How Can An “Outside Neuropsychological” Evaluation Help My Child In School?
Can’t I Just Get An Eval Through The School?
A psychoeducational assessment often provides information regarding intellectual functioning, academic achievement, and behavioral functioning. Some evaluations will also assess language, and adaptive functioning. Although this information is beneficial for educators, schools are unable to provide formal diagnoses, do not provide an underlying explanation for difficulties and do not typically cover specific skills related to executive functioning, attention, personality, and in depth phonological, language, memory and academic skills. Further, for child experiencing comorbid emotional disorders, a private neuropsychologist may explore issues on a deeper level than would be appropriate for a school professional.
Once you have the test results, the or team at school (and parents) will meet to discuss them. Often, the school district will have done their own evaluation as well but a clinical diagnosis isn’t the same as the identification of learning disabilities that a school makes. Let’s say your child’s diagnosis is dyslexia- the school might include special reading instruction in their IEP, but your child may need other supports or services to help with particular problems. For example, if your child has trouble with phonological awareness, the specialist might recommend that your child work with a speech-language therapist. It’s a good idea to have the neuropsychologist be part of the conversation to help make sure that the school’s treatment plan addresses all of your child’s issues as having the specialist there means that they can answer the team’s questions and explain key details in the report. The evaluation will likely determine: whether or not the child requires special education services, specific academic instruction or placement, academic accommodations/modifications, specific modalities of therapy that would be most appropriate, specific classes of medications to consider with physician, other helpful behavioral strategies or environmental changes, and resources/support groups/materials for parents/teachers/child etc.