Our assessments involve a discussion of a person's current and past functioning in the context of their medical, educational, occupational, and interpersonal functioning. Based on this discussion and the areas of concern, our neuropsychologist plans a test battery involving a number of tasks and activities as well as answering questions about various types of knowledge, problem-solving, focusing and shifting attention, as well as trying to learn and remember new information. There are also questions meant to understand how a person feels and how they see themselves, others, and the world in general. These tasks are completed one-on-one with breaks taken, as needed.
Cognitive, Emotional, Social, and Behavioral Difficulties
Each person has their own constellation of cognitive strengths and weaknesses. For example, a person may be very good at visual tasks but struggle with language-based tasks such as reading fluency or comprehension. Likewise, a person can be very astute at problem solving but have difficulty understanding others' perspectives which interfere with family, social and romantic relationships. Understanding these strengths and weaknesses can give a person the ability to design a plan to help improve their life in whatever way they would like.
Mood difficulties such as depression can be improved by identifying and addressing the underlying cause which may be automatic negative thinking patterns that a person can learn to identify and modify to thoughts that more accurately reflect reality.
Academic and Career-Related Struggles
Academic struggles may come about as the result of specific learning disorders such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and/or dysgraphia, problems with working memory or sustained attention, slow processing speed, problems encoding and retrieving new information, problems with emotional or behavioral regulation, etc. A person may also struggle in their workplace due to a number of possible issues that begin to interfere with career success. A neuropsychological evaluation helps to understand these issues so that a plan of action can be developed to improve the person's quality of life.
Autism Spectrum Evaluations
Autism is a condition that has gradually been gaining increased awareness and care by the professional community. We now understand that this condition affects a person's social communication skills, including more subtle aspects such as understanding nonverbal communication and nuances in social communication, as well as some form of restricted/repetitive behaviors. These difficulties can range from mild to severe. It is a neurodevelopmental condition that, due to our low level of awareness and understanding until recent history, often went undiagnosed and remains so in many adults. Evaluation for this condition can bring an enormous degree of relief to those who continue to experience associated social difficulties, and can empower them to utilize empirically-supported treatment options. Evaluation for children can direct their educational planning and treatment in a manner to bring facilitate their optimal development
Assessment of Memory Difficulties
Adults can experience changes in their memory and other aspects of cognition and behavior as the result of acquired injury such as traumatic brain injury, neurodegeneration as a result of dementia, vascular causes such as stroke and microvascular changes, deficiency in oxygen resulting in hypoxia, etc. Differential diagnosis of dementia is an umbrella term that includes conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, Lewy body dementia, vascular dementia, etc. Neuropsychological evaluation can help determine whether a person is experiencing age-related memory loss, cognitive effects of depression, or another condition that warrants treatment.