5If your child is displaying unusual behaviors for his or her age, or is struggling in school, you might be tempted to chalk it up to normal childhood development. That’s certainly possible, but it could be something else, as well. It could be that your child has ADHD, ADD, or is struggling with a non-verbal learning disability (NVLD). All of these conditions can affect behavior, academic performance and quality of life – neuropsychological evaluations provide the means to identify the disability or condition, and arrive at a treatment plan.
What Are Neuropsychological Evaluations?
In order to understand the benefits offered, you first need to know more about what these evaluations are and how they work. Really, they’re nothing more than medical evaluations of how a person’s brain functions. Generally, there will be an interview with the patient, or in the case of children, with parents, other adult relatives and possibly teachers. This is usually followed by a series of tests.
The tests can take many different forms, but all of them are designed to measure mental function and development. Some tests may be of the paper and pencil variety, but this is not true for all, and children too young to write answers to typed questions will instead be tested through observation, discussion and the like.
In most instances, neuropsychological evaluations include both self-administered portions, where the patient works to answer questions with the help of a technician, and other tests that must be completed by a licensed neuropsychologist.
The point of these tests is to measure functionality in key areas. These areas can include:
Executive functioning – planning, conceptualization, etc.
* IQ
* Memory
* Language
* Motivation
* Emotional development
* Personality type
* Sensorimotor functions
* Attention
These evaluations generally last between two and five hours, but they can be longer, depending on the patient, as well as the complexity of the patient’s condition and other factors. In most instances, the evaluation will only take a single session, but two sessions may be necessary in rare cases.
Based on the results of the evaluation, the neuropsychologist will help devise a treatment plan for your child. For instance, the evaluation could show that your child suffers from dyscalculia, rather than ADHD, and requires specific steps to treat. It could reveal that your child has a reading-related disability, or that he or she has ADD, rather than ADHD.
If you feel that your child is struggling with learning processes, or may suffer from ADHD or ADD, contact Dr. Joshua Shifrin to schedule an appointment. You can pay a visit to Facebook page for more information.
