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Care Areas of Expertise Learning and Development Center Neuropsychological and Educational Evaluation

Learning and Development Center

Neuropsychological and Educational Evaluation

Evaluations for students ages 5 to 25 to develop a detailed profile of learning strengths and weaknesses.

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The Child Mind Institute provides evaluations for students ages 5 to 25. Spending roughly 10 hours with each child and their family, our neuropsychologists use up-to-date, standard measures to develop a detailed profile of learning strengths and weaknesses. Our goal is to understand how your child learns best and gain insight into how he processes information and handles tasks compared to other children of the same age.

We carefully review your child’s skills and abilities in many domains, including intellectual functioning and reasoning abilities, learning and memory, visual processing, listening comprehension and verbal expression, and executive skills like planning, organizing, and managing time and materials, attention, and concentration. These are the skills and abilities that are at the core of all aspects of academic achievement.

We administer reading, math and writing tests to see what school skills your child has mastered. We carefully observe how he approaches each task and we look at his patterns of performance to see if a learning disability affects his ability to demonstrate what he knows. We don’t give every child the same tests, but rather use our assessment tools to develop a profile of each child’s individual learning strengths and weaknesses.

During our evaluation process, we also consider how your child is doing emotionally and how he is interacting with family members, friends, and classmates.

As part of our evaluation process, it is sometimes helpful to visit the child’s classroom before we begin testing to get first-hand impressions of his behavior and interaction with teachers and other students. Since the child does not know us yet, we are able to observe what goes on in the classroom without interference. This helps us develop a sense of some of the obstacles he may face in learning in that environment, and whether the school is a good fit with his needs.

Feedback

Our evaluations always include a thorough, user-friendly report that documents your child’s diagnosis and offers prioritized recommendations.

  • For parents: We share the information and data we gather in a personal meeting and collaborate on a plan for successful learning.
  • For students: We meet with adolescents to discuss the results and follow up with letters to document their strengths and areas of struggle. For younger children, we can also provide feedback in person or in a child-friendly letter.
  • For educators: We offer consultations with the school to debrief on the results and establish a practical and effective plan for student success.

Follow-up

After the evaluation and feedback are complete, we stay in touch with families to help them implement our recommendations. For children with learning disabilities, we can offer ongoing support. We also work closely with a dedicated group of anxiety specialists, behavioral therapists, and child and adolescent psychiatrists who are on-site and available to provide additional services and treatment as needed.

To make an appointment, call us at 212.308.3118 or request an appointment online.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is neuropsychological testing?

Neuropsychological testing is a special type of psychological testing that evaluates a child’s academic ability and learning strengths and weaknesses. It helps clinicians, teachers and parents understand how a child is learning and processing information compared to other children of the same age. For example, a child might be able to articulate very complicated concepts and yet have trouble reading about those concepts, or a child might read very fluidly and yet have very poor comprehension.

Neuropsychological testing can provide important information about the nature of a child’s learning strengths and challenges. Parents should know, however, that testing targets a child’s learning deficits, challenges him to perform tasks that are particularly difficult because of those deficits, and then recommends methods for compensating for those deficits. In many ways, it’s the paper-and-pencil test equivalent of a cardiac stress test. Therefore, it’s important to explain to your child that this is a test where the doctor expects you not to know all the answers. Your child should be well-rested and fed before testing begins.

How long does a neuropsychological and educational evaluation take?

A full evaluation will be completed in four to six sessions, including an initial appointment with caregivers to gather background information, testing with the child, and a feedback appointment with caregivers. Depending on a child’s needs, testing can focus on intellectual functioning, all areas of academic achievement, language and visuospatial development, memory skills, attention, organization, and planning, as well as a review of how a child thinks and feels. Each testing session is two to four hours long depending on age.

We offer Saturday sessions and flexible scheduling. Older students sometimes choose to visit us for a full day — and take a long lunch break — so that they don’t miss too much school; we make every effort to work with their schedules.

What if my child has already had an evaluation?

If your child has previously had an evaluation, the purpose of our evaluation may be to see how your child is progressing. This kind of evaluation usually takes only one or two sessions. Some children have had evaluations completed by their school district. We can review the prior evaluation and individualize testing to meet your child’s needs.

How do you give the results of a neuropsychological and educational evaluation?

We meet with you at the conclusion of the evaluation to discuss your child’s profile of strengths and weaknesses. This is also when we discuss treatment options and help you choose the plan of treatment that can enable your child to be as productive as possible at school. We also provide feedback to your child — in person for 15 to 20 minutes or in a child-friendly letter. We can consult with your child’s school on an as-needed basis to make sure that teachers understand the results of the evaluation and the school can determine what services they will provide. In addition, we provide you with a comprehensive written report. This clearly written, user-friendly report includes relevant information about your child’s background and diagnosis, as well as the results of all testing and our recommendations. While it often takes four to six weeks for us to generate the written report, we are happy to speak to school personnel, therapists and remediation specialists before the report is produced in order to ensure that the recommendations from the evaluation lead as soon as possible to the support your child needs and deserves. In special situations (upon a parent’s or school’s request), we can generate written reports more quickly.

To make an appointment, call us at 212.308.3118 or request an appointment online.

Our Team

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