Neurospych Testing Recs- Who did you use and did you love them?

[Anonymous]

We used Stixrud twice over the years. Cookie cutter reports. In one, the wrong kid's name was not edited out. The provider also landed on the easy diagnoses (ADHD) and didn't even bother with an ADOS, despite autism concerns from parents and a mental health provider.

Not even six months after the last Stixrud testing, DC was inpatient for major anxiety and an autistic mentdown. That's how DC got the very late ASD diagnosis.

Everyone who has since read the Stixrud report said signs of ASD were all over it, and Stixrud missed it.

We wasted thousands and thousands of dollars on their help.

[Anonymous]

Dr. Black at CAAT is excellent for autism/social cognition concerns. A neuropsych with him was a two hour parent intake session, about 8 hours of testing over two days, and a two hour parent debrief session.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We used Stixrud twice over the years. Cookie cutter reports. In one, the wrong kid's name was not edited out. The provider also landed on the easy diagnoses (ADHD) and didn't even bother with an ADOS, despite autism concerns from parents and a mental health provider.

Not even six months after the last Stixrud testing, DC was inpatient for major anxiety and an autistic mentdown. That's how DC got the very late ASD diagnosis.

Everyone who has since read the Stixrud report said signs of ASD were all over it, and Stixrud missed it.

We wasted thousands and thousands of dollars on their help.

Yeah I've listened to some of the podcasts featuring Dr. Henderson talking about autism in girls and she acknowledges she "didn't do autism" before she had an epiphany about particular patient she was evaluating. I was definitely told to go to either Dr. Henderson or Dr. Namazi at Stixrud (we ended up using a different practice due to the long wait-list for these).

It's bizarre to me that any person conducting neuropsychological assessments would "not do autism". It kind of feels like it's on the parent to figure out the diagnosis and then select an evaluator who can diagnose the condition you think your child has.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about Kennedy Krieger?

Haven't used her but Dr. Alison Mostow at KKI was recommended to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used Stixrud twice over the years. Cookie cutter reports. In one, the wrong kid's name was not edited out. The provider also landed on the easy diagnoses (ADHD) and didn't even bother with an ADOS, despite autism concerns from parents and a mental health provider.

Not even six months after the last Stixrud testing, DC was inpatient for major anxiety and an autistic mentdown. That's how DC got the very late ASD diagnosis.

Everyone who has since read the Stixrud report said signs of ASD were all over it, and Stixrud missed it.

We wasted thousands and thousands of dollars on their help.

Yeah I've listened to some of the podcasts featuring Dr. Henderson talking about autism in girls and she acknowledges she "didn't do autism" before she had an epiphany about particular patient she was evaluating. I was definitely told to go to either Dr. Henderson or Dr. Namazi at Stixrud (we ended up using a different practice due to the long wait-list for these).

It's bizarre to me that any person conducting neuropsychological assessments would "not do autism". It kind of feels like it's on the parent to figure out the diagnosis and then select an evaluator who can diagnose the condition you think your child has.

Even without knowing the diagnosis, you know what kinds of concerns you have -- social interactions, reading, math, impulsivity, etc. Just like you choose a specialist when you have physical health concerns based on your symptoms.

[Anonymous]

Our school did a good one. Otherwise, anyone who takes your insurance. They are standardized, normed tests.

[Anonymous]

We used the Wake Kendall Group. It was ok, but I wouldn't recommend them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used Stixrud twice over the years. Cookie cutter reports. In one, the wrong kid's name was not edited out. The provider also landed on the easy diagnoses (ADHD) and didn't even bother with an ADOS, despite autism concerns from parents and a mental health provider.

Not even six months after the last Stixrud testing, DC was inpatient for major anxiety and an autistic mentdown. That's how DC got the very late ASD diagnosis.

Everyone who has since read the Stixrud report said signs of ASD were all over it, and Stixrud missed it.

We wasted thousands and thousands of dollars on their help.

Yeah I've listened to some of the podcasts featuring Dr. Henderson talking about autism in girls and she acknowledges she "didn't do autism" before she had an epiphany about particular patient she was evaluating. I was definitely told to go to either Dr. Henderson or Dr. Namazi at Stixrud (we ended up using a different practice due to the long wait-list for these).

It's bizarre to me that any person conducting neuropsychological assessments would "not do autism". It kind of feels like it's on the parent to figure out the diagnosis and then select an evaluator who can diagnose the condition you think your child has.

Even without knowing the diagnosis, you know what kinds of concerns you have -- social interactions, reading, math, impulsivity, etc. Just like you choose a specialist when you have physical health concerns based on your symptoms.

I'm the OP who wasted thousands. We were told the Stixrud neuropsychologist could definitely tease out autism. We went into the testing with this concern and were steered to this specific evaluator. I'm not going to get into all the specifics of the problems with our DC's testing, but there were many, now that I have had other experts explain it to us.

[Anonymous]

We liked Lindsey Dogali in bethesda. Very thorough report. She gave concrete next steps given we were already treating some of the issues. Her recs for developmental ped etc were outstanding

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stixrud. Yes. They really got our kid and wrote so beautifully about the challenges of living with autism that several other people (counselors, school staff) saved portions to quote in other contexts to help neurotypical folks understand similar challenges in kids of this profile.

Which specialist did you work with at Stixrud?

Educational Consultant here again. I have had good experiences collaborating with Meaghan Doyle, Katia Fredriksen, and Yael Rothman from Stixrud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our school did a good one. Otherwise, anyone who takes your insurance. They are standardized, normed tests.

I strongly disagree, unless you get a rec for someone good who takes your insurance. This is the kind of thing where you want to feel like you've left no stone unturned, and fund it accordingly, even if it means being in some debt. This diagnosis will determine what kind of accommodations your child gets for the next several years as well as what medications, if any, a doctor will recommend. I would go with someone random to take out my child's tonsils, but not for this.

We worked with Dr. Elliott Blumenstein in Silver Spring. He was a total delight--easy to be with, open to questions, my son loved him, and he really opened our eyes. I can't say enough good things about him.

[Anonymous]

Stixrud wasn't great for us. I agree that the forms seemed like they could be used for any child--e.g. my kid was in 1st grade and lots of the recommendations would apply to a much older child. It was fine, I guess...but I didn't think it was particularly insightful. I don't think I learned anything new about my kid in reading the report, with the exception of her processing speed--that was something I hadn't considered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about Kennedy Krieger?

Haven't used her but Dr. Alison Mostow at KKI was recommended to us.

She is a clinical psychologist, not Neurodevelopmental one. We had a 3 hr evaluation with her for a child of 5 and she explained the difference between her eval and full neuropsych. I found the results of testing informative and she was very attentive, but the report disappointed me a bit. It was basically a very careful record of everything we said at parents' intake, some stuff from other specialist reports we submitted and then test results. In terms of recommendations she endorsed everything we were already doing (truth be told, we are doing a lot), so I didn't come away with a sense of fine-tuned direction or understanding what we should do more of or less of.

An important note for those who need to lean on heavily on neuropsych results in IEP process - the KKI recommendations were phrased as "may benefit from", we asked to revise to a more persuasive language and got "xyz is recommended". This may depend on individual child's profile, but nothing in the report said "required" which is strange to me. My child is broadly at age expectation academically for K, but has AuDHD, dev. delay, general emotional immaturity and elevated anxiety scores. So with this report if we were doing K at public school, getting any service minutes would not be a given with this type of report. We did have a good parent feedback session and discussed all questions that we raised.

I have no issues with test results and am glad I was able to get my child tested by a reputable specialist at a place that takes our insurance, but I felt like for the next neuropsych whenever it happens to be, I will go with a different practice, privately. Also, KKI doesn't do 2 versions of report like some private practices do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school did a good one. Otherwise, anyone who takes your insurance. They are standardized, normed tests.

I strongly disagree, unless you get a rec for someone good who takes your insurance. This is the kind of thing where you want to feel like you've left no stone unturned, and fund it accordingly, even if it means being in some debt. This diagnosis will determine what kind of accommodations your child gets for the next several years as well as what medications, if any, a doctor will recommend. I would go with someone random to take out my child's tonsils, but not for this.

We worked with Dr. Elliott Blumenstein in Silver Spring. He was a total delight--easy to be with, open to questions, my son loved him, and he really opened our eyes. I can't say enough good things about him.

Most kids don’t need to leave “no stone unturned” because the issues just are not that complex. FWIW we got very similar results between Childrens, KKI and the school - these are normed instruments after all. And the diagnosis does NOT determine the accommodations! That’s totally backwards. Most people don’t have reams of $$ and in most cases are better served to save their money for therapies/tutoring. With the exception perhaps of learning disorders, developmental conditions severe enough to need testing are obvious and do not need to be “teased out.” If they are that “subtle” then the therapy approach is probably going to be pretty general.

tl;dr - developmental issues are not hidden and if they are, they are not actually developmental issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school did a good one. Otherwise, anyone who takes your insurance. They are standardized, normed tests.

I strongly disagree, unless you get a rec for someone good who takes your insurance. This is the kind of thing where you want to feel like you've left no stone unturned, and fund it accordingly, even if it means being in some debt. This diagnosis will determine what kind of accommodations your child gets for the next several years as well as what medications, if any, a doctor will recommend. I would go with someone random to take out my child's tonsils, but not for this.

We worked with Dr. Elliott Blumenstein in Silver Spring. He was a total delight--easy to be with, open to questions, my son loved him, and he really opened our eyes. I can't say enough good things about him.

Most kids don’t need to leave “no stone unturned” because the issues just are not that complex. FWIW we got very similar results between Childrens, KKI and the school - these are normed instruments after all. And the diagnosis does NOT determine the accommodations! That’s totally backwards. Most people don’t have reams of $$ and in most cases are better served to save their money for therapies/tutoring. With the exception perhaps of learning disorders, developmental conditions severe enough to need testing are obvious and do not need to be “teased out.” If they are that “subtle” then the therapy approach is probably going to be pretty general.

tl;dr - developmental issues are not hidden and if they are, they are not actually developmental issues.

I find this take a little bizarre. What is a "general therapy approach"? That sounds like a money pit. Do you think kids with lower support needs don't deserve supports specific to their challenges? Or do you just think our kids are over diagnosed? Tell that to the many people whose teenage girls get a late diagnosis of autism when they are already experiencing severe mental health challenges due to the lack of supports that boys with similar issues are able to get much earlier.

It matters if social challenges are caused by anxiety or if the root is autism, and it's not that easy to tell especially since anxiety typically comes along with autism. We as parents absolutely needed that teased out in order to continue our child's supports after she had showed significant improvement.