Who can benefit from a neuropsychological evaluation?

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Who can benefit from a neuropsychological evaluation?

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A neuropsychological evaluation is important for many reasons. Number one, it provides a blueprint of a child's functioning. By that I mean, it provides a road map so we can understanding a child's learning, emotions, and even intellectual areas. There are three groups that can benefit from this blueprint. The first group are children with a known medical disorder, for example, seizures or tumors. These are children where the doctors want to know and parents want to know what the child's underlying weaknesses are because of these medical disorders. A second group,are children who are developing normally, but are having trouble reading and writing, perhaps, using their pen or pencil. They may be having trouble socially. Something, again, isn't quite right. So the neuropsychological assessment will help the teachers, and the parents, and the physician; and even, the helping team, the intervention team understand a child's struggles as well as their strengths. The third group are children who may have been involved in an accident, such as a head injury, a football accident, where they've had several concussions, or even been poisoned by carbon monoxide, for example. These are children where their learning may be affected and their emotions. The neurological assessment provides a very specific, organized road map to help everyone with the child and lessen their struggles.

Watch Video: Who can benefit from a neuropsychological evaluation? by Karen Schiltz, PhD, ...

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Karen Schiltz, PhD

Neuropsychologist

Dr. Schiltz is a clinical psychologist, licensed in the state of California. From 1985-1987, she completed a post-doctoral residency in clinical neuropsychology at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine within the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. She received her doctoral degree in psychology in 1984 from the American Psychological Association accredited California School of Professional Psychology in Los Angeles. Dr. Schiltz has conducted a private practice specializing in the clinical and forensic neuropsychological assessment of children, adolescents, and young adults since 1988. She has held an appointment as an Associate Clinical Professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine within the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, since July of 2004. She also held an appointment as an Assistant Clinical Professor within the same department from September 1993 to July of 2004. Dr. Schiltz has been a clinical supervisor within that department since August 1993 to the present time. Her faculty duties at UCLA include lecture presentations in the field of pediatric neuropsychological assessment, attentional disorders, accommodation assessment guidelines, and carbon monoxide poisoning. Dr. Schiltz has written numerous articles on regulation and selective neurobehavioral disorders. In her 24 years of clinical work with children, adolescents, and young adults, she has emphasized the critical importance of integrating neuropsychological assessment findings to the application of accommodations to the classroom and home environments in a “user-friendly” manner. Dr. Schiltz supports a comprehensive team approach in the assessment and remediation of children who struggle with cognitive, learning, behavioral, social, and emotional difficulties. She sees a variety of students who are referred subsequent to or in the process of being diagnosed with a suspected learning disorder, attentional and concentrational compromises, suspected social communication disorder, memory disorder, neurotoxin exposure, scuba diving illnesses, seizure disorders, traumatic brain injury, cognitive changes due to medical illness or surgery, substance abuse disorder, pervasive developmental disorders, high cognitive ability profiles, among other neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions. Her experience has come from assessing children and working on intervention teams both in the hospital units as well as university and private-practice based settings. In addition to her private practice and academic supervisory duties, Dr. Schiltz has written, co-written, and/or presented over 81 papers, manuscripts, and publications. Her book, Beyond the Label, was published by Oxford University Press in 2012. The book, along with coauthors Amy M. Schonfeld and Tara Niendam, helps parents and educators recognize the warning signs that may indicate a potential problem with a child and explain how to find the best help. Throughout the book, the authors stress that by focusing on behaviors and not labels, parents will be able to better understand the whats, whys, and hows of a child's learning and emotional challenges.

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