I am looking for advice as to how to take full advantage of an evaluation from a neuropsychologist. We have an appointment on Friday and I am anxious that I will not get all that I need from the appointment. It is $250 and I don’t want to leave the office in the same state of confusion that I’m in now. Even though people who have seen my son’s eval from school (done 2 1/2 years ago) is good I really feel that we do not have the complete picture of him. We have discussed this many, many times at school, no valuable input. So instead of jumping through hoops for the second round (re-eval due in Nov. 2002) we are getting to the bottom of this ourselves. I just want to know how to help my son the right way. Not hit or miss techniques of lets try this and that. He has one more year until middle school where I really fear he will go belly up if we don’t help him out now with the RIGHT strategies. Any advice?
Re: advice for neuropsych. eval?
I don’t know how a full neuropsych eval can be done in one afternoon, or for $250. My son’s took 2 solid half-days of testing, plus a 2 hour meeting a couple of weeks later to go over the results. It was expensive ($1600 I think) but very thorough. We paid extra for the neuropsychologist to come to school and explain her findings o the team.
I’d want to ast a whole lot more questions about what this person intends to do for your money. It doesn’t sound like it’s in the right ball park, price-wise, for the amount of work involved in a good, comprehensive, eval.
Karen
Re: advice for neuropsych. eval?
I guess I should have included more details. The $250 is for the first initial consultation (1 hour) She will then determine what if any further testing needs to be done (additional fees of course) My question was, is there anything I should be aware of that I need to ask for? Like my experience with the school, (If you don’t ask for it they certainly will not offer it to you) I’m just afraid of walking out of there without having asked what I needed to ask. Will she make the suggestions or should I?
Re: advice for neuropsych. eval?
Hmmmm………
Well, what kind of report would she generate?
What kinds of things can she identify?
Will she attend a school mtg? Would that be an extra charge?
Does she have any experience in recommending remediation?
Does she recommend further services down the road?
(The teachers and the np were concerned about DS and future
depression. NP said he would have some people to refer him
to if that became the case.)
hope that helps!
Anne
Re: advice for neuropsych. eval?
Start by writing down questions about your child that you would like answered…if you and the school do not disagree on things like measured ability(IQ test results), don’t pay a fortune to have them redone; if you and the school agree on level of academic achievement, don’t have it redone. If you’re looking for a diagnosis of what processing deficit is causing the ld, that’s a good use of this type of eval. School systems are NOT bound to consider the results and recommendations, however; so use it to settle diagnostic questions, rather than to formulate of list of mandates for school to follow.
Re: advice for neuropsych. eval?
Thank you. Excellent advice. I was not sure if they would overlap tests that the school did or not. This is definitely to find which processing deficits are causing the most problems. I’m doing it on our own because the school does not want to dive into auditory processing area which I feel is sticking out like a sore thumb for my son. They said they would consider a screening by the speech/lang. path on staff when his re-eval comes up in Nov. 2002. Too long for me to wait. Thanks again.
Auditory processing eval.....
If you feel that auditory processing is a real problem, why not get a CAPD evaluation? This is usually covered by medical insurance, and would cover the auditory portion of testing much more thoroughly than a neuropsych exam. You can find out more about CAPD, including a search engine to locate audiologists in your area who specialized in CAPD evaluations (requires specialized training) at http://pages.cthome.net/cbristol/
Mary
Re: Auditory processing eval.....
I took the school report to the outside psychologist who said it was thourough except for how my daughter processes information.She basically did a test on her memory. What I wish I asked about is wether it is a short term memory problem or working memory problem.The book by Mel Levine may be of help of questions to ask. I read that afterwards and it made me think of other questions to ask.That report also prompted the school psychologist to want to do a memory test also.
>>Not hit or miss techniques of lets try this and that.<<
We had an eval of our son, in fourth grade at the time,
with a neuro-psych. A whole bunch of tests ($1200).
He recommended a program or two that some of his
colleagues thought worked but he wasn’t familiar with
himself.
He did recommend sequential phonological teaching
which moved one Resource teacher to mutter, ‘Maybe
I should do more phonics work with him…’
He generated a seven page report and, I think, that was
valuable in and of itself as it showed the school we were
really serious about this.
The best thing about the tests and sessions was he was
able to highlight DS’s strengths for us, was really good about
how impressed he was. This has been valuable to let DS know
that he is smart and has wonderful strengths.
In fact, just last night, I was talking to him about this as he,
in first year of middle school, is starting to shrug off bad
grades on work that should have been sent home for us to
help him with. I told him kids like him have a real value to
society with his math and science talents and we will not let
his disability stand in his way in so far as the school just getting
lazy about his IEP.
Not sure if this answers your question.
But in my mind more information is always a good idea.
Anne