There are many different reasons to schedule a neuropsychological evaluation for your child. Some of these reasons may include seeing behaviors in your child that will not remit, marked difficulty acquiring or keeping skills, concerns that they are not progressing as they should be in school, or just wanting a second opinion on a previous diagnosis.

When scheduling an evaluation, it is easiest to think of the evaluation process in 3 steps:

1). Initial Consultation

The first step of the evaluation process is to schedule the initial consultation. The initial consultation is generally an hour long session where the parents get to meet with one of our doctoral level clinicians, Dr. Huckabee or Dr. Kroncke. The initial consultation takes place at our office, and it essentially serves as a diagnostic interview between the parents and the clinician. During this appointment, the parent/parents have the opportunity to give background information and explain their concerns and the clinician determines which assessments will be administered during the testing time of the evaluation. We encourage parents to bring any additional documents or previous records if their child has been tested in the past. The result of the consultation will be specific recommendations on how best to proceed to help your loved one and address your needs. We schedule the testing dates once the initial consultation is finished.

2). Evaluation Testing

We schedule 1 or 2 days of testing depending on your child’s needs and test taking duration ability. Testing usually takes 8 hours and we try not to exceed 4 hours a day. We start testing at 9:00am to ensure children are fresh and alert. Children can take breaks and bring snacks to have during the assessment period. Parents can choose to stay in the office during testing or they can leave and come back when their child has completed testing for the day. We can provide doctor’s notes for missing school upon request.

3). Feedback Session

The feedback session is the last appointment of the evaluation process. The appointment is one hour and is scheduled a couple weeks after testing is completed to allow time for our clinicians to do interpretation and report writing. All of our evaluations are worked on collaboratively and this two week period allows for our clinicians to meet to discuss the results to ensure that you are getting the best and most accurate results from the assessments. During feedback, parents meet with the same clinician they met with for the initial consultation and they discuss the results of the evaluation.  Further recommendations are made for academic and home settings and treatment options. Parents also receive the neuropsychological evaluation report once feedback is completed.

The evaluation process from start to finish usually takes 1 month depending on scheduling and availability. The cost of an evaluation varies with insurance coverage and client needs. Please call our office at 303-322-9000 for more information or to schedule a consultation or evaluation.

© Kara Tyree