Have you used these psychologists? Good experience or bad?

[Anonymous]

We used Dr. Heller to do our son's WISC when we were exploring private schools for 3rd grade. He has zero personality and was unable to establish any kind of rapport with my son; I'm sure my kid "threw" the exam as he's strong willed.

Dr. Heller followed up and gave us a diagnosis of ADHD and his score was so low that it indicated he was basically incapable of doing classwork (I looked it up afterward). He was quite surprised that we were upset and then offered to do more testing for $3K.

His analysis didn't ring true at all, nor did he say a single kind thing about him, and we were upset that it basically blew our chances at private. But, we felt compelled to follow up with his teacher and the school psychologist, in the event we had blinders on. They both went, "huh?" and the teacher went through a checklist for ADHD with me and he had zero indicators.

We were still feeling upset until he came home the week after with a score of 99% in math on the statewide standardized assessment and 96% in reading.

Do not recommend him at all!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're looking to get our 6 y.o. tested for ADD/ADHD. Pediatrician recommended we see a neuropsychologist for testing, rather than a developmental pediatrician, based on the issues we're looking at (suspected ADD/ADHD, sensory processing issues). Based on recommendations, I've come up with this list. Has anyone had a child tested with one of these psychologists for ADD/ADHD and sensory processing issues? Would you recommend the person you used? Why or why not?

Hoping the DCUM hive brain can help me here. Feeling a bit overwhelmed by the options and I know the testing is expensive, so I want to choose wisely. Thanks in advance.

Here's the list, no particular order:

1. Ronald Federici
2. MindWell: These are the names we've been given: Kristi Guadgnoli, Racha Varia, Joshua Kefer, Jillian Schneider, Jacklyn Halpern, Dr. Siddique
3. William R. Stixrud & Associates: saw these names: Dr. Frederickson, Susan Gerson, Dr. Henderson, others?
4. James Sydnor-Greenberg
5. Dr. Daisy Pascualvaca
6. Dr. David Black
7. Dr. Jody Bleiberg
8. Dr. Laura Wilding
9. Dr. Ken Stefano
10. Carey Heller

I used Dr. Lisi Levinsohn from Weinfeld Education Group for both my children and was thrilled. It was a child specific report and she was very thorough. WEG also has other Psychologists and Neurophychologists and can test quickly, which is nice.

[Anonymous]

There's no reason to pay more than $2600 for a good evaluation and there are people on that list who charge well under $3000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's no reason to pay more than $2600 for a good evaluation and there are people on that list who charge well under $3000.

Why not be specific about which doctors charge "well under $3K"?

I know for a fact that for a comprehensive neuro-psych evaluation, the following doctors charge north of $3k:

1) every single doctor in the Stixrud practice. They are right around $4K

2) Dr. Black

3) Dr. Daisy

4) Dr. Heller

5) Dr. Bleiberg

[Anonymous]

"I used Dr. Lisi Levinsohn from Weinfeld Education Group for both my children and was thrilled. It was a child specific report and she was very thorough."

Interesting. We used her are a less than thrilled with her report. The recommendations seem pretty generic and did not give us much new to go on, and I don't feel like she really teased out the issues.

[Anonymous]

Why do the prices vary so much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do the prices vary so much?

They really don't, not around here at least.

If you are looking for a comprehensive neuropsych evaluation (educational + social-emotional), then you will pay between $3500-$4K, unless you go with a less experienced doctor and who wants that? and even many of those will charge in the $3200+

[Anonymous]

Hm, maybe I should take my kid to a medium sized city where relatives live and get her evaluated in the summer for less $. I can't swing these prices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hm, maybe I should take my kid to a medium sized city where relatives live and get her evaluated in the summer for less $. I can't swing these prices.

Wish I could do that. A friend had her testing done in Tucson last summer while staying with family - $1200 there vs. the $4k her dr wanted here. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hm, maybe I should take my kid to a medium sized city where relatives live and get her evaluated in the summer for less $. I can't swing these prices.

Wish I could do that. A friend had her testing done in Tucson last summer while staying with family - $1200 there vs. the $4k her dr wanted here. Ugh.

But you can't get the doctor to come to the school to explain the results if the testing is done in Tucson.

While having a good tester who writes a through report is helpful. Having the doctor come to the school to explain the results to the IEP team and advocate for your child is priceless... at least that's how we feel about Dr. Black and what he did for our DS.

[Anonymous]

We used Dr. Jillian Schneider for a full evaluation of our 7 year old DC. She charged $2500. She was very patient and I highly recommend her, she did the whole evaluation and writeup herself, a method I highly recommend. She worked at FNA in Merrifield, VA at the time but she has since moved to a new job at Ft. Belvoir.

[Anonymous]

How do they test social-emotional skills in an office setting? It seems like you could only really test that through many observations. It would be so subjective otherwise - what if the kid just doesn't like the doctor, or is having a bad day, or whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hm, maybe I should take my kid to a medium sized city where relatives live and get her evaluated in the summer for less $. I can't swing these prices.

Wish I could do that. A friend had her testing done in Tucson last summer while staying with family - $1200 there vs. the $4k her dr wanted here. Ugh.

But you can't get the doctor to come to the school to explain the results if the testing is done in Tucson.

While having a good tester who writes a through report is helpful. Having the doctor come to the school to explain the results to the IEP team and advocate for your child is priceless... at least that's how we feel about Dr. Black and what he did for our DS.

But it is highly unusual for the psychologist to come to the IEP meeting. The reports are supposed to be accessible to lay people-they shouldn't have to be explained. Also, many families can barely afford the 3k for the testing, let alone $400/hour for the psychologist to come to the meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hm, maybe I should take my kid to a medium sized city where relatives live and get her evaluated in the summer for less $. I can't swing these prices.

Wish I could do that. A friend had her testing done in Tucson last summer while staying with family - $1200 there vs. the $4k her dr wanted here. Ugh.

But you can't get the doctor to come to the school to explain the results if the testing is done in Tucson.

While having a good tester who writes a through report is helpful. Having the doctor come to the school to explain the results to the IEP team and advocate for your child is priceless... at least that's how we feel about Dr. Black and what he did for our DS.

But it is highly unusual for the psychologist to come to the IEP meeting. The reports are supposed to be accessible to lay people-they shouldn't have to be explained. Also, many families can barely afford the 3k for the testing, let alone $400/hour for the psychologist to come to the meeting.

The reports are accessible if people bother to read them but having the doctor explain the results at the IEP meeting insured that everyone was on the same page. We used Dr. Black for our three year IEP reevaluation and renewal. Our school would have done a psychoeducational evaluation at no cost to us but we wanted Dr. Black for a neuropsych which turned out to be a good choice since he found some issues that previous evaluations missed like ADHD and problems with written expression. Our school gave us all his recommendations in the IEP.

Dr. Black will also testify in court for due process hearings so it's not a stretch to get him to attend IEP meetings. We normally use an education consultant, Rich Weinfeld, to attend IEP meetings so it was actually cheaper to use Dr. Black since we got the neuropsych eval for pretty much the same cost.

At our school, the psychologist who does the psyched eval for the school usually attends the IEP meeting to explain the results too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do they test social-emotional skills in an office setting? It seems like you could only really test that through many observations. It would be so subjective otherwise - what if the kid just doesn't like the doctor, or is having a bad day, or whatever.

Even the WISC-IV tests for social skills. The entire "comprehension" subtest is about SOCIAL comprehension. My DS with ASD got a 9 on this section - every other section was 16-18. The "comprehension" subtest is no longer required on the WISC-V. They also get feedback from forms filled out by teachers and parents.

You want a doctor that can establish a good rapport. Also, good testers will let you reschedule if your kid is having a bad day, is sick or whatever. We had to do this for DS's second day of testing when he felt sick. I think he just got nervous about the testing.