What is the difference neuropsychology ev vs. Dev ped ev

[Anonymous]

Can someone help me understand what is the difference between Neuropsychology evaluation and evaluation done by development pedriation? We were able to get an appointment with dev ped at Children's National. My understanding that no formal evaluation will be done at that appointment, I guess they will decided after they see my son. But we got an appointment at KKI now in June. Based on what I explained they scheduled a full neuropsychology evalution. So I'm wondering if I need to keep both now.

[Anonymous]

Op. Here, also to add that our appointment at Children's is not till Sep vs KKI it will be in June

[Anonymous]

How old is your DC?

[Anonymous]

How old is your child?

There is some overlap, but we stopped seeing a developmental pediatrician once our child was about 4-5. There was just nothing more to do except keep doing the therapies and interventions already decided.

We consulted a neuropsychologist at age 7 to get a better understanding of whether my DC had any learning disabilities and if so, what; to confirm general 'intelligence' (we felt school might be underestimating child due to expressive language issues).

A developmental pediatrician can give you medical diagnoses (ADHD, autism, etc) and refer you to other specialists. A neuropsychologist can do those as well, but can also test for dyslexia, dysgraphia etc.

[Anonymous]

O.o here. My son us almost 5

[Anonymous]

Op here, he is almost 5

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

A developmental pediatrician can give you medical diagnoses (ADHD, autism, etc) and refer you to other specialists. A neuropsychologist can do those as well, but can also test for dyslexia, dysgraphia etc.

The dev ped gave us the general direction (probable ADHD diagnosis), and the neuropsych provided the in-depth eval and detail (and diagnosis confirmation). The dev ped eval was based primarily on written surveys from us (parents) and teachers and meeting with parents and child. Neuropsych was more surveys (again parents, but with different teachers because it was a year later), meeting with parents and child, and extensive evaluation and testing.

[Anonymous]

Op here, should I keep both?

[Anonymous]

I’d wait on neuropsych until after 6.

[Anonymous]

I would keep both. The hospitals have different approaches to the same thing. At Children’s the dev ped will likely send your child for testing: ADOS/ADI-R if autism is suspected and/or neuropsych eval if ADHD, learning disabilities, etc are suspected. The main reason people wait until the child is 6 or older is because of the IQ testing. They use WIPPSI for kids 6 and under and WISC for 6 and up. Most people feel that the WISC is a better test due to maturity.

Keep both appointments. We have a kid with ASD/ADHD who had a dev pediatrician, ADOS and psycho educational testing at 4 and a neuropsych eval at 7. The more information you have, the better generally. Just be sure you inform the doctors what, when and where your child was tested because some tests cannot be repeated in the same year because that invalidates the results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would keep both. The hospitals have different approaches to the same thing. At Children’s the dev ped will likely send your child for testing: ADOS/ADI-R if autism is suspected and/or neuropsych eval if ADHD, learning disabilities, etc are suspected. The main reason people wait until the child is 6 or older is because of the IQ testing. They use WIPPSI for kids 6 and under and WISC for 6 and up. Most people feel that the WISC is a better test due to maturity.

Keep both appointments. We have a kid with ASD/ADHD who had a dev pediatrician, ADOS and psycho educational testing at 4 and a neuropsych eval at 7. The more information you have, the better generally. Just be sure you inform the doctors what, when and where your child was tested because some tests cannot be repeated in the same year because that invalidates the results.

But check to see if your insurance will cover both in same year.

[Anonymous]

22:55 again. If you disagree with the results of the neuropsych for whatever reason or want a second opinion, it is good to have another “look” lined up.

Also, you can always cancel at Children’s if you think the KKI evaluation was well done.

[Anonymous]

Keep both. A developmental ped is much more basic. Ours does some testing but very minimal. At 5, you do a developmental ped and then at 6-7, more at 7 you want to do the full neuropsych or that is what our developmental ped said as he said that by 7 or so, kids will change/can outgrow so it makes sense to wait. We waited and went back and developmental ped said we didn't need one.