Psychoeducational/School Neuropsychological Assessments

Comprehensive psycho-educational and/or school neuropsychological assessments provide answers to your questions about why your child is struggling. The assessment also examines learning strengths and challenges.

A Comprehensive Assessment is often sought out for the following concerns:

Learning Disability

Dyslexia (Reading Disability) is a common condition, impacting 1 in 5 people, that affects the way a person’s brain processes written and spoken language. Dyslexia is the most common learning disorder affecting the ability to read quickly and efficiently, comprehend as well as can impact writing skills. Warning signs look different at different ages, but can include trouble recognizing the letters of the alphabet, difficulty reading out loud, problems understanding reading material, and difficulty with rote memorization.

Dysgraphia (Writing Disability) A student with dysgraphia can have trouble putting words on paper, messy writing, poor spelling or punctuation. Students with dysgraphia often avoid or melt down during writing activities, don’t take notes or write down their assignments, and “hate to write.” A key sign is if a child can tell a story out loud but can’t get it on paper.

Dyscalculia (Math Disability) is a learning disorder that makes it hard to make sense of numbers and math concepts. Students most commonly struggle with number sense, or the basic understanding of how numbers work. Signs of dyscalculia include difficulty recognizing numbers and symbols, counting on fingers, or a hard time coming up with a plan to solve a math problem. If a child’s math ability and number sense is significantly below other abilities, it is a sign that they may have dyscalculia.

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and selective mutism can greatly impact a student's performance and functioning in school. An assessment in this area as it relates to the impact of academic performance will be explored.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

ADHD impacts learning, concentration, and attention. Assessment will focus on memory, attention, planning/executive functioning skills.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neuro-developmental disorder impacting social interaction, communication skills and often includes an intense interest and/or repetitive behaviors. Autism diagnostic assessment will involve direct testing, rating scale information, as well as observations and interviews.

Accommodations for School Programs (ex: GMAT, GRE)

A comprehensive assessment may examine the following domains:

Cognitive Functioning
Academic Functioning
Visual-Spatial Processing
Auditory Processing
Social-Emotional Functioning Assessment (ex: anxiety, depression, behavior)
Attention and Executive Functioning
Learning and Memory
Observations & Interviews (ex: developmental history)

Parts of an Evaluation:

Components included in an evaluation are based on the questions to be answered. Depending on the scope of the evaluation, it may include:

Interview with parents
Interview with the child
2-3 2 hour testing sessions
School Observation (when deemed necessary)
Questionnaires completed by parents, child, and teachers
Comprehensive written report with recommendations for parents and school. The recommendations often include suggestions for improving areas of function and/or specific educational modifications to meet the intellectual, academic and/or social-emotional needs of the student in and out of school.
Follow up consultation session(s) with parents
Follow up consultation session(s) with child and parents (when appropriate)

Independent Educational Evaluations

Independent Educational Evaluations (IEE) happen when a family and school district are not in agreement on a suspect educational disability. Parents have a right to one IEE for their child. These are taken into consideration on a case-by-case basis.