- Who is Dr. Band?
- Band is a licensed psychologist in the state of New York and a pediatric neuropsychologist. He has extensively focused his training on psychological assessment, neurodevelopmental disabilities, educational advocacy, and accommodations for neurodevelopmental (e.g., ADHD; learning disorders) and emotional challenges (e.g., anxiety). He provides comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations at The Gold Center. Dr. Band specializes in working with students (children, teens, and young adults such as college students or young professionals) and their families who are facing a wide array of challenges (e.g., academic, social-emotional, attentional, behavioral) that impact the student’s ability to learn in school and function to the best of their potential in their everyday life.
- What is a neuropsychological evaluation?
- A neuropsychological evaluation is a standardized way that we can understand how someone’s brain functions translate to their behavior in everyday life. The evaluation includes a comprehensive assessment that examines an individual’s functioning across different areas (e.g., intelligence, language, visual-motor, attention/executive functioning, learning/memory, academic, and social-emotional/behavioral). This kind of evaluation does not only consider a person’s performance on formal testing measures, but also aims to consider how a person’s unique history and background affects their functioning at school, home, work, or in the broader community. Within the mental health field, a neuropsychological evaluation is one of the most comprehensive, individualized method to assess a person’s functioning.
- What is the purpose of seeking out a neuropsychological evaluation?
- The evaluation helps to establish a holistic picture of the individual by identifying the person’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, broad questions along the lines “how does my brain process information?” or “how does my brain go about learning, thinking, or feeling?” can be answered.
- Specific questions such as “Do I/does my child have ADHD or a learning disorder or clinical levels of anxiety?” can also be answered. Given that everyone struggles for understandable reasons at various points in their life, the standardized nature of the assessment allows us to determine what is underlying said struggles as well as whether or not the impact is developmentally appropriate for where someone is at their life based on age or specific circumstances.
- With the information gleaned from the evaluation, we can better understand why a person is struggling in order to then craft diagnoses that explain their challenges as well as create recommendations for what they need to show their true potential at school, home, work, and/or in the community (e.g., accommodations for school or work; medication; specific school programs or types of jobs/work fields; therapeutic interventions; strategies to enhance learning, executive functioning, and emotional functioning).
- What makes an individual a good candidate for a neuropsychological evaluation?
- If someone is struggling with learning in school
- If someone is struggling to get tasks done efficiently/perform adequately (or to their full potential) for school, work, or daily life
- If someone is having a hard time focusing or with their attention/concentration
- If someone has a tough time using appropriate executive functioning skills (e.g., planning/organization, time management)
- If someone has challenges controlling their emotions (e.g., anxiety; mood) or behavior (e.g., impulsivity; needing to be in constant motion; having large outward reactions to events in one’s life)
- If someone is facing difficulties using social skills and establishing meaningful social connections/relationships with others
- If someone has a hard time fully expressing themselves, understanding language or directions when spoken to, or generally processing information (e.g., seeming to be slow in this process or needing repetition/extra time)
- What does the evaluation process look like?
- The first appointment of the evaluation is a clinical intake with the individual or the student’s caregivers. This appointment lasts 90 minutes and is conducted via telehealth. The purpose of this initial appointment is for Dr. Band to get an understanding of the primary concerns as well as the person’s background/history related to learning and development.
- You or your child will then come in-person to The Gold Center for testing sessions. Depending on the person and their needs, the evaluation consists of 2 or 3 testing sessions that last several hours (e.g., 4-6 with built-in breaks) in duration.
- After all testing sessions are completed, Dr. Band will score and analyze all of the data. He will write a comprehensive, detailed report that discusses the results and recommendations.
- Once the report is complete, Dr. Band and the individual/family will meet via telehealth for a feedback session to review the findings.
- After the family has completed the neuropsychological evaluation process, Dr. Band is available to review the findings with schools, providers, workplaces, etc. as well as provide ongoing advocacy/consultation in order to help people implement recommendations.
- What factors into the length and cost of the neuropsychological evaluation?
- As outlined above, a neuropsychological evaluation is a long process that is a large time commitment for the individual, family, and evaluator. The length of the process is the most valid, individualized approach to get a full, comprehensive picture of someone’s functioning in order to then determine specific recommendations that are far from generic but actually in line with what each unique individual needs to function at their genuine potential.
- The evaluation is also a large financial commitment, which is related to its’ highly individualized and comprehensive nature as well as the length of time the provider spends directly providing clinical services to the patient (e.g., 15-20 hours of appointment times) as well as indirectly serving the patient (e.g., 30-40 hours scoring, interpreting, and writing the report; consultation and follow-up after the evaluation process to help implement recommendations).
- How can I prepare myself, or my child/teen, for the evaluation?
- It is helpful to think of the process as a “way to learn about your brain.” Explain to yourself or child that this process will allow us to learn how their brain learns, thinks, feels, and solves problems – which is very important since this is different for everyone and can help us figure out what is needed for them to “do their best” at school, work, home, or in the broader community.
- The testing sessions will include activities such as working with blocks, solving puzzles, seeing what kind and how much information you can remember, seeing how your brain focuses, and answering various kinds of questions using your words. Some activities will feel more like school, where you will be asked to read, write, and do math problems. You will also be asked questions related to how you think and feel about yourself.
- Explain to yourself or your child that this process is different than a test in school. This means that a grade will not be received, and what matters MOST is that someone tries their best and puts forth their best effort (as opposed to trying to work very quickly or be highly accurate).
- Explain to yourself or your child that the activities during the evaluation are designed for individuals than span across a large age range; this means that questions are supposed to get challenging for everyone! Understanding that some questions will be easy for you, hard for you, and many will be somewhere in the middle is important to keep in mind.