We used Dr. Adele Green (formerly at Stixrud) now at CAAT. She is known nationally and locally for her expertise in LD's, ADHD and identifying aspects that typical psychologists don't. We really liked/appreciated that she typically completes assessments on a Sunday and then a 1/2 day on Monday, does ALL of her own testing, goes the extra mile (which does not often happen), and provides the writen report IN A WEEK!!!! My daughter immediately liked her when they met. Dr. Green built repotire quickly and provided hot chocolate throughout the testing experience (b/c she had learned that this is my daughters favorite). We really, really appreciated that she did her own testing. In our case this allowed her to pick up VERY NUANCED proccessing challenges (ie: repeating words in her mind over and over in an attempt to 'lock them into her brain') that likely would have been missed if there had not been consistency in testers. Finally, Dr. Green (in a week's time) consulted with no less then 3 seperate opthamalogists regarding really nuanced issues of vision processing/functioning that had been missed over the past 6 years by the vast array of specialists we have seen. During one of our many telephone intake conversations she made some vision based recomendations that led us to a new set of specialists (again-previous OT's, SLP, developmental ped, etc...never picked up on this). It was identified that my daughter had major vision/depth perception challenges that required immediate use of glasses. Finally, she provided us with a 30+ page neuropsych evaluation. It was very detailed and painfully thorough.

I kept reading that Bleiberg didn't "give warm fuzzies;" however, she is very warm. Maybe just doesn't come across on the initial phone call (we just trusted a personal friend's recommendation). So anyway, she is warm, connected well with our DS, and really seemed to understand our anxieties as parents--and, yeah, great evaluation and recommendations. Would highly recommend. Good luck!

Dr. Jaclyn Halpern is an excellent psychologist, both for evaluations and for therapy.
I highly recommend her.

Dr. Black attends IEPS, hearings, and is also is an expert witness in legal cases in defense of individuals with ASD (my friend's adult son ). He has attended 3 IEP meetings for my DS over the years. I wouldn't think of going into an IEP meeting without Dr. Black at this point. I credit him for our "win" in our due process hearing! We were unsuccessful time and time again getting DS's needs met educationally until we finally made our way to Dr. Black. He got DS and was able to help the school to get him too. Until Dr. Black, had seemed impossible!

Anonymous wrote:Dr. Black DOES attend IEP meetings. I just scheduled him to attend my DS's one coming up. I panicked after seeing the previous post that he doesn't attend IEP's since we are scheduled to see him and are having the eval done for IEP purposes and expect a hearing to follow. We had been referred to Dr. Black by my ED advocate specifically because he is so good at IEP's and due process testimony. Boy was I was relieved to find that info wasn't true!

This is the pp who reported that he told me that on the phone and I am telling you what he said to me. I did not make it up. I interviewed several people for neuropsych testing and one of the reasons I didn't go to Children's was because I wanted to be able to call on someone if necessary for meetings so I also asked all the smaller practices I called. Black was generous with his time on the phone but that's what he told me. Not makin' it up.

Terrific experience with Bleiberg. Boy, is she knowledgeable! It was important to me that she did all the testing herself; her observations were insightful. I appreciated her intellect and knowledge more than being concerned about her being warm and fuzzy.However, she connected with our DS easily and got the best from him.

Anonymous wrote:Bleiberg was wonderful--not boilerplate. Think that is because she is a solo practitioner and, I have heard, keeps a rather boutique practice. She is sort of "nerdy" but in a good way; you can tell she is intellectual and clearly enjoys figuring out the "puzzle", which is what I was paying for. She had a great rapport with DS and we walked away with more understanding of him than we ever had. Thumbs up!

This was our exact experience with Dr. B, and such an accurate description of her and her practice!

I would not hesitate to use her again.

Dr. Black DOES attend IEP meetings. I just scheduled him to attend my DS's one coming up. I panicked after seeing the previous post that he doesn't attend IEP's since we are scheduled to see him and are having the eval done for IEP purposes and expect a hearing to follow. We had been referred to Dr. Black by my ED advocate specifically because he is so good at IEP's and due process testimony. Boy was I was relieved to find that info wasn't true!

Looking at Mindwell for therapy for DD who has a paralyzing level of anxiety at school. Any feedback on Karen Fish?

Bleiberg was wonderful--not boilerplate. Think that is because she is a solo practitioner and, I have heard, keeps a rather boutique practice. She is sort of "nerdy" but in a good way; you can tell she is intellectual and clearly enjoys figuring out the "puzzle", which is what I was paying for. She had a great rapport with DS and we walked away with more understanding of him than we ever had. Thumbs up!

Anonymous wrote:Great experience with Dr. Varia. She talked to all of the teachers. $3000. We had a two hour debriefing session that was so helpful. Good luck.

+1

Great experience with Dr. Varia. She talked to all of the teachers. $3000. We had a two hour debriefing session that was so helpful. Good luck.

^should add. This was for the three year IEP renewal and DS was about to get kicked out of school for bad behavior (get funding for SN school without going through due process). So it was an emergency.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Black told me on the phone that he does not attend IEP meetings due to scheduling difficulties.

Ahhh! Sorry to hear that. He attended our meetings in March this year.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Black told me on the phone that he does not attend IEP meetings due to scheduling difficulties.