you and NAME OF CHILD for participating in this study and giving
us your valuable time to conduct the assessment. As we mentioned during the
assessment, we would like to provide you with a summary of what we did with [name of
child]. We are attaching a report along with this letter for your benefit and a copy of
this report is being sent to your GP, cardiologist and paediatrician (if your child has one).
We would suggest that you discuss this further with your child’s GP and/or paediatrician
if you wish.
We would like to thank you again for helping us with this research project. Should you
require any further information about these test results in the future, please feel free to
contact us.
Yours sincerely
Research Assistant
Health Psychologist
REPORT
Name of Child:
NHS/Hospital Number:
Date of Birth:
Age at Assessment: years, months
Date of Assessment:
Date of Report:
Assessment performed by:
Place of assessment
Assessments
The Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, Children’s Memory Scale and BruninksOseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency were used to assess [name of child]’s ability. These
tests enable us to assess different aspects of cognitive ability, memory and motor skills.
Procedure
We saw [NAME OF CHILD] during their visit to Great Ormond Street Hospital, when they
came for a clinic visit/preadmission clinic visit/surgery/cardiac procedure. [NAME OF
CHILD] was accompanied by…… and xx was/were present throughout the assessment.
Test Behaviour during the assessment:
X was responsive and interested in the tasks, though occasionally became distracted by
his/her surroundings, as would be expected for his/her age. Please note any physical
disability that may prevent a patient from performing a task.
Tests completed
We have provided a brief summary of the tests that [name of child] completed, together
with an indication of how they performed.
The Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI)
The WASI comprises four tasks assessing verbal and performance aspects of cognitive
development. On each of the four tasks [name of child] performed at a level suggesting
that their level of ability is similar to other children of their age.
Children’s Memory Scale (CMS)
The CMS consists of six core tests which measure verbal and non-verbal memory and
attention/concentration. The tests differentiate between immediate and delayed
memory and also provide an overall score for general memory. [name of child]
performed at a similar level to other children of their age on all of the memory tests.
Bruninks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOT)
The BOT consists of seven scales assessing gross motor skills ( e.g. large body
movements such as running and balancing) and fine motor skills (e.g. using fingers and
hands to pick up objects, drawing). [name of child]’s performance on all of the tests was
appropriate for their age.
Summary
Overall, the results of the cognitive, memory and motor tests show that [name of
child]’s functioning is at a similar level to other children of the same age.
It is important to remember that this was a single assessment and that the hospital
environment was not an ideal situation in which to assess [name of child]. Although we
were assessing cognitive ability, memory and motor abilities, children’s performance
can be influenced by many things such as their environment, how easy it was for them
to pay attention to the tasks, feeling anxious or upset about what was happening and
how much they wanted to cooperate with the things they were being asked to do.
Recommendations
Overall, there are no significant concerns regarding [name of child’s] cognitive ability,
memory and motor functioning and at this time no further specific input regarding these
aspects is indicated.
cc:
GP
Cardiologist
Research File
Developmental Paediatrician