FAQs

What is your waitlist?

We have immediate availability to provide parents and educators with strategies or steps to take at home or school.

Why has a neuropsychological assessment been requested?

A neuropsychological assessment can be requested for a number of reasons including:

• Diagnosis:

Test results are sometimes used to help understand the cause of problems with your thinking and understanding. For example, test results might be used to determine if your child’s school difficulties are due to depression, anxiety, or an underlying learning or attention issues.

• Cognitive strengths and weaknesses:

Everyone has cognitive strengths and weaknesses a neuropsychological evaluation can help you better understand your child’s learning style and needs, and how your child learns best.

• Treatment or other intervention:

Test results can be used to identify which cognitive abilities should be the focus of treatment. Results also help therapists determine which strengths might be able to compensate for weaknesses. The evaluation can provide the basis for making adjustments to school and determine the skills to work on that are most important to you.

What is a neuropsychological evaluation?

A neuropsychological evaluation is an assessment of emotional and cognitive functions such as learning and memory or problem-solving. Standard testing procedures are used to assess the various abilities that relate to learning.

When should I seek an evaluation or make a referral?

• If a child is struggling in school or on standardized tests
• When there is a large disparity between a child’s potential and their actual academic performance, or between their effort and results?
• When a child displays difficulties with learning or memory
• When a child has emotional or behavioral issues
• When it is unclear why a child is struggling
• When a child has any history of neurological difficulty
• When a child has a history of developmental delay (e.g. delayed language or motor activity)
• If a child has suffered a traumatic brain injury
• If a child has suffered any toxic exposure (e.g. lead poisoning, alcohol)
• To document any changes in a child’s abilities or achievement since prior evaluations

What are the benefits?

• Discover the causes of a child’s academic struggles
• To determine whether a child qualifies for accommodations on standardized tests such as the SAT or GRE
• To determine appropriate school placement
• Gain a greater understanding of a child’s learning style and explain it to school staff
• Obtain recommendations that will help a child learn to compensate for any difficulties
• Assess the effectiveness of teaching, treatments or interventions
• Determine whether academic difficulties are due to cognitive or motivational difficulties
• Design tutoring strategies specifically tailored for a child’s learning style.

What are the questions we can answer?

• What do these school challenges mean?
• Does my child have a learning disorder?
• Are these problems likely to get better or worse?
• If so, what does this mean? How serious is this?
• Is this something we should just watch, or is there something we should do?
• When should we seek treatments? What treatments are there?
• Is medication appropriate?

What should I bring to my child’s evaluation?

If your child needs any visual or hearing aids, you should let the clinician know and bring them with you to the evaluation. It is also helpful to provide the clinician with any previous evaluations (even if completed at a young age), as well as school records, including assessments, report cards, and Individual Education Programs (IEPs). If your child takes medication, it is helpful to let the clinician know in advance, and to make sure your child takes their medication as prescribed on the day of testing.

What happens after testing is completed?

Shortly following the feedback session, the family (and the child, if requested by the parent(s) or guardian(s)) will receive a detailed report outlining the results of the testing, as well as diagnostic impressions and associated recommendations.

Neuropsychologists often continue to work collaboratively with parents and other members of a child’s treatment team following the evaluation. For example, the neuropsychologist may share the report with members of the child’s treatment and education team, and may conduct follow-up consultations to answer any questions about the results or the report. Additionally, for an additional fee the neuropsychologists may participate in school and/or IEP meetings, or they refer families to educational advocates and consultants, depending on the family’s wishes.