Psychological Assessments

What can an assessment do for me or my child?

 

My early training as a research psychologist taught me all about asking and answering questions. In fact, it’s what I do best. Sometimes, therapy hasn’t worked despite the best efforts of a skilled therapist. Sometimes, even though a student is smart and a hard worker, success in school is hard to attain. My job is to tackle the hardest questions, to unpack the most complicated cognitive profile and to give you a roadmap to get the help you need to be the best you can be.

An evaluation will provide:

Detailed Information - Illuminating individual strengths and weaknesses that impact everyday functioning

Diagnostic Clarity - Disentangling symptoms and behaviors to develop an effective treatment plan

A Roadmap for Supports - Identifying valuable services, such as school supports, other therapies, or in some cases, access to state and federal insurance programs

Depending upon the referral question, evaluations can require between 2-12 hours of testing and interviews. No two evaluations are the same, I choose tests based on what you want to learn and what I think will provide the most useful and reliable information. For children, I usually conduct in school evaluations (before the child knows me) and talk to caregivers, teachers and outside therapists. For adults, I may speak to spouses, roommates, friends or family members to get the most realistic understanding of how one functions in the world. After we complete testing, I will provide you with a draft of the report within 2 weeks. We will meet, either virtually or in person, and go over the results and recommendations. When I evaluate a child, I provide a feedback session for the parents, as well as an individual session for the child to go over what we learned in the evaluation. My goal is for you to walk away with an understanding of how you or your child perceives and interacts with their world so supports can be targeted and effective.

Types of Assessments

 

Assessments I offer:

  • Neuropsychological

  • Psychological

  • Psychoeducational

  • “Second Opinion” consultations

  • Developmental

  • Autism Spectrum

  • Private School Admissions Testing

 

With the assessments above, we can measure the following:

  • Cognitive ability (IQ testing)

  • Academic achievement

  • Executive functioning

  • Attention

  • Reasoning

  • Processing speed

  • Memory

  • Sensorimotor functioning

  • Language

  • Personality

  • Emotional functioning

  • Interpersonal/Social behaviors

  • Adaptive functioning

  • Visual-spatial/Visual-motor abilities ​

Common Diagnoses

 

Evaluations help us identify whether features of a specific diagnosis are interfering with functioning, which allows us to develop an effective treatment plan. Many of the evaluations I provide are to clarify the impact of disorders such as:

  • Autism Spectrum Disorder

  • ADHD

  • Intellectual Disability

  • Specific Learning Disorders

  • Oppositional Defiant Disorder

  • Global Developmental Delay

  • Disorders related to depression or anxiety

Let’s Get Started