Neuropsychological evaluation (one definition)

[Sheila]

This information below was forwarded to me. I don't have the publication required to cross-check for accuracy. Just letting everyone know that this could be an excerpt.

Definition of Neuropsychological evaluation:

"Assessment designed to draw inferences about the functioning of the cerebral hemispheres and to identify the adaptive strengths and weaknesses of children with brain injuries. It complements a neurological examination by providing a profile of cognitive
ability, sensorimotor functioning and affective reactions."

A neuropsychological examination complements a neurological examination. It typically includes measures of the following areas and functions (Mapou,1995):

1. General intellectual skills and academic achievement, including evaluation of reasoning, problem solving, reading, writing and mathematics
abilities

2. Arousal and attention, including evaluation of level of alertness, focused attention, sustained attention, span of attention, and resistance to interference

3. Sensory and motor functions, including evaluation of visual functions, auditory functions, somatosensory functions (pertaining to bodily sensations, including those of touch, pain, pressure, and temperature)functional laterality (side of the body preferred for sensory and motor tasks), motor strength, fine-motor skills (such as speed and dexterity), and sensorimotor integration

4. Executive functions and problem-solving abilities, including evaluation of planning, flexibility of thinking, sequencing and organizational skills,and verbal and nonverbal reasoning abilities

5. Language functions, including evaluation of comprehension and production

6. Visuospatial functions, including evaluation of perceptual skills,constructional skills, and spatial awareness

7. Learning and memory, including ability to learn new information, immediate and delayed recall, recognition, working memory, sequential
memory, visual memory and auditory memory

8. Personality, including evaluation of motivation, interests,impulsiveness, ability to tolerate changes in activities, compulsions, and phobias

9. Emotional functioning, including evaluation of range of expressed affect, labiality of affect, and modulation of emotional reactivity.

During the neuropsychological evaluation, be alert to the child's language, attention, memory, intellectual and cognitive functioning, emotions,
executive functions, rate of information processing and sensorimotor functioning.

If you choose to have a neuropsychological assessment completed, some good questions to ask are:

1. Which areas are intact and which ones show a deficit?

2. What can the teacher do to help the child learn better?

3. What medical problems does the child have that will necessitate changes in the classroom?

4. What type of special education services does the child need?

5. How has the family been affected by the child's condition?

6. What services does the family need?


REF: Jerome M. Sattler, Assessment of Children, Behavioral and Clinical Applications 4th Edition.

 

[Hound dog]

Thanks alot! This will come in helpful since T is about to go thru his second one as soon as they can get him in.

Hugs

 

[Stella Johnson]

Thanks Alisha! I will have to save this for future reference.

can we save this in the archives? New members are always asking what different types of evaluations are.

Steph

 

[dlp30]

Great my son too is about to go through his second one and I don't believe all of that was done in 2 hours last time!! I agree with Steph can it be saved to achives?

 

[GoingNorth]

2 HOURS??!! For a CHILD??!!

Mine at University of Chicago took about NINE hours and was done over two days. Guessing that as an adult who was likely a lot better able to communicate what was going on with me shortened it some.

Wow, all sorts of testing and questions, a lot of observations. Educational in my case was more about history in the past. There was more focus on job stuff (which makes sense, school IS a child's job if you think about it)and social stuff.

The afternoon after the 2nd half of the evaluation I saw a neurologist for the first time (actually I saw one neurologist and three neurology residents--I felt rather like a class project). Their findings were then passed back to the neuropsychologist doing my evaluation and another couple of hours were spent integrating the medical findings into the rest of the findings.

The full multi-disciplinary evaluation took about 30 hours spread over three weeks. There was the neuropsychological evaluation, a psychiatric evaluation, a neurological (medical) evaluation, a very complete physical (where I found out my thyroid was shot), an Occupational Therapist (OT) evaluation, interviews with two tdocs, EEG, MRI (to rule out or in neurological causes for problems)and a stack of questionnaires of all sorts.

I *cannot* imagine total cost of this out of pocket. My medical insurance covered some of it and the rest of it was funded by a clinical study ongoing at the time that was thrilled beyond belief to get in three generations of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) folks.

I would think for a child it would take longer.

toK