Have you used these psychologists? Good experience or bad?
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Anonymous
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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 |
Anonymous
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OP here: Just looked at my full list and realized I left off a few other contenders, about whom I'd heard good things:
Dr. David Black Dr. Jody Bleiberg Dr. Laura Wilding Dr. Ken Stefano Again, any feedback on these would be very helpful, especially if your DC dealt with similar issues at a similar age. |
Anonymous
My DS has ADHD and we used Bleiberg- cannot say enough great things about her. She is patient, and kind and VERY thorough in her testing and report write up. Although she can be slower than some other doctors as she is a solo practitioner and does not have anyone who helps her....which I actually like. That means she does all the testing all the observing and all the diagnosing! Also Pascualvaca is terrific from what I understand from those that I know who have used her. Dr. Stefano has been around a long time and has a good reputation from the little that I have heard about him. My good friend used Carey Heller, she was very pleased. Dr. Black is a well-known and well-respected doctor who specializes in diagnosing ASD. The doctors you listed with Stixrud are good, however I don't like the "style" of their practice. They use psych-associates to do half of the testing, then the doctor steps in on day 2 of the process. Some people don't mind that but I do. All of these doctors are in the $3.5K-$4K neighborhood for their testing fee. |
Anonymous
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We used Dr. Black and he was really wonderful at establishing rapport with my child, answering our questions, writing a thorough report, and being accessible since the testing to answer questions about school placement and other issues. He specializes in ASD/social cognition stuff.
I know Dr. Gerson professionally and think she is really committed and smart. But I don't know anything about her expertise. |
Anonymous
| I have been conducting research to find a neuropsych for my kid and called a few of these folks. You should also search the archives by last name and you will get a lot of hits and a good sense if the person is well liked. I called Black and liked him but he was by far the most expensive of the people I talked to ($4400-4800) and he is booked through the end of the year. Bleiberg did not give me the warm fuzzies. Our SLP knows and likes Gerson but for the money I don't want to go through the Stixrud system and have some of the testing done by a less-qualified associate. I want more direct access to the provider. Also, I found that if you call some of these places just saying you're looking into testing you can get the psych on the phone and get a feeling for the person. Pascalvaca isn't going to work for us but she seemed like a really nice person. I wondered though if some kids could have difficulty understanding her accent. |
Anonymous
+1 We used Dr. Black for our child with ASD when DS was 7. He found ADHD, combined type, in addition to the ASD which was not diagnosed when DS had gone through psychoeducational testing when he was 4. We also had Dr. Black come to the IEP meeting to explain the results and the school gave us all the things he recommended in the IEP. We are very happy with his services. |
Anonymous
| Dr. Black did my son's eval and it was super helpful--identified some learning issues that we were not aware of. He has long wait list though. My son has done therapy with Dr. Laura Wilding and I really like her style and communication but can't speak to her evals. |
Anonymous
| This is 10:08. One other question to ask is if the person attends IEP meetings. Some of the people told me flat out they did not attend them due to scheduling difficulties. |
Anonymous
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Lisa Martin was a long time at Stixrud, now out on her own. terrific, detailed and very sensitive neuropsych tes fo my 15-yr-old w severe ADD
EmpowerAssessments lisamartin@empowerassessments.com |
Anonymous
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Dr. Fredricksen did my DS's neuropsych at Stixrud. She did a fabulous job and really got our DS who is a somewhat complex case. I don't have a problem with associates providing some of the subtests. IME, the associates are highly qualified and the standardized testing these associates do does not require the expertise of a neuropsych. The studies we've participated in at NIH use graduate students to conduct standardized testing. The more qualitative testing is done by the more skilled/experienced professional. Transitioning between evaluators was also an area that needed to be assessed in our DS. Your needs may vary.
One of the things I learned as I was searching for a neuropsych eval is that the larger practices tended to have more 'tools' and assessments available to them. The smaller/individual providers has less range. Not to say they don't do an excellent job but for my DS, some were not able to do the testing he needed. Stixrud was also about to do some very thorough speech/language assessments. When it was time for a SL IEE, our regular SLP was challenged to find areas Stixrud had not already tested. She, too, thought it was an excellent report. Finally, I like that Dr. Fredricksen consulted with other practictioners in the practice. I wouldn't say DS's report was a 'consensus' report but I liked that she was able to discuss with her colleagues areas that were unclear. Good luck! |
Anonymous
| We had a Stixrud report done. I thought it was pretty good, but there was a lot of fluff in the report that seemed to be sort of "stock" language relating to things that weren't relevant for my 5 year old (extra time on tests, for instance). I don't know if others had that experience. |
Anonymous
| We used Pascualvaca and very happy with her and her practice. It was one year ago and so far her diagnosis is spot on.... |
Anonymous
Over the years, we've probably had 50 reports done between 3 kids. I can't think of a single one that didn't have some boilerplate stuff. Didn't matter if it was a research study, private eval or a school eval, they all had it. |
Anonymous
| We had a very good experience with Dr. Daisy P. She was able to tease out that DC did not have ADHD (which previous testers had said) and provided a more helpful diagnosis. |
Anonymous
| We had a good experience with Dr. Jaclyn Halpern at Mindwell. She was thorough and gave my child the extra time needed to get a good evaluation since attention was an issue. |