ASSESSMENTS

Making the Decision to Evaluate

It can be difficult for parents to decide whether or not a child should be tested. The issues that bring people to consider having their children evaluated are often complex and might involve opinions of school personnel, questions of the treating provider, factors related to selecting an appropriate school, parents’ concerns about what it means to take this step, and a weighing of costs and benefits. We are happy to speak to you about your child to help you decide if an evaluation is the best course of action.

Components of a Comprehensive Evaluation
Comprehensive Neuropsychological and Educational Evaluations assess the following areas:

• INTELLIGENCE. verbal and perceptual analysis and reasoning; holding things in mind and manipulating them (i.e. working memory); and processing speed (i.e. small-motor speed)
• MEMORY AND LEARNING. memory for information that you hear and for pictures or figures; ability to learn with repetition, and to learn with and without context; ability to develop own strategies to remember details
• EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING/ATTENTION. focusing on non-stimulating material, initiating tasks, shifting between thoughts or activities, inhibiting impulses, planning and organizing materials and time, regulating emotions
• ACADEMIC SKILLS. speed in reading, accessing rote math facts, and writing; reading comprehension; un-timed math conceptual knowledge and skills; writing quality, including handwriting and spelling
• SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL FUNCTIONING. quality of friendships and self-esteem; response to stressors and novel situations; mood; worldview; emotional well-being

Individual and Family Psychotherapy

Our approach to individual work is varied, depending on the individual client and his or her personality, needs/goals, and openness to the work. We aim to reach our clients where they are ‘at’ and we travel on from there together. At times, the work is best accomplished in a one-to-one setting. In other situations, it is helpful to see whole families or dyads within a family. To tackle some problems with family dynamics, it is helpful to work with parents without their children present.