Neuropsychology Testing

Notes from the Sensory Integration Parent Support Group,
newsletter called: 'Sensory Integration News' (October 1, 1996), 'Meeting Review' from their presentation
 "Neuropsychological Testing" presenter Penny Prather, Ph.D.

Details regarding what neuropsychology testing may include:

1. Developmental, academic and family history
    Are there particular rick factors?

2. Current adjustment and challenges for the child (may be either academic or social)
    What is the referral concerns to be addressed?

3. Formal testing: test data to inform profile includes:

        a. General cognitive abilities measured using an intelligence test (i.e. WISC)
            What skill are above average? What skills are below average?
        b.  Attentional skills
        c.  Executive functioning processing
        d.  Language processing (including verbal memory), communication
            ("Are vocabulary and grammar where they should be for this age?")
        e.  Social cognition and processing
        f.  Visual/spatial and constructional skills (including visual memory)
        g.  Motor, sensory
        h.  Personality variables/emotional status
        i.  Academic achievement
4. Observational data
This history, test data and observational data are then integrated to suggest a profile of the child.  Recommendations for interventions are made that may involve the child's academics, social skills, or individual/family environment.  Report will make referrals for treatment.

Additional note from a talk on neuropsychology testing:
Real difficulty arises for many children in the 3rd or 4th grade when learning becomes more complex.  Task must be managed and planned, as opposed to being done automatically.  Children learn to read in grades 1 - 3 and need to read to learn after grade four.

Here's an article with some more details from two other doctors:
Unraveling the Neuropsychological Assessment PDF file format
  by Katherine D. Tsatsanis, Ph.D. and Fred R. Volkmar, M.D.
 

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