Where to go for evaluation- I’m new to this

[Anonymous]

8th grade DD takes hours to complete homework every night. She ends up going to bed late and is so frustrated. I’m not sure why it takes her so long.

She definitely has slow processing speed and has trouble understanding verbal word. Like if she has yo answer questions or take notes from a video, she can’t do it. I think this is why I won’t watch movies or even TV- she doesn’t comprehend what’s being said.

She had speech delay as a toddler and qualified for a speech therapist from MoCo until ES. I think this affected and maybe still affects her ability to make friends because she can’t follow the conversation especially in a group setting. (She does have friends)

She’s a bit of a perfectionist. Smart but not genius. She does better when movement of her body is involved like sports/dance. She’s great at public speaking (with notecards) and very sweet. She is organized.

We are both so frustrated by how long it takes her to do homework and other tasks. I’ve tried different strategies to try to help her - her focus and attention span have improved over the years. She works hard But she needs more sleep and I’m worried about HS. My other kids don’t have these struggles and I’m at a loss of where to start.

I’m in MoCo, Maryland. Who do you recommend we go to for neuropsych evaluation? What type of accommodations do you think would help DD? What’s the off ramp for these accommodations?

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

I’m in VA so I can’t give MD recommendations, but before you do that, is she doing her HW in a common area where you can monitor her laptop and cell use? Make sure she is actually working and not getting distracted by those.

Also, this is when classes get significantly harder. Is this the first time she is taking high school level classes?

She probably still needs an eval but my DD was spending way too many hours on math HW in 8th and what she needed was a wake up call to drop a level down in math for 9th.

My son was distracted by his cell and group texts around that age and we had to make sure we always took it or he would have never got his HW done. It was eye opening how much time he got distracted by other things on his laptop when we forced him to do hw on the kitchen table.

[Anonymous]

OP here- yes I monitor her phone use and she’s in kitchen usually. She has always been really slow not just in homework but to understand things. Math comes easier for her unless it’s word problems. It’s reading comprehension and verbal instruction/information that’s hardest.

Also, not looking for any medications.

What should I look for or ask when calling neuropsych groups?

[Anonymous]

First, I’d discourage you from worrying about off-ramps for accommodations right now. What you need now is on-ramps.

In Moco you can do auditory processing specific testing at Potomac Audiology. They accepted our insurance.

We did our neuropsych at Chesapeake Center for ADHD. They tested beyond ADHD, but ADHD is the focus of their practice. They are quite expensive so there might be less pricy options available.

[Anonymous]

I'm usually a big proponent of neuropsychs, but here I think you need a good speech and language evaluation.

[Anonymous]

Have you started with the school and a referral there? So much of private testing will jump right to ADHD and be happy to charge you thousands and give you a generic list of accommodations for you to take to the school.

I’m the VA poster and we were surprised with the lack of comprehensive details of our expensive testing. We spent so much and were not happy with what we received from testing. It was not useful to help our teen.

[Anonymous]

You can get a neuropsych at Stixrud - it's expensive...but maybe try through the school first since she had issues before and required speech before.

[Anonymous]

I hate to say this but there’s not much you can do for slow processing speed. It’s a lifelong issue. If there’s any ADHD on top of it, it’s a tough road.

I think if you’re going for a neuropsych you’re going to be wasting a lot of time because between getting the appointment, going through the testing and getting a report, you’re talking about months. And you seem to already know what the issues are.

You identified reading comprehension as a problem. That’s easily evaluated through the school so that’s where I’d start.

Since you aren’t looking for medications (which are a life saver co my son with low processing speed and ADHD), no point in an ADHD eval, though I think it’s a mistake not to consider that as a possibility.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Does a neuropsych evaluation look for learning disabilities and in addition to ADHD?
I am open to any and all eval/diagnoses - I don’t know exactly what her issues are.

I see Stixund come up a lot. What do they do differently to warrant their price tag? I’m not opposed to paying for something that is better, more informative, more accurate, sooner.

We are in MCPS and the school has not been helpful because her grades are fine. Any other specific comprehensive Neuropsych recommendations in MoCo- and what you like/don’t like about that group? I’m looking for a diagnosis and then concrete suggestions on what to do to help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:8th grade DD takes hours to complete homework every night. She ends up going to bed late and is so frustrated. I’m not sure why it takes her so long.

She definitely has slow processing speed and has trouble understanding verbal word. Like if she has yo answer questions or take notes from a video, she can’t do it. I think this is why I won’t watch movies or even TV- she doesn’t comprehend what’s being said.

She had speech delay as a toddler and qualified for a speech therapist from MoCo until ES. I think this affected and maybe still affects her ability to make friends because she can’t follow the conversation especially in a group setting. (She does have friends)

She’s a bit of a perfectionist. Smart but not genius. She does better when movement of her body is involved like sports/dance. She’s great at public speaking (with notecards) and very sweet. She is organized.

We are both so frustrated by how long it takes her to do homework and other tasks. I’ve tried different strategies to try to help her - her focus and attention span have improved over the years. She works hard But she needs more sleep and I’m worried about HS. My other kids don’t have these struggles and I’m at a loss of where to start.

I’m in MoCo, Maryland. Who do you recommend we go to for neuropsych evaluation? What type of accommodations do you think would help DD? What’s the off ramp for these accommodations?

Thank you!

IF she has a disability - why do you need an off ramp? That is a) an ableist mindset, b) putting the cart WAY before the horse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Does a neuropsych evaluation look for learning disabilities and in addition to ADHD?
I am open to any and all eval/diagnoses - I don’t know exactly what her issues are.

I see Stixund come up a lot. What do they do differently to warrant their price tag? I’m not opposed to paying for something that is better, more informative, more accurate, sooner.

We are in MCPS and the school has not been helpful because her grades are fine. Any other specific comprehensive Neuropsych recommendations in MoCo- and what you like/don’t like about that group? I’m looking for a diagnosis and then concrete suggestions on what to do to help.

We did our neuropsych at Chesapeake. Our DD was diagnosed (I’m 100% sure correctly) with ADHD. She was also diagnosed with dysgraphia. So yes, they should diagnose other issues. I’d just make sure that you are clear that is what you want.

[Anonymous]

We did ours as the Center for Assessment and Treatment but it was $$. And yes, they looked for everything -- ADHD, learning disabilities, autism...

But I'd start with contacting the school and seeing if they can do some of the testing.

[Anonymous]

If you get some testing from the school, do you then need to do less with a private group? Like does that make the overall testing cheaper?

[Anonymous]

We had an excellent experience at Stixrud.

[Anonymous]

Maven Psychology Group tends to get you in quickly and charges reasonable prices.