|
If you want to schedule a psychological evaluation or assessment, please CLICK HERE.
Clinical or Diagnostic Assessment
If you are experiencing difficulties in your life – with staying focused or being organized and on top of things, with your mood, with fears or worries or anxiety, with learning or difficult behavior, or with social or close personal relationships – we will work with you to understand your problem and discuss all of the options for treatment that are supported in the research literature. Although the symptoms that are bothering you may be clear, what is causing the symptoms may be difficult for you to recognize on your own. In a clinical or diagnostic assessment or evaluation at The NeuroDevelopment Center, our psychologists will work carefully and thoroughly with you to understand together the nature of the problem. This process is often called a clinical or diagnostic assessment or evaluation.
Our approach to assessment is collaborative. Its not a matter of coming to a professional who asks some questions and maybe employs some tests and then simpy pronounces the answer. We work with you to figure it out together.
We have heard many complaints by our patients about what some have called "drive through evaluations" - when an apparently authoritative diagnosis is made after one office visit. In our experience, one visit is almost never enough to allow for a careful and well considered evaluation. We take the time needed to understand your concerns fully and in depth and to understand your situation so that in addition to understanding what is wrong, we will know what treatment approaches are most likely to be helpful.
The only reason to do an evaluation is to know what to do to help. Yet all too often, little effort is made to assess carefully the fit between your particular characteristics and life and the possible approaches to treatment. We will work with you to help discover what will work best for you.
Many assessment centers do not get information from the full range of observers. For example, we have seen numerous evaluations of children which have failed to include information from teachers and other school professionals, or from other treating professionals. At the NeuroDevelopment Center, whenever possible we gather information from as many sources as possible to put the whole picture together. Often we will visit a child's school to observe in class and at recess and to meet with school professionals.
We do this not only because we need to in order to fully understand, but also because we know that you are more likely to take action and follow through on treatment recommendations when you feel confident that we have gotten to the bottom of things, that we fully understand. At the NeuroDevelopment Center, an evaluation is only complete when the client and his or her family have this level of confidence - the confidence that will support them in taking all the steps necessary to solve the problem.
Assessment for...
Our staff is qualified to assess a very wide range of difficulties, problems, and disorders, many of which require specialized competence. This includes:
Testing
In some cases, psychological testing will be needed to fully understand the nature of the difficulty you are struggling with. Our psychologists can make use of the full range of well established and validated psychological tests. These tests have been developed by specialists in each area of psychology and then carefully tested with hundreds, if not thousands of individuals to be certain that the test measures the function accurately and comprehensively. Our staff studies the research on these measures and selects the tests that are proven effective and accurate.
These measures will allow us to understand together with you any difficulties with attending, thinking, and learning, any emotional issues, as well as patterns of action and behavior.
Psychological testing is likely to be necessary whenever there are concerns about development and learning, attention, memory, and social fucntioning.
In some situations, very comprehensive assessment of brain behavior relations may be necessary or especially helpful to get to the bottom of things. This is called neuropsychological testing or assessment.
Specialized Assessment of Social Functioning and Autism Spectrum Disorders
The NeuroDevelopment Center has long been known as a center of excellence for assessment (and treatment) whenever there are concerns about social devlopment and functioning. Quite specialized measures are necessary to fully understand difficulties children or adults may be having with social interactions and social relationships. Long experience and specialized training are often needed here so that best practices are employed in these assessments.
Research has shown with autism spectrum disorders that by and large parents usually know something is wrong long before any professional. We have earned to listen to parents and learn from them in depth about their child.
Report of Findings and Recommendations for Treatment
After the initial evaluation procedures have been completed, the psychologist conducting your assessment will carefully review all the information obtained. Occasionally, he or she may request some additional information to fill in any missing pieces in the puzzle. Once the picture is clear, your psychologist will prepare a comprehensive report and meet with you to communicate the findings.
The most important step is developing a comprehensive treatment plan and recommendations for any additional more specialized assessments that may be necessary. Your psychologist will provide you with a range of research-proven options for solving this problem and discuss each with you in detail to consider which solution or set of solutions is the best fit for your specific situation.
To schedule an appointment:
To schedule an appointment, please complete and submit the form below. We will contact you by phone to schedule.