Highlands Ability Battery
This assessment measures your aptitudes or natural abilities. Some assessments are subjective which means they are self-reported. A person really needs to know themselves well for the results to be accurate. Aptitudes need to be measured objectively. And, aptitudes are different from skills. Your natural abilities are inherent to you. You’re born with these. Skills are abilities that are learned through teaching and experience.
The Highlands Ability Battery (HAB) is based on the almost a century of research done by research scientist Johnson O’Connor and is continuing with the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation. It is an objective measurement rather than an assessment through perception. Each work sample in the HAB is based on timed performance which is far more reliable than through self-perception or personal opinion.
Expect to take 19 work samples that, altogether, take about three hours. You can split up the work samples individually or in smaller groups. Some of the aptitudes it measures are:
Visual Speed and Accuracy
Ability to work with numbers and designs
Inductive Reasoning
Structural Visualization
Several other natural abilities
Once you’re done with the HAB, the scores will be emailed to you. Then, we’ll schedule a two hour debrief in which we will discuss your results. This includes an analysis of how your abilities work together to influence your personal, school, and work lives. Plus, we will discuss how these can help students succeed in school and choose their next steps after high school including some career ideas.
Feel free to check out The Highlands Company website or contact me for more information.
Whole Person Model
Knowing your natural abilities is a great start. However, we are more complex than a series of aptitudes. Our history, our passions and interests, and our values all play a role in our lives and decision-making process. The Whole Person Model includes the Highlands Ability Battery along with some objective assessments and conversations investigating the other factors that contribute to the unique individual you are.
This is the most comprehensive program designed to give a student the information they need to make solid decisions going forward.
Along with the Highlands Ability Battery, the Whole Person Model looks at other factors that make up the entire person. These include:
Abilities
Skills
Interests
Personal Style
Family Influences
Values
Goals
Career Development Cycle
This is the most comprehensive program designed to give a student the information they need to make solid decisions going forward.
About Me
My interest in helping students figure out their purpose began almost immediately after graduation from college where I received a BA in Business Administration and Accounting. After a few years in the business world, I decided to follow my passion of being a teacher. So, I went back to school to become a licensed elementary school teacher in the state of Illinois. Soon afterward, I finished up graduate studies in Teaching and Learning (M.A.) and Educational Leadership (M.A.). I am certified as an Associate Academic Life Coach from an International Coaching Federation accredited program.
I taught fifth grade for almost 2 decades in the same building as well as a little middle school and high school for another few years. For almost 3 decades, I’ve been a volunteer in several churches in youth ministry focusing my efforts at the high school age. I am licensed to teach in both Illinois and Wisconsin and am a Highlands Certified Consultant.
I believe that each individual has a unique purpose in this world. Not only will you feel more fulfilled using your unique talents and abilities, but also the rest of us need you to fill your unique purpose. I look forward to helping you Find Your W.A.Y. (“who are you”).
“Matt gives me the courage to be me.” - Maria, coaching colleague
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