What is the purpose of an evaluation?
The purpose of a neuropsychological evaluation is to obtain information via standardized testing to assess how one’s brain is functioning. The neuropsychological evaluation involves an interview and the administration of tests which are typically pencil and paper tests but sometimes are activity-based such as completing a puzzle or responding to stimuli placed in front of the patient. Neuropsychological tests evaluate functioning in a number of areas including intelligence (overall cognitive functioning), executive functions, attention, memory, language, sensorimotor functions, motivation, mood states and emotions, and personality styles. The specific areas addressed and the tests administered are determined by the referral question, patient’s complaints and symptoms, observations made during the interview and test administration.
What is included in a psychological evaluation?
- Clinical Interview and record review (including review of all previous evaluations)
- Comprehensive Diagnostic Testing (between 5-7 hours of office-based testing is conducted usually occurring over 2-3 separate appointments)
- Data interpretation and report writing (several hours are needed to score, interpret and write a comprehensive report which documents all of the findings). Comprehensive reports are provided to patients, parents, referral sources and other treating professionals
- Feedback (in-person or on-line) which is focused on reviewing all of the information and reviewing specific recommendations based on the analysis of strengths and weaknesses
- Coordination of care with other treating professionals, caregivers, and family members
- Follow-up sessions, as necessary
How long does a psychological evaluation take?
NCSS only does comprehensive and thorough evaluations which typically take between 5-6 hours of office-based time (interview and test administration) to complete. Most evaluations are completed over 2 sessions to elicit the patient’s best possible performance under optimal conditions. An additional several hours is needed to score, interpret and write a report that documents all of the test findings and provides recommendations based on the final diagnosis.
Children’s Evaluations
How do I prepare my child?
If this is the first time your child has participated in a psychological assessment, they should be prepared. Normally there is a certain level of anxiety, so we will want you to do what you can to minimize that anxiety by considering the following:
- Do not tell the child they are going to see a ‘doctor’. Many children associate ‘doctors’ with ‘shots’, and whoops—there goes the anxiety! Instead, try the following: You and I are going to visit a counselor. He’s going to ask us questions about when you were little, how well you do in school, and about how things are going at home. Then he’ll spend some time just with you and you’ll do some activities with him. Some are like puzzles, some will be on the computer.
- If the child asks why s/he is going, you can explain that you want to see how well s/he learns and remembers things. Truly, that is a bulk of what the assessment looks at (although not exclusively).
- Many children benefit from a social story—this is a short story with pictures that describes what they should expect when they visit us. Social stories are very helpful in reducing children’s anxiety, and especially with children who are suspected of having Asperger’s, or nonverbal learning difficulties. You can see a typical social story that helps prepare children for their evaluation (downloadable and printable) on our Intake Forms page.
How much time do the children’s evaluations require?
We usually require 2-3 separate appointments to fully evaluate children. One appointment is about 2 hours total—an interview (parents and child) followed by neuropsychological screening. The second session (with a different examiner) is longer—depending on the child’s age, it may be anywhere from 2 – 3½ hours. The second session is primarily just with the child and examiner. It usually consists of cognitive testing followed by numerous clinical activities and assessments. Most children find the second session very engaging and enjoyable. (Many have asked to come back for more testing!)
Sometimes, we may ask the child to come back for a third time. That may be because there are certain areas, based on the results of the first 2 sessions, that we think might need more exploration. These might include more detailed memory testing or academic testing.
My child takes medication. Should he take his medication on the day of the evaluation?
That depends on the type of medication and what it is prescribed for. When you schedule the initial appointment with us, please make sure we know about the medication and we can let you know what makes sense.
What if my child simply can’t focus for the whole testing session? Especially that second session, which can go 3 hours!
The second session is always broken down into smaller units with breaks built-in. Depending on the child’s ability to stay focused, sometimes breaks are as frequent as every 10-15 minutes. Some children require no breaks. It is rare that even the most inattentive children have not been able to complete the testing in one session. However, we have no problem scheduling multiple, shorter sessions to assure that we are getting the most accurate performance possible.
Why is there so much paperwork for the children’s evaluations ?
When you receive the intake packet from us, there will be a packet for you (the parent) to complete. There will be a packet for your child’s teacher to complete. And depending on the child’s age, there may be a smaller packet for your child to complete.
Especially when evaluating children, we want to collect data from more than one setting. Many times, a child’s behavior can be very different at home than it is in school. So obtaining home and school data is critical to assuring we have an accurate description of your child.
Please bring copies of any other testing your child may have had in the past, even if it is several years old. Copies of report cards, work samples from school, and copies of IEPs and 504 Plans from school are always helpful for us to review. Tests that the school may have done are extremely helpful, and will ensure that we don’t re-do something the school has already done very recently. (Some tests can’t be administered twice within a year, so it’s good that we know if there is any recent school testing).
How long must I wait for the results of the evaluation?
NCSS takes great pride in getting completed reports back to parents as quickly as we can. We know that you did not contact us for an evaluation on a whim—usually there is something pressing going on and answers or direction is needed sooner than later.
We make every effort to have a completed report in a parent’s hand within about a month after your last appointment with us. This depends on several factors, including whether we have all the intake information back (things from you, from teachers, etc).
Once the report is complete, we will schedule a feedback session with you to review the report, what the different tests mean, and our recommendations.