Our Paediatric Clinical Neuropsychologist currently carries out the following assessments…

Autism

Autism assessments are normally recommended when there are significant concerns about a child or young person's social and communication skills in more than one setting and these issues are having a negative impact on the child or young person’s daily life.

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Cognitive Psychoeducational

Cognitive / Psychoeducational assessments aim to clarify a child or young person’s thinking and learning skills and to identify any cognitive barriers to their accessing the school curriculum.

This assessment can identify general intellectual disability and specific learning conditions including dyslexia and dyscalculia and may be helpful for children for whom there is a query about specific learning difficulties (reading, writing or maths) or a more general difficulty with learning.

Paediatric Clinical Neuropsychological

Paediatric Clinical Neuropsychology assessments are normally associated with children and young people who have medical conditions or injuries that may be affecting their brain and development. This could be a condition they are born with such as a genetic or neurodevelopmental disorder, or something that occurred during development, for example a brain injury, brain tumour, epilepsy, or stroke.

In addition to the above, complex trauma i.e. exposure to chronic, interpersonal trauma in childhood, has been associated with structural and functional alterations in brain development, which in turn can result in problems with learning and behaviour.

In such instances, combining neuropsychological assessment with a clinical psychological assessment is beneficial in that it can help clinicians to gain a comprehensive understanding of each child or young person's unique set of cognitive strengths, weaknesses and associated behavioural profile within the context of a complex trauma history. This process can be a vital aide in diagnosing, conceptualising, and designing effective interventions for children and young people with histories of complex trauma and can help to avoid the common misdiagnoses or mislabelling that lead to ineffective interventions.

If you would like to learn more about Dr. Howley who provides our psychology services, please click here.

If you would like to to get in touch, please click here.