FAQs

What age groups do you serve? 

I have helped students of all ages from pre-school through college.  I have worked with preschoolers in Early Intervention and have advised over a thousand children, adolescents and adults in a variety of settings, including well-regarded schools and clinics.  

If a student has uneven academic performance, are you able to help? 

I have helped many students who perform below their potential.  Quite often, problems can be traced to underlying learning issues that affect memory, spatial processing, organizing, communicating and other areas.  Emotional issues often take their toll as well.  After the sources of the challenges are identified, I work with the student and family members on new strategies and techniques aimed at improving overall performance.  Changes might include new ways to address time management, concentration and the student’s surroundings.  I can help you build an experienced team offering a wide range of creative interventions through tapping my network of educational and mental health professionals.  

What is a neuropsychological evaluation?  Specifically, neuropsychological assessment involves giving one-on-one measures, often available only to licensed psychologists.  The assessment usually looks at general problem solving, language, motor skills, visual and sensory perception, memory and behavior.  Observations during performance add just as much to the interpretations as scores do.  I compare scores over time when possible to track progress in a specific way.  I integrate patterns that appear across many sources, including tests, observations and background provided by family members and others who know the student.  I then make detailed recommendations based upon the findings. 

How does a neuropsychological evaluation help?  This evaluation helps by providing a road map for everyone working with the child.  It sensitively freezes the action, which makes it easier for everyone involved to pinpoint specific strengths and challenges and to see the big picture.  Different parts of how a student thinks and acts can be understood more thoroughly than they can in fleeting day-to-day events, even those closely watched through other types of observation.  Having additional points of view and information frees our thinking and perceiving about a student’s predicament from what is otherwise (often informally) at hand.  IQ is a major predictor of academic performance, and indeed it can predict the success of certain intervention strategies, so it's important to have.  Testing also specifies the strengths, to show the school, the student, and the parents.  At the end of the process, practical recommendations, including those not discernible through other methods, are made in a comprehensive written report

.Do you assess for test accommodations such as extra time? Yes, I do this often for tests such as the SAT, ACT, MCAT, LSAT, GRE, bar exams, and so forth.   It can be helpful to start young, to have a paper trail for accommodations down the road, and to make plans early on for strategies so that they might not even be necessary in the first place.  

Do you accept insurance and how much does an evaluation cost?I can be an out-of-network provider, and insurance companies may pay for parts of an evaluation, depending on the specifics of the policy.  Clients pay my office directly and then request their insurance to reimburse them.  (I am not a member of any insurance panels.)  Neuropsychological evaluations may be covered with employer arrangements such as flexible spending accounts.  Cost is determined by the needs of an individual client, which would be discussed at the outset.  Here is a link of five tax deductions and credits.