New- recommendations for neuropsychologist

KatieGrace

New Member
I have recently found your forum and I see your similar concerns, as I have for my child, age 13. We live in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area. I have read here about neuropsychologist evaluations, perhaps not available in Canada and really want to move forward with a complete evaluation. We could travel within an area including but not restricted to, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania etc. I would be willing to travel elsewhere for the right place. My immediate concern is the part on emotional health, but we are dealing with longstanding neurological challenges like most difficult children. Also what is a typical cost and wait time? Thank you everyone!

KatieGrace
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
Welcome to our group. Glad you found us. The neuropsychological testing has been extremely helpful for many of us in identifying what causes our difficult child problems and then makes it possible for us to seek out specific professional help. I am one of the big proponents of this testing but "sometimes" people think that specific medical tests are administered and then voila you have a diagnosis and can get an RX which will solves all the problems.

I would explore a Children's Hospital in a large City near you and ask if they do the NP testing, what if any requirements they have (referrals or records perhaps), if the tests are done in one day or two or more and how much it costs. Where I live there are no qualified testers but two hours away we had an excellent team. difficult child was tested twice two years apart. The first trip we had a few hours of testing, spent the night and came back for the other six hours and headed home. The second trip it was all in one day with lunch break etc.With the team approach I believe we got excellent analysis and direction. I hope you find good solid help, too. Hugs DDD
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Welcome, fellow Canadian.

You CAN get a good, comprehensive evaluation in Canada, but it won't be through a neuropsychologist.
Here are two good approaches:
1) if you have a children's hospital or a major teaching hospital within reach, they often have a behavioral/developmental evaluation team.
2) through mental health, you may be able to reach a PhD-level psychologist with a specialty in comprehensive evaluations.
 

KatieGrace

New Member
Thank you, Yes, there is some evaluation here but presently any mental health evaluations are about 8-12 months for waiting time. I believe that the more comprehensive neuropsychologist evaluations will help identify general neurological challenges that are no doubt impacting on mental health and we need to move forward to some treatment options. When our waiting time comes up locally we will be ahead and then inclusive of that assessment. Any specific recommendations given anyone's positive encounters is welcome.
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Just adding in my welcome. I know some places can have a long wait. We didn't have to wait too long for our difficult child's; I think about two weeks.
 
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