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Evaluation Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Evaluation

All the information in this section is indicative. Psious’ environments are supporting tools that must be used by the sanitary professional inside an evaluation and intervention process designed according to the characteristics and needs of the user.

Remember that you have a General Clinical Guide where you will find more information on how to adapt the psychological intervention techniques (gradual exposure therapy, relaxation, cognitive behavioural therapy) to Psious’ environments. 

Neurodevelopmental Disorders Evaluation

The differential diagnosis of these disorders is important in psychological assessment (Moeschler et al., 2014). For example, Intellectual Disability (ID) is characterized by deficits in general mental ability; these deficits result in impairments in adaptive functioning. On the other hand, Learning Disorder (LD) may be found in people with normal intelligence and lead them to experience problems with acquiring learning skills and using them. Neurodevelopmental Disorders often co-occur. For instance, ASD is present with intellectual disability and children with ADHD have learning disorder in many cases (Moeschler et al., 2014). Several important considerations should inform the assessment process. The first step of the assessment process is to review with parents the child’s early developmental history and current concerns (Ozonoff, Goodlin-Jones, & Solomon, 2005). Additionally, the comprehensive psychological evaluation of individuals at risk of neurodevelopmental disorder must be part of the assessment (Oh, 2016)

In this section we propose different strategies and tools on for Neurodevelopmental Disorders assessment:

Evaluation objectives for Neurodevelopmental Disorders:

  • Attention-Deficit/hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) from (Goldman, 1998) :
    • A comprehensive interview with the child’s adult caregivers.
    • A mental status examination of the child.
    • A medical examination for general health and neurological status.
    • A cognitive assessment of ability and achievement.
    • Use of ADHD-focused parent and teacher rating scales.
    •  School reports and other adjunctive evaluations if necessary (speech, language assessment, etc.).
  • Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Klin, Saulnier, Tsatsanis, & Volkmar, 2005):
    • A psychological evaluation including developmental or intellectual assessment and adaptive functioning.
    • A speech, language, and communication assessment. 
    • A diagnostic work-up, including a thorough health, behavioral, and educational and intervention history; aspects of autism as well as comorbid symptomatology as obtained through direct assessment and parental report; and familial vulnerabilities. In many cases, there is a need for additional assessment and consultation, including sensory, motor or neuropsychological functioning, neurological status, and clinical genetics:

(1) problem solving (e.g., can the child generate strategies and integrate information?)

(2) concept formation (e.g., can the child abstract rules from specific instances or understand principles of categorization, order, time, number, and causation, and generalize knowledge from one context to another?)

 (3) reasoning (e.g., can the child transform information to solve visual perceptual and verbal problems?)

(4) style of learning (e.g., can the child learn from modelling, imitation, using visual cues, or verbal prompts?)

(5) memory skills (e.g., how many items of information can the child retain; is there a difference in the child’s ability to recognize different kinds of stimuli such as objects, facts, or faces; are the child’s memory skills in one modality better than in another such as visual versus verbal?). 

(6) Other areas of psychological assessment include adaptive functioning (real-life independence skills), motor and visual-motor skills, play skills, and social cognition.

Useful tools for Neurodevelopmental Disorders evaluation

Considering the evaluation objectives, we will enumerate some of the tools that can be useful to obtain relevant information about the characteristics of your user. Remember that good objectives definitions, patient characterization and planification of the intervention are important for therapeutic efficiency and  effectiveness just like the user satisfaction. In the bibliography you will find articles where you can revise the characteristics of the proposed tools (Oh, 2016):

  1.  Intellectual Assessment:
    1. The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Fourth Edition (WPPSI-IV) 
    2. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) 
    3. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition (WAIS- IV)
  1. Neuropsychological assessment:
    1. Continuous Performance Test (CPT) 
    2. Trail Making Test (TMT) 
    3. The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) 
  1. Adaptive behavior assessment 
    1. Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale-2nd Edition (Vineland-II), 
  1. Autism diagnostic assessment:
    1. The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) 
    2. Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) 
    3. The Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) 
  1. Psychiatric comorbidities::
    1. Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)