What is a Neuropsychological Assessment/Evaluation?
The neuropsychological assessment is a specialized task-oriented evaluation of human brain-behavior relationships. The assessment component is comprised of a wide range of cognitive, neuropsychological, and psychological tests that objectively measure brain functions. The other part of the assessment is obtaining relevant background information including: a review of the person’s case history and records, and an interview with the individual and his/her family.This provides important and relevant information about the impact of the person’s functional performance, habits, and lifestyle.
The assessment includes a variety of different methods for evaluating attention span, orientation, memory, concentration, language (receptive and expressive), new learning, mathematical reasoning, spatial perception, abstract and organizational thinking, problem solving, social judgment, motor abilities, sensory awareness, emotional characteristics, general psychological adjustment and academics.
All the information gathered help the family more effectively guide and support the individual, and assist with activities that utilize stronger abilities, and reinforce strategies that compensate for deficit areas. This is key. Knowing your family member’s strengths and deficits can increase your effectiveness and decrease the discord that often develops when the family is not aware of ways the individual understands the world and their unique psychology.
Following the assessment, the neuropsychologist will explain – in detail – the individual’s abilities (strengths and weaknesses) and how each of these are expected to impact on the individual’s life. It is the goal of the neuropsychologist to be very clear and informative about ways the individual’s abilities will affect the day-to-day existence of the individual.
North Jersey Neuropsychological Treatment Center can perform evaluations for the following purposes:
- Concussion Testing
- Children who are not achieving appropriate developmental milestones
- Patients with head injuries
- Patients with Parkinson’s Disease, or other neurological diseases
- Diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder
- Educational evaluation to determine a learning disability
- Identify academic strengths and weaknesses
- Evidence of Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
- Patients exposed to chemicals or toxins
- Substance abusing patients
- Stroke victims
- Cognitive training via computer, paper-based, and functional environmental strategies for maximum rehabilitation of deficits and independence of functioning across settings.
- Forensic Neuropsychological Evaluations
- Competency Evaluations
- Requests by Worker’s Compensation Carriers
- Psychological Evaluations to assess personality functioning
- Executive and Employee testing