Comprehensive psycho-educational and/or school neuropsychological assessments provide answers to your questions about why your child is struggling. The assessment also examines learning strengths and challenges.
A Comprehensive Assessment is often sought out for the following concerns:
Learning Disability
Dyslexia (Reading Disability)
Common condition, impacting 1 in 5 people, that affects the way a person’s brain processes written and spoken language. Dyslexia is the most common learning disorder affecting the ability to read quickly and efficiently, comprehend as well as can impact writing skills. Warning signs look different at different ages, but can include trouble recognizing the letters of the alphabet, difficulty reading out loud, reading slowly, problems understanding reading material, and difficulty with rote memorization.
Dysgraphia (Writing Disability)
A student with dysgraphia can have trouble putting words on paper, messy writing, poor spelling or punctuation. Students with dysgraphia often avoid or melt down during writing activities, don’t take notes or write down their assignments, and “hate to write.” A key sign is if a child can tell a story out loud but can’t get it on paper.
Dyscalculia (Math Disability)
A learning disorder that makes it hard to make sense of numbers and math concepts. Students most commonly struggle with number sense, or the basic understanding of how numbers work. Signs of dyscalculia include difficulty recognizing numbers and symbols, counting on fingers, or a hard time coming up with a plan to solve a math problem. If a child’s math ability and number sense is significantly below other abilities, it is a sign that they may have dyscalculia.
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and selective mutism can greatly impact a student's performance and functioning in school. An assessment in this area as it relates to the impact of academic performance will be explored.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
ADHD impacts learning, concentration, and attention. Assessment will focus on memory, attention, planning/executive functioning skills.
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neuro-developmental disorder impacting social interaction, communication skills and often includes an intense interest and/or repetitive behaviors. Autism diagnostic assessment will involve direct testing, rating scale information, as well as observations and interviews.
Parts of an Evaluation
Components included in an evaluation are based on the questions to be answered. Depending on the scope of the evaluation, it may include:
I seek to understand the reason for the assessment referral. Information such as developmental history, reviewing any previous assessments, and understanding historical and current school performance is important. This information will guide the specific neurocognitive, academic, and processing areas (ex: attention, auditory, visual) to assess. (About 30 minutes)
2) Assessment
The assessment often consists of an IQ assessment, a broad academic assessment, additional academic/neuropsychological assessments in the area of referral concern, cognitive processing assessments, and a social-emotional assessment (ex: anxiety, depression, adaptive skills). Information is typically gathered from parents, the child, and teachers to comprehensively understand your child's functioning. (ranges from 4-8 hours; typically 2-3 sessions)
3) After the Assessment
Once the assessment is complete, several hours are spent scoring the assessments, interpreting the results and synthesizing the information to be shared in an informative and reader-friendly report. From the assessment report, parents will be able to understand how to help their child better at home and in the community. Recommendations will be made for school support (ex: IEP or Section 504 Plan, if appropriate). The section of the recommendations in the report is called the Action Plan. (2-3 weeks)
4) Parent Follow Up
A parent follow-up will be held to discuss the findings from the report and the Action Plan for support. This is a great time for parents to ask any questions and understand more ways to support their child. After this conversation, I am still available to answer questions as parents engage with new resources. (45 minutes -1 hour)
Read Shelley's Testimonials
“Thank you”
Thank you so much for completing my daughters IQ testing in a positive environment and providing the report to the school so quickly. We will back in a few years when my second child is ready to apply to schools.
Parent of a 4 year old - IQ Testing
“Went above and beyond”
Shelley was attentive, compassionate, and on board with helping our daughter meet her full potential! Her approach to my daughters learning differences came with such warmth and curiosity, rather than a cold approach which could make a child feel something was "wrong" with them. As a parent, Shelley went above and beyond to support our family.
Parent of a 3rd grader with Dyslexia
“Would recommend her to anyone”
Both my kids (6 and 9) did the WISC-V (the Weschler IQ assessment) with Shelley, and they had a fantastic experience! Shelley truly engaged with both of them and they begged me afterwards to let me visit her every weekend to do puzzles because they had such a great time! (LOL!) Shelley's fees are very reasonable and her report was very helpful for us, with a great turnaround time. She's extremely responsive too - I would recommend her to anyone who is on the fence about doing IQ assessments for their child!
Serene Lee
FAQ
Do you take insurance?
No, I am considered an out of network provider. I do provide a superbill with CPT codes upon request. CPT codes that are commonly used include: 96132, 96133, 96136, 96137
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