Applying the Results of Neuropsychological and Psychological Assessments

Applying the Results of Neuropsychological and Psychological Assessments
Author: Dawn E. Burau
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 387
Release: 2017-11-03
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1315296314

Neuropsychological and psychological evaluations in school settings are often rich in detail about a child’s cognitive, academic and emotional functions, and come with specific recommendations to support the child’s performance in school. However, there is often a gap between the assessment results and the implementation of the recommendations, since learning specialists and teachers frequently do not have the means to both interpret and implement the recommendations. This manual presents clear and specific guidelines for school counselors and teachers to decode and put into practice evaluation findings. The book begins by describing various functional domains that are assessed in a neuropsychological evaluation, and then notes how to recognize behavior and learning styles impacted by difficulty in one of more of the domains. Furthermore, it outlines activities that could be used in the classroom or other environments to support a child’s weaknesses, develop new skills, or appear to particular strengths. Finally, ready-to-use worksheets and activities are offered. This is an essential tool for school psychologists, special education teachers, and learning specialists and counselors.

Psychological Testing in the Service of Disability Determination

Psychological Testing in the Service of Disability Determination
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2015-06-29
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309370930

The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) administers two disability programs: Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), for disabled individuals, and their dependent family members, who have worked and contributed to the Social Security trust funds, and Supplemental Security Income (SSSI), which is a means-tested program based on income and financial assets for adults aged 65 years or older and disabled adults and children. Both programs require that claimants have a disability and meet specific medical criteria in order to qualify for benefits. SSA establishes the presence of a medically-determined impairment in individuals with mental disorders other than intellectual disability through the use of standard diagnostic criteria, which include symptoms and signs. These impairments are established largely on reports of signs and symptoms of impairment and functional limitation. Psychological Testing in the Service of Disability Determination considers the use of psychological tests in evaluating disability claims submitted to the SSA. This report critically reviews selected psychological tests, including symptom validity tests, that could contribute to SSA disability determinations. The report discusses the possible uses of such tests and their contribution to disability determinations. Psychological Testing in the Service of Disability Determination discusses testing norms, qualifications for administration of tests, administration of tests, and reporting results. The recommendations of this report will help SSA improve the consistency and accuracy of disability determination in certain cases.

Clinician's Guide To Neuropsychological Assessment

Clinician's Guide To Neuropsychological Assessment
Author: Rodney D. Vanderploeg
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 644
Release: 2014-04-04
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1135655847

Neuropsychological assessment is a difficult and complicated process. Often, experienced clinicians as well as trainees and students gloss over fundamental problems or fail to consider potential sources of error. Since formal test data on the surface appear unambiguous and objective, they may fall into the habit of overemphasizing tests and their scores and underemphasizing all the factors that affect the validity, reliability, and interpretability of test data. But interpretation is far from straightforward, and a pragmatic application of assessment results requires attention to a multitude of issues. This long-awaited, updated, and greatly expanded second edition of the Clinician's Guide to Neuropsychological Assessment, like the first, focuses on the clinical practice of neuropsychology. Orienting readers to the entire multitude of issues, it guides them step by step through evaluation and helps them avoid common misconceptions, mistakes, and methodological pitfalls. It is divided into three sections: fundamental elements of the assessment process; special issues, settings, and populations; and new approaches and methodologies. The authors, all of whom are actively engaged in the clinical practice of neuropsychological assessment, as well as in teaching and research, do an outstanding job of integrating the academic and the practical. The Clinician's Guide to Neuropsychological Assessment, Second Edition will be welcomed as a text for graduate courses but also as an invaluable hands-on handbook for interns, postdoctoral fellows, and experienced neuropsychologists alike. No other book offers its combination of breadth across batteries and approaches, depth, and practicality.

Conducting a Culturally Informed Neuropsychological Evaluation

Conducting a Culturally Informed Neuropsychological Evaluation
Author: Daryl Fujii
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016-08
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9781433822940

While experienced neuropsychologists may be well-versed in the standard process of conducting a neuropsychological evaluation, they may still have difficulty determining a client's current functioning, given his or her unique cultural context. This is especially true when the client and the clinician do not share the same ethnic background and language fluency. In such cases, the clinician risks administering a biased assessment with invalid tests, misinterpreted data, and inappropriate - if not harmful - treatment recommendations. Daryl Fujii helps neuropsychologists enhance their cultural competence by providing readers with a broad framework for cultivating an ethnorelative - instead of an ethnocentric - view of clients. He begins by reviewing relevant research and professional guidelines that explain how cultural factors can impact a neuropsychological evaluation. Then he outlines preliminary strategies for establishing rapport and improving communication with clients, estimating their premorbid functioning, gathering pertinent data, selecting and translating appropriate tests, and working with interpreters. The closing chapters present a detailed case example that demonstrates a pre-assessment interview, test interpretation, report writing, treatment recommendations, and a final feedback session with the client.

Feedback that Sticks

Feedback that Sticks
Author: Karen Postal
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2013-03-07
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0199765693

Feedback that Sticks is a compilation of the strategies and metaphors of over 85 senior neuropsychologists: compelling, accessible ways of explaining complex neuropsychological concepts to patients, their family members, and other professionals. It provides a unique opportunity for practicing neuropsychologists to develop and strengthen their own approaches to providing feedback.

Collaborative Therapeutic Neuropsychological Assessment

Collaborative Therapeutic Neuropsychological Assessment
Author: Tad T. Gorske
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 159
Release: 2008-12-16
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0387754261

One of the challenges the field of clinical neuropsychology faces is to develop an assessment process that is relevant and responsive to the needs of patients. Indeed, it has been suggested that the survival of neuropsychology as a clinical discipline may be threatened due to an overemphasis on diagnosing cognitive deficits as opposed to developing methods that meet patients’ needs. One way to meet this need is for psychologists to extend their services by developing clinical interventions that contribute to enhancing patients’ cognitive and emotional well-being. Providing feedback from the results of neuropsychological tests is one method suggested as a way to enhance patient care and satisfaction with the assessment process while providing a link between clinical assessment and therapeutic interventions. In current practice, providing feedback to patients about the results of neuropsychological assessments has been considered an optional procedure by clinicians and thus received little attention in the literature. Yet there is evidence that when feedback is provided to patients the effects are overwhelmingly positive. Feedback provides a bridge between assessment and treatment by facilitating the development of applicable treatment plans. There is no agreed upon conceptual framework for providing feedback from neuropsychological assessment, although researchers have made recommendations. However, these recommendations have done little to affect clinical practice and training despite the fact that including patient-oriented feedback enhances the likelihood that neuropsychological assessment will remain a relevant and important component of patient care. The purpose of this proposed book is to first describe developments in methods of neuropsychological assessment feedback that involve active collaboration with patients in an open exchange of information and results. Second, we will present a comprehensive model for conducting neuropsychological assessment feedback. The authors of this book are expert clinical practitioners and academic researchers who are at the forefront of the development and implementation of Collaborative Therapeutic Neuropsychological Assessment methods. Table of contents follows.

Neuropsychological Assessment in Clinical Practice

Neuropsychological Assessment in Clinical Practice
Author: Gary Groth-Marnat
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 694
Release: 2000
Genre: Medical
ISBN:

Neuropsychological Assessment in Clinical Practice A Guide to Test Interpretation and Integration Written with the graduate student and practicing clinician in mind, this book covers today's most important issues in neuropsychological assessment, including: * Strategies for interviewing and interpretive guidelines to the most frequently used assessment instruments * Instructions for using test results to develop treatment and case plans * WISC-III, WAIS-III, WMS III, Halstead-Reitan, Luria Nebraska, and additional tests organized according to various functional domains * Principles, guidelines, and examples of how to write problem-oriented, effective neuropsychological reports Praise for Gary Groth-Marnat's Handbook of Psychological Assessment, Third Edition "A commendable volume in which the author condenses information, normally in several locations, into one reading." -Contemporary Psychology "The general purpose of this handbook is to provide a reference and instructional guide for professionals and students who are conducting psychological assessments. This purpose has been splendidly realized by Groth-Marnat, who has combined current scientific and clinical understanding and clear writing with an excellent sense of organization." -Psychology

Assessment of Neuropsychological Functions in Psychiatric Disorders

Assessment of Neuropsychological Functions in Psychiatric Disorders
Author: Avraham Calev
Publisher: American Psychiatric Pub
Total Pages: 526
Release: 1999
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780880489126

Assessment of Neuropsychological Functions in Psychiatric Disorders covers findings on all major psychiatric disorders. This book looks at neuropsychological assessment, phenomenology, and rehabilitation of psychiatric patients.

Neuropsychological Assessment in the Age of Evidence-Based Practice

Neuropsychological Assessment in the Age of Evidence-Based Practice
Author: Stephen C. Bowden
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2017-01-26
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0190464720

Evidence-based practice has become the benchmark for quality in healthcare and builds on rules of evidence that have been developed in psychology and other health-care disciplines over many decades. This volume aims to provide clinical neuropsychologists with a practical and approachable reference for skills in evidence-based practice to improve the scientific status of patient care. The core skills involve techniques in critical appraisal of published diagnostic-validity or treatment studies. Critical appraisal skills assist any clinician to evaluate the scientific status of any published study, to identify the patient-relevance of studies with good scientific status, and to calculate individual patient-probability estimates of diagnosis or treatment outcome to guide practice. Initial chapters in this volume review fundamental concepts of construct validity relevant to the assessment of psychopathology and cognitive abilities in neuropsychological populations. These chapters also summarize exciting contemporary development in the theories of personality and psychopathology, and cognitive ability, showing a convergence of theoretical and clinical research to guide clinical practice. Conceptual skills in interpreting construct validity of neuropsychological tests are described in detail in this volume. In addition, a non-mathematical description of the concepts of test score reliability and the neglected topic of interval estimation for individual assessment is provided. As an extension of the concepts of reliability, reliable change indexes are reviewed and the implication of impact on evidence-based practice of test scores reliability and reliable change are described to guide clinicians in their interpretation of test results on single or repeated assessments. Written by some of the foremost experts in the field of clinical neuropsychology and with practical and concrete examples throughout, this volume shows how evidence-based practice is enhanced by reference to good theory, strong construct validity, and better test score reliability.

Handbook of Normative Data for Neuropsychological Assessment

Handbook of Normative Data for Neuropsychological Assessment
Author: Maura Mitrushina
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 1052
Release: 2005-02-10
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0195169301

When Handbook of Normative Data for Neuropsychological Assessment was published in 1999, it was the first book to provide neuropsychologists with summaries and critiques of normative data for neuropsychological tests. The Second Edition, which has been revised and updated throughout, presents data for 26 commonly used neuropsychological tests, including: Trailmaking, Color Trails, Stroop Color Word Interference, Auditory Consonant Trigrams, Paced Auditory Serial Addition, Ruff 2 and 7, Digital Vigilance, Boston Naming, Verbal Fluency, Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure, Hooper Visual Fluency, Design Fluency, Tactual Performance, Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised, Rey Auditory-Verbal learning, Hopkins Verbal learning, WHO/UCLA Auditory Verbal Learning, Benton Visual Retention, Finger Tapping, Grip Strength (Dynamometer), Grooved Pegboard, Category, and Wisconsin Card Sorting tests. In addition, California Verbal learning (CVLT and CVLT-II), CERAD ListLearning, and selective Reminding Tests, as well as the newest version of the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS-III and WMS-IIIA), are reviewed. Locator tables throughout the book guide the reader to the sets of normative data that are best suited to each individual case, depending on the demographic characteristics of the patient, and highlight the advantages associated with using data for comparative purposes. Those using the book have the option of reading the authors' critical review of the normative data for a particular test, or simply turning to the appropriate data locator table for a quick reference to the relevant data tables in the Appendices. The Second Edition includes reviews of 15 new tests. The way the data are presented has been changed to make the book easier to use. Meta-analytic tables of predicted values for different ages (and education, where relevant) are included for nine tests that have a sufficient number of homogeneous datasets. No other reference offers such an effective framework for the critical evaluation of normative data for neuropsychological tests. Like the first edition, the new edition will be welcomed by practitioners, researchers, teachers, and graduate students as a unique and valuable contribution to the practice of neuropsychology.