A clinical neuropsychologist is a licensed psychologist with specialized training in brain-behavior relationships who helps people understand the connection between their brain health and their daily functioning. This is done through various tests of cognitive, behavioral, social, personality, and emotional functioning. Neuropsychologists are often consulted for assistance with diagnostic clarification and classification as well as treatment, vocational, and/or academic planning.
A neuropsychological evaluation involves integrating information from an individual’s background with data obtained from measures of cognitive, personality, social, and emotional functioning to formulate a comprehensive characterization of strengths and weaknesses.
The evaluation typically begins with an interview, during which we will ask you about your current difficulties as well as many other questions related to your history and background. You then will complete a series of both paper-and-pencil and computerized measures that give us more information about your cognitive processing skills, such as attention, processing efficiency, memory, and language. You also will be given a number of measures that assess personality, social, and emotional functioning. This stage of the evaluation may take 1-2 sessions. Once this is complete, we will analyze your performance and provide you with a full report describing our findings, as well as evidence-based recommendations for improving your performance in all aspects of your daily functioning. All information will be reviewed with you during a feedback session that will conclude the evaluation process.
For adults, testing is very sensitive to mild memory and thinking problems that might not be obvious in other ways. For example, testing can help determine whether memory changes are normal, age-related changes or if they reflect the progression of an underlying neurological disorder. Testing also might be used to identify problems related to medical disorders that affect aspects of thinking, including diabetes, metabolic or infectious diseases, movement disorders, multiple sclerosis, or alcoholism. Your pattern of results will allow us to formulate a tailored treatment plan to help you maximize your strengths and compensate for areas of weakness.
For children, results can explain why a child is having problems at school, home, or with social functioning. For example, a child may have difficulty reading because of an attention problem, a language disorder, or a reading disability. Testing also may determine whether a speech delay is due to a problem in producing speech, understanding/expressing language, a more global delay, or autism. Importantly, results provide a better understanding of the child’s behavior as it pertains to learning, and can guide teachers, therapists, and parents to help the child achieve his/her full potential.
If you’d like to learn more about our specialized services or to set up an appointment to meet with one of our doctors, call our office at (646) 493-6050. You can also request an appointment through our convenient online form.