Scheduling Details

Initial Meeting

Parents first come in to meet with a senior psychologist. In this initial meeting we try to understand your questions about your child and your goals for the evaluation. We usually do this in person, but we can do it by phone if necessary. For adults coming for an evaluation, this initial meeting can take place on the first day of assessment.

Assessment Days

Students then come for three or four individual assessment sessions. The total assessment time is between 8 and 10 hours. The length of these sessions varies depending on how much energy students have and how long they can focus. We do not schedule these meetings during afterschool hours because students are usually too tired. Generally students miss a morning of school each time they come, or we schedule the meetings during vacation or weekends.

During this time we may also visit students’ schools. We also talk with teachers, therapists, and pediatricians to get a complete picture.

Reports and Feedback Meetings

After meeting with students, we analyze patterns in their performance. We write a report that summarizes strengths, pinpoints underlying problems, and makes recommendations about ways to remediate skill deficits and to accommodate these problems in formal testing settings. We meet with parents at a feedback meeting where we provide and discuss the report. We also like to meet with students to discuss results. In meetings with students we do not use labels and numbers to describe what is happening, rather we explain what may be happening. For example we might say, “Hey, you were really good at vocabulary, but I noticed you sometimes had trouble finding the precise word to use.” We then offer ideas to help students work around these weaknesses. Generally students are relieved to hear these ideas.