FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS AT NEUROPSYCH KIDS
- How should I explain the assessment to my child?
Of course every child is different, but I usually recommend talking to your child to identify things they’re great at and come naturally to them. For example, they may be athletic, artistic, empathetic, skilled at building things, acting, singing, storytelling, science, and more. It can also be a quality that makes them special that they may not recognize in themselves such as compassion, sensitivity, a love of animals, bringing people together, or leading a group.
Those are your child’s super highways in their brain. They may allow them to problem solve more easily, reason through a tough math problem, provide support to a friend, or play an instrument without too much effort because they are effective and sometimes automatic patterns of responding that their brain has built up over time.
Next, you can talk about things that are harder. You can start by sharing things that are difficult for you now or were as a child. I remember telling my kids that I got lost all the time because I can’t read maps, even on the navigation navigation screen, or that I couldn’t do their math homework. If they are reluctant, you can gently bring up things that they’ve mentioned in the past or seem to lead to frustration . You can use their words to make them easier to recognize like, “Math is so boring!” or “It’s not my fault that I keep forgetting my homework?” or “I can’t think of anything to write. This is so stupid!” They may also struggle to pay attention, understand directions, complete their nightly reading assignment, or pick up on social cues from friends, causing conflict.
These are your children’s one-lane, one-way roads that are making it harder to get them where they want to go, and that’s a good thing because while they may be harder to navigate, with some work, we can redirect the traffic and build new roads that they can turn new skills into superhighways with practice and support from others.
Most of all, let them know that you want to understand how they learn and what drives them so you and their teacher and other caring adults know how to best support them, and they can learn about themselves so they can self-advocate when needed instead of not knowing what to ask to make things easier. Some kids do best with visual or hands-on supports when learning new math skills. Others prefer to listen to audiobooks while reading to help them get the meaning of the text.
- How should I prepare them for testing?
Let them know that I’m a different kind of doctor. They aren’t sick and there won’t be any shots or uncomfortable tables they have to wait on 🙂 Instead, we’ll be doing different activities like games and puzzles, and some school stuff so that we can work together to learn how their brain works. We will take breaks and they can bring their favorite snacks and an activity they might like to share. Most of all, let them know that I will try to make the process as much fun as possible and that they will have a chance to share anything they’d like me to know to make things easier.
- What can we expect to learn from this process?
Depending on the type of evaluation your child is having, during the feedback meeting, I will review all of their test results and what they mean. You will learn about their strengths and challenges in different areas of functioning and how certain processes can break down and cause unexpected difficulties.
I will summarize my findings and explain your child’s learning style (if applicable). I may provide research and other information to help you understand unfamiliar terms or processes contributing to your child’s presentation. Finally, if appropriate, I will provide diagnoses, referrals to clinicians who can provide effective support, recommendations for their school around individualized education programs, 504 Plans, services and accommodations, recommendations to support your child at home, and helpful resources like books and organizations. (Please note that we cannot guarantee that your school will accept our findings and it’s often useful to check with them to identify the best way to move forward, which may include doing an assessment with the district instead.)
- If we involve the school or other professionals in the process, does that mean that they will see the report or get information about our child without our permission?
No! Indicating that you’d like the school, your child’s therapist, or other professional involved in the process on your HIPAA form permits us to reach out with questionnaires, and to communicate with them via email or phone calls to learn about what they’re seeing in the classroom, in treatment, etc. The report will be released only to you. We will not share any information about our findings without your express permission to do so.
- What Is included in an assessment
The parent intake meeting where we will learn all about your child’s development and current presentation, questionnaires and communications with their teachers, and other clinicians you’d like us to work with (involving the school is up to you!), your testing appointments, the comprehensive assessment report, and the feedback meeting.
6. What are other Neuropsych Kids families saying about us?
We are very fortunate to receive emails from families after we see them as well as years later to update us on their progress. Some feedback we’ve received includes…
“They are in high school now if you can believe it, and they are thriving. They’re in mainstream classrooms with little support needed. They have close friends, and they are so much less stressed because of the help you provided. We cannot ever thank you enough.”
And, “J- is in middle school, and S- is in high school now and they are doing so well. J– is still with the therapist you recommended and they both have great grades and time to hang out and do things after school. Our family dynamic has changed without the ongoing stress and we really wanted you to know that you changed our lives.”
For more parent feedback, please just ask or visit our Yelp page at: https://www.yelp.com/biz/neuropsych-kids-palo-alto-4
- How do we get started?
Simply provide your contact information in the section to the right or on the contact page. We will send you an email that provides all the information you’ll need about the process of doing an evaluation with us including the timing of our next available appointments, what processes will be assessed, what each appointment will look like, pricing and codes to give to your insurance company to check on their out-of-network reimbursement benefits, and more.
Thank you for visiting our website. We hope to hear from you soon.