Why a neuropsychological evaluation with a neuropsychologist?
Was your child referred for a neuropsychological evaluation and you don’t know why? Or maybe you stumbled upon neuropsychology while searching for testing for your child. It can be overwhelming to add more specialists and appointments.
Reasons for a Neuropsychological Evaluation
If your child has a medical condition, it’s easier to understand why neuropsychology can be helpful. This evaluation can also be called a neurodevelopmental evaluation. Read more below.
But if your child does not have a medical condition, continue reading to learn how a neuropsychologist can provide valuable input about your child, such as with a more comprehensive psychoeducational evaluation.
What is Neuropsychology?
Neuropsychology is a subspecialty within psychology that studies the relation between the brain and behavior, thinking, learning, and socio-emotional functioning, or the outcomes of the brain’s hard work.
There are many medical conditions diagnosed during childhood that can affect the brain, and they can cause delays and differences in development. Some conditions begin before birth, such as chromosomal or genetic disorders (e.g., Down Syndrome, 22q11 Deletion Syndrome, Turner Syndrome, Neurofibromatosis Type 1) and birth defects (e.g., Congenital Heart Disease or CHD, Spina Bifida). Others can be diagnosed throughout development (e.g., cerebral palsy or CP, hydrocephalus, epilepsy or seizures, or brain tumor). A child can also sustain an injury or illness that affects the brain (e.g., traumatic brain injury, concussion, or infection in the brain).
There can be less obvious causes to a child’s developmental differences. These include risks such as premature birth or low birth weight, complicated pregnancy and/or delivery, extended hospital stays during infancy or childhood, chronic illnesses or infections, and longstanding sleep problems.
The Neuropsychologist Identifies the Core Issues to Target
The pediatric neuropsychologist is trained to understand the expected ways that children think, learn, communicate, behave, socialize, and express emotions, and how this evolves into early adulthood. They also understand how various medical conditions, injuries, and illnesses change the expected course of development.
Neuropsychologists use standardized tests to evaluate or measure abilities (similar to other types of psychologists, developmental pediatricians, and some therapists). These tests assess “domains” that can be divided into categories, such as intellectual functioning, language, visuospatial skills, learning and memory, attention, executive functioning, social communication/interaction, and more. They rely on standardized rating scales or an interview for daily observations of areas such as social, emotional, and behavioral functioning.
BUT these “domains” are not actually distinctly separate. They cooperate, interact, and can even interfere with each other.
Here are some areas that can be tricky to tease apart:
- Memory and/or Executive Functioning Problems
- Forgetfulness
- Trouble with retaining information, needs a lot of repetition
- Need cues or reminders to recall or remember information
- Gets easily overloaded with too much information at one time
- Speech, Language and/or Reading Problems
- Difficulty sounding out words
- Trouble remembering sight words
- Mixing up sounds
- Mispronouncing words
- Spelling or handwriting is frustrating
- Anxiety and/or Attention Problems
- Timed testing is overwhelming
- Conversation with new people is hard
- Easily overwhelmed
- Easily distracted
- Behavior, Executive Functioning, and/or Social Problems
- Missing social cues
- Trouble making and/or keeping friends
- Immature social interactions
- Repetitive behaviors and getting stuck
- Too physical and disinhibited with peers
IMPORTANT NOTE: More testing is not better. The right testing is critical.
The Neuropsychologist Looks Beyond Test Scores
In addition to testing, the neuropsychologist also gathers information about early development, medical history, school, family, psychosocial functioning, and your child’s interests. All the pieces are put together to carefully select the right test measures, and then:
- Interpret patterns in test results, which may or may not fit a medical or developmental diagnosis
- Explore risk and protective factors that influence a child’s strengths and weaknesses
- Make a plan to support the child’s progress at school, home, and in the community
If your child does not have a medical condition, there is a neurobiological basis for developmental disorders, including intellectual disability, learning disabilities (e.g., Dyslexia, Dyscalculia), ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, language/communication disorders, and tic disorders. If your child shows symptoms of one of these diagnoses, understanding the neurobiological basis can help inform care. There can be significant overlap in symptoms for different neurodevelopmental disorders, likely due to shared neuropathology or connections in the brain. The neuropsychologist knows what questions to ask to explore causes and risks.
Conclusion
Let’s circle back to the question: Why a neuropsychological evaluation with a neuropsychologist?
With a summative answer: The neuropsychologist has specialized training to understand the following in both healthy children and children with a medical diagnosis:
- How symptoms of concern can look different based on child age
- Variations of symptoms along a continuum from normal to clinically significant, regardless of whether the child has a diagnosis
- Whether the symptoms fit an expected pattern based on how the brain functions
- How to create a plan to address concerns that consider the complexities of your unique child
And what will it cost? This depends on the amount of testing needed to answer your questions and concerns, and the age of your child. The range is typically between $2500 to $3500, but a brief focused evaluation may be less.
IF YOU THINK YOUR CHILD WOULD BENEFIT FROM AN EVALUATION, CONTACT US TO LEARN MORE
