Dr Jane Wotherspoon
Research Fellow
BA/BSc (Hons), Graduate Diploma in Psychology Studies, Bachelor of Behavioural Science (Hons), Master of Psychology (Educational and Developmental), PhD.
Dr Jane Wotherspoon is a Clinical and Educational and Developmental Psychologist, Board-approved supervisor and researcher with more than ten years’ experience in psychological assessment across the lifespan, primarily with children and young people. Her work brings together assessment practice, clinical leadership and developmental research.
Jane specialises in complex neurodevelopmental and learning assessment. She is particularly interested in how psychometric tools can contribute to collaborative clinical reasoning while remaining grounded in a person’s circumstances and lived experience. Her clinical work informs her contributions to NovoPsych, where she supports the development of psychological measures and practical assessment resources for clinicians.
Areas of expertise
- Psychological and neurodevelopmental assessment across the lifespan.
- Assessment of specific learning disorders, ADHD and autism.
- Cognitive and academic assessment.
- Complex test selection and interpretation.
- Collaborative assessment, feedback and report writing.
- Psychometric scale development and validation.
- Developmental disability and child development research.
- Clinical supervision.
- Quality improvement in psychological assessment services.
Professional registration and appointments
Jane is registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and holds areas of practice endorsement in both Clinical Psychology and Educational and Developmental Psychology. She is also a Board-approved supervisor. Jane is a Research Fellow with NovoPsych, Clinical Lead at Speld Queensland and an Adjunct Industry Fellow at Queensland University of Technology.
Clinical experience
Jane has extensive experience conducting psychological assessments with children, adolescents and adults across nonprofit, private-practice, university and research settings. Her work includes the assessment of learning, cognitive and neurodevelopmental presentations, including specific learning disorders, ADHD, autism and intellectual developmental disorder.
Across settings, Jane combines direct assessment practice with clinical supervision, and service development. She supports psychologists and postgraduate trainees working with complex learning and neurodevelopmental presentations and contributes to the development of assessment processes that are clinically rigorous, accessible and useful to clients, families and educators.
Jane’s approach is collaborative and holistic. She views standardised test results as one source of information within a broader assessment process and places particular emphasis on integrating psychometric findings with developmental history, behavioural observations and the perspectives of clients, families, teachers and other supports.
Research
Jane completed her PhD through the University of Queensland and the Queensland Cerebral Palsy and Rehabilitation Research Centre. Her doctoral research examined neurodevelopmental outcomes in school-aged children with cerebral palsy and included a randomised controlled trial of an online cognitive training program to support fluid reasoning.
Her research has examined cognition and learning, executive function, attention, autism characteristics, social functioning and psychological wellbeing in children with developmental disabilities. She has also contributed to research evaluating tools for the early identification of developmental concerns and disability.
Jane’s current interests focus on improving psychological assessment in everyday practice, including psychometric scale development, the assessment of neurodevelopmental and learning presentations, collaborative feedback and the communication of assessment findings.
Psychological assessments developed
Jane is working on a child ADHD and autism neurodevelopmental scale, a multidimensional measure currently under development. The measure is designed to assess ADHD and autism characteristics alongside executive functioning, functional impact, associated difficulties and strengths in children and adolescents.
She also contributes to the evaluation and development of NovoPsych assessment resources, including item development, psychometric review, clinical interpretation and the translation of research findings into practical guidance for clinicians.
Selected NovoPsych contributions
- Assessing Children and Adolescents: Effective Screening and Identification — professional development webinar with Dr David Hegarty, 2026
Selected peer-reviewed publications
- Wotherspoon, J., Whittingham, K., Sheffield, J., & Boyd, R. N. (2024). Randomised controlled trial of an online cognitive training program in school-aged children with cerebral palsy. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 150, 104752. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2024.104752
- Wotherspoon, J., Whittingham, K., Sheffield, J., & Boyd, R. N. (2024). Executive function, attention and autism symptomatology in school-aged children with cerebral palsy. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 36, 187–202. doi:10.1007/s10882-023-09905-9
- Wotherspoon, J., Whittingham, K., Sheffield, J., & Boyd, R. N. (2023). Cognition and learning difficulties in a representative sample of school-aged children with cerebral palsy. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 138, 104504. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2023.104504
- Burgess, A., et al. (2025). Clinical utility and psychometric properties of tools for early detection of developmental concerns and disability in young children: A scoping review. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 67(3), 286–306. doi:10.1111/dmcn.16076
Professional education and public scholarship
Jane provides professional development and teaching on psychological and neurodevelopmental assessment, including complex test selection, interpretation, assessment accessibility and collaborative feedback. This has included co-presenting professional development webinars for NovoPsych on screening and identification in child and adolescent assessment.
Contribution to NovoPsych
As a Research Fellow, Jane brings the perspective of a practising assessment psychologist and supervisor to NovoPsych’s research and development work. She contributes to measure development, item review, psychometric research and clinical interpretation, with a particular focus on child and adolescent assessment.
Her work aims to ensure that assessment tools are developmentally appropriate, scientifically defensible and useful in real clinical settings. She advocates for measures that support clinical judgement and that help clinicians communicate complex findings clearly to clients and families.
“Good psychological assessment is more than the collection of scores. It brings psychometric findings together with the knowledge and lived experience of clients and families, creating a shared understanding of the person’s strengths, difficulties and needs. Well-designed digital tools can make that process more efficient without replacing clinical judgement.”