Sometimes, things feel off—for yourself, your parent, or your child—and you can’t tell whether it’s something you should be concerned about or seeking help on. There are many reasons why someone may feel they have a deficit, compared to others their age, including issues related to development (like Autism Spectrum Disorder or ADHD), issues acquired after an illness or an accident (like a traumatic brain injury), or issues related to degeneration (like dementia). And sometimes, whatever feels off isn’t necessarily a clinical disorder but rather comes from a mix of individual and environmental traits that interact and add up to a challenging situation. Our thorough, comprehensive neuropsychological assessments are designed to evaluate all aspects of a person’s inner and outer life, to see how the various pieces fit together, and to explain—in simple, actionable terms—how these have led to the whole picture you’re seeing. Then, based on this very specific information, we can tell you what to do about that and how to fit it into your daily life.
We take a process approach to assessment, which is designed to observe and measure aspects of someone from many different angles and contexts. We choose methods depending on the person’s age and developmental stage, the reason for the assessment, and the personality and needs of the person. Typically, this includes an interview and questionnaires with parents or significant others, interviews with teachers and service providers, observation of the person in multiple contexts, and administration of state-of-the-art instruments. In conducting our analyses, we are not simply looking at test scores and diagnostic criteria, we are also evaluating how someone chose an answer or made an error or managed frustration/boredom or interacted with the examiner. This gives us a deeper understanding of how a person attends to, interprets, and assimilates information from their dynamic environment. The kind of information we collect can help shed light on someone’s:
| Intellectual abilities | Executive functioning |
| Behavioral functioning | Motor coordination |
| Attention | Language abilities |
| Learning and memory | Visuospatial skills |
| Social awareness and skills | Effort and motivation |
| Emotional functioning | Personality traits and style |
| Academic achievement, including reading, math, and writing |
Click here to learn more specifics about the evaluation process and how it works.