Neuropsychological Testing in the Age of Social Distancing
Neuropsychological testing is on the mind of many parents, especially those who are relatively new to the special education community. As we've said in previous posts, getting a neuropsychological evaluation is the first step in building a special education law case, regardless of what you’re ultimately seeking:
reimbursement of tuition at a private school;
expanded services on your child's IEP; or
increased support in your locally zoned public school.
Neuropsychological evaluations are used because they rely on outside third parties who are trained to interpret raw data and give recommendations.
What does that look like when a child can't come in for traditional neuropsychological testing? Organizations that give guidance to neuropsychologists, like the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Inter-Organizational Practice Committee (IOPC), as well as test publishers like Pearson, have summarized existing research on the validity and reliability of conducting testing remotely. They have also provided information on the logistics of how to carry out testing in this way. Some data collected remotely can be just as good as what's collected in person. However, decisions about remote testing will always need to be made on a case-by-case basis, depending on the needs of the particular child and the discretion of the particular neuropsychologist.
The question of whether remote testing will get a green light continues to be an interesting one. Remote testing needs to be approached with caution, since so many contextual behaviors can be lost over a video chat. Another potential problem is that even a momentary loss of Internet connection could render the whole testing module unusable. Finally, there’s the more global concern that it's going to be difficult to establish a baseline of a child's abilities during a time when the child and their caregivers are in crisis.
I asked Dr. Mandi White-Ajmani, founder of Small Brooklyn Psychology, how neuropsychologists at her practice are handling testing right now. She replied, "Our neuropsychological assessments have always integrated data points from many different sources and in different contexts, many of which don't involve in-person testing. We're conducting several parts of the whole process via telehealth platforms, which includes parent background interviews, interviews with teachers and service providers, questionnaires, and all the writing for these — that's about half of the full evaluation right there! We're calling this Phase 1. Then, when it's safe to be face-to-face again, all Phase 1 families will have first priority for scheduling testing dates (Phase 2), at which point we should be then able to get finalized reports out to parents quickly. These methods have worked very well for families, and we're confident in the quality of the data we're getting this way. We're also conducting some remote testing for certain clients in certain situations. However, it's critical that this data truly reflect a child's abilities, so we're going to err on the conservative side, to make sure that our evaluations meet our high standards for accuracy and utility."
We’ve been in touch with a number of colleagues who are working in the same way. That puts everyone in a good position to hit the ground running once it's safer to meet in person.
Social distancing isn’t a “stop work” order for Gottlieb & Gottlieb — or the special ed community. There are things that parents can do to move their case along and set themselves up to get neuropsychological testing when it becomes safe to do so. At the same time, there are steps they can take to move their child's legal case forward. We encourage parents to reach out to us to learn how.
Mandi White-Ajmani, Ph.D.
Small Brooklyn Psychology
Mandi@SmallBrooklyn.com
www.smallbrooklyn.com
(718) 622-4058
Jonathan Gottlieb
Partner
195 Montague Street
14th Floor
Brooklyn Heights, NY 11201
Jonathan@GottliebFirm.com
(646) 820-8506