Q: Who should consider getting a psychological or neuropsychological assessment?
A: Children and adults who are struggling with daily or academic tasks or social interactions could benefit from a psychological or neuropsychological assessment. If your child is not meeting developmental milestones on time, speak with your pediatrician to schedule a hearing and vision evaluation before scheduling a psychological or neuropsychological assessment. Difficulties with hearing and seeing can slow down a child's learning in areas such as talking, reading, and math. If your child's hearing and vision are okay, and they are struggling with daily, academic, or social tasks (e.g. limited friendships, trouble with rules, difficulty with homework, focus, or learning, and school discipline issues) a psychological or neuropsychological assessment can help you determine what is getting in the way of your child's success. Getting an evaluation early can help children access services to learn strategies to make learning easier for them as they grow and develop.
Sometimes adults find that they are struggling with tasks like reading, math, focus, friendships, therapy progress, job requirements, or other life tasks. Having an unknown disability or an inaccurately diagnosed metal health disorder can be challenging because it can feel like a person is to blame for their struggles. While not all psychological assessments end with a diagnosis, a comprehensive psychological or neuropsychological assessment will identify areas of strength and weakness and recommendations about how support and strengthen those areas.
Another reason to get a psychological or neuropsychological assessment so you have data about how you function now as compared to how you function in the future. This is particularly helpful if your family has a history of aging illnesses that cause cognitive decline such as dementia or Alzheimer's. Psychological assessments are designed to compare your performance to other people your age; however, if, for example, your original performance very high intelligence or memory, it is more difficult to identify early symptoms of cognitive decline, as a person's performance would start high, decline to average, and then decline to below average before it would be notable on a psychological assessment.
A: Children and adults who are struggling with daily or academic tasks or social interactions could benefit from a psychological or neuropsychological assessment. If your child is not meeting developmental milestones on time, speak with your pediatrician to schedule a hearing and vision evaluation before scheduling a psychological or neuropsychological assessment. Difficulties with hearing and seeing can slow down a child's learning in areas such as talking, reading, and math. If your child's hearing and vision are okay, and they are struggling with daily, academic, or social tasks (e.g. limited friendships, trouble with rules, difficulty with homework, focus, or learning, and school discipline issues) a psychological or neuropsychological assessment can help you determine what is getting in the way of your child's success. Getting an evaluation early can help children access services to learn strategies to make learning easier for them as they grow and develop.
Sometimes adults find that they are struggling with tasks like reading, math, focus, friendships, therapy progress, job requirements, or other life tasks. Having an unknown disability or an inaccurately diagnosed metal health disorder can be challenging because it can feel like a person is to blame for their struggles. While not all psychological assessments end with a diagnosis, a comprehensive psychological or neuropsychological assessment will identify areas of strength and weakness and recommendations about how support and strengthen those areas.
Another reason to get a psychological or neuropsychological assessment so you have data about how you function now as compared to how you function in the future. This is particularly helpful if your family has a history of aging illnesses that cause cognitive decline such as dementia or Alzheimer's. Psychological assessments are designed to compare your performance to other people your age; however, if, for example, your original performance very high intelligence or memory, it is more difficult to identify early symptoms of cognitive decline, as a person's performance would start high, decline to average, and then decline to below average before it would be notable on a psychological assessment.
Q: Will an assessment get me an accommodation?
A: Not necessarily. While I, as a licensed psychologist, provide psychological and neuropsychological assessments that are recognized as fitting within industry standards, it is up to individual institutions to determine if a person meets criteria for an accommodation. Some institutions, such as university student services or testing accommodations (e.g. SAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT) require specific measures for accommodation consideration. We can discuss how to get a copy of the requirements for your institution. Sometimes, people choose to get an independent evaluation when they are denied accommodations based off of an institutions evaluation (e.g. school, military, regional center). While an independent evaluation will not get you an accommodation, it will provide you with another expert opinion about how you are functioning and if you ned accommodations.
A: Not necessarily. While I, as a licensed psychologist, provide psychological and neuropsychological assessments that are recognized as fitting within industry standards, it is up to individual institutions to determine if a person meets criteria for an accommodation. Some institutions, such as university student services or testing accommodations (e.g. SAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT) require specific measures for accommodation consideration. We can discuss how to get a copy of the requirements for your institution. Sometimes, people choose to get an independent evaluation when they are denied accommodations based off of an institutions evaluation (e.g. school, military, regional center). While an independent evaluation will not get you an accommodation, it will provide you with another expert opinion about how you are functioning and if you ned accommodations.
Q: What do I need to do to prepare for a psychological or neuropsychological assessment?
A: If you haven't seen your medical provider within the past year, it is often helpful to go have a medical evaluation first to determine if there are any underlying medical issues, such as vision or hearing changes or endocrine changes that are influencing your or your child's struggles. It is also helpful to think about a few questions:
A: If you haven't seen your medical provider within the past year, it is often helpful to go have a medical evaluation first to determine if there are any underlying medical issues, such as vision or hearing changes or endocrine changes that are influencing your or your child's struggles. It is also helpful to think about a few questions:
- What are the symptoms you are struggling with the most?
- When do these symptoms occur most often?
- When do these symptoms go away?
- When did these symptoms start and when did they start to bother you?
- What was going on in your life when the symptoms got worse?
- What questions do I want to have answered through this evaluation? Some examples of questions are:
- Why do I get angry at school?
- Why does my child hit all of the time?
- What makes Sara cry at school?
- Why am I afraid to leave my house?
- Why can't I learn math?
- Why do I always procrastinate?
Q: How does a comprehensive, collaborative assessment differ from a brief assessment?
A: Brief assessments are typically designed to answer one or two diagnostic questions such as: "Does this person have dyslexia?" or "Does this person have ADHD?" These assessments are brief, sometimes only one to two hours. Such assessments are designed to catch obvious struggles and they do not look at a person as a whole. A comprehensive, collaborative assessment takes a whole person into perspective. Working collaboratively means that I approach your assessment with the understanding that I am an expert in the test data and you are an expert in you or your child. Sometimes people experience psychological assessments as a procedure that is "done to" them. With collaborative assessments, the goal is to do an assessment with a person so that the tested individual's expertise is not lost.
Comprehensive assessments can take more time; however, they are able to look at subtler symptoms and for reasons why someone is experiencing difficulties, rather than whether or not the person does or does not have a diagnosis. Sometimes people look up their symptoms on a search engine, such as Google, and work to identify the most likely diagnosis based upon their internet research. Unfortunately, "Dr. Google" is not always the best diagnostician and can miss important sequelae and symptoms. A comprehensive assessment provides you and/or your child the opportunity to learn more about what is causing the difficulties you are facing in language you can understand and with actionable recommendations.
A: Brief assessments are typically designed to answer one or two diagnostic questions such as: "Does this person have dyslexia?" or "Does this person have ADHD?" These assessments are brief, sometimes only one to two hours. Such assessments are designed to catch obvious struggles and they do not look at a person as a whole. A comprehensive, collaborative assessment takes a whole person into perspective. Working collaboratively means that I approach your assessment with the understanding that I am an expert in the test data and you are an expert in you or your child. Sometimes people experience psychological assessments as a procedure that is "done to" them. With collaborative assessments, the goal is to do an assessment with a person so that the tested individual's expertise is not lost.
Comprehensive assessments can take more time; however, they are able to look at subtler symptoms and for reasons why someone is experiencing difficulties, rather than whether or not the person does or does not have a diagnosis. Sometimes people look up their symptoms on a search engine, such as Google, and work to identify the most likely diagnosis based upon their internet research. Unfortunately, "Dr. Google" is not always the best diagnostician and can miss important sequelae and symptoms. A comprehensive assessment provides you and/or your child the opportunity to learn more about what is causing the difficulties you are facing in language you can understand and with actionable recommendations.
Q: How much will it cost?
A: The cost of a psychological or neuropsychological assessment varies based upon what questions you need to have answered and how complicated your data is. I charge hourly for assessments and they typically range from $1500 to $6000 for the whole assessment. This cost includes: an in-depth review of the history of successes and challenges as well as other factors that may be influencing the current problem; a school visit if needed for observation; testing with standardized assessment instruments; scoring; interpretation and integration of the test data; an in-person collaborative verbal review of the data; a written report for providers such as a school, institution, psychiatrist, or therapist; an in-person review of the written report and recommendations; an age appropriate story about the results for a child if requested; and if requested, an in-person follow-up meeting to go over questions and solidify any personal changes that occurred during the testing.
A: The cost of a psychological or neuropsychological assessment varies based upon what questions you need to have answered and how complicated your data is. I charge hourly for assessments and they typically range from $1500 to $6000 for the whole assessment. This cost includes: an in-depth review of the history of successes and challenges as well as other factors that may be influencing the current problem; a school visit if needed for observation; testing with standardized assessment instruments; scoring; interpretation and integration of the test data; an in-person collaborative verbal review of the data; a written report for providers such as a school, institution, psychiatrist, or therapist; an in-person review of the written report and recommendations; an age appropriate story about the results for a child if requested; and if requested, an in-person follow-up meeting to go over questions and solidify any personal changes that occurred during the testing.