A psychoeducational evaluation usually includes an assessment of a child’s social history, intellectual abilities, and basic academic skills (reading, mathematics, spelling) as well as a psychological screening. A psychoeducational evaluation typically includes 2-4 hours of formal testing, depending on the school and/or individual approach of the clinician. The results of this type evaluation usually provide enough information to identify specific learning disabilities/differences as well as to pick up on clear psychological distress that is affecting a child’s functioning. A psychoeducational evaluation does not provide the clinical or psychometric data required to reliably capture cognitive difficulties associated with attention or executive functioning weaknesses (e.g., ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder, or more subtle psychological/social difficulties. This type of evaluation will provide recommendations for very general learning and counseling support.

A neuropsychological evaluation includes a detailed investigation of a child’s developmental, medical, social, and psychological history and an extensive testing battery that examines a child’s intellectual, academic, attention, executive functioning, language, visuospatial, visuoconstructional, memory, and fine motor skills. A detailed investigation of a child’s psychological/social functioning that includes both a clinical interview and a series of standardized parent, teacher, and self-report measures (if appropriate) is completed. This type of evaluation typically includes anywhere from 6 to 12 hours of testing. For many children, the inclusion of a direct classroom observation period is ideal and should be provided. The results of a neuropsychological evaluation are intended to identify not merely any intellectual or learning differences, but also any other cognitive or psychological difficulty that may be contributing to a child’s profile (e.g., language disorder, fine motor difficulties, attention problems). Data obtained in a neuropsychological evaluation will provide the information needed to generate a very comprehensive description of the child’s learning and support needs. This description should be used to identify the specific learning/therapeutic interventions that will work best to support the explicit needs of the child.

Dr. Lindsay Whitman conducts comprehensive neuropsychological assessments with children, adolescents, and young adults (ages 4-21). A neuropsychological evaluation is most helpful to parents who suspect that their child or teen may be struggling with a learning difference, developmental delay, intellectual disability, or is experiencing difficulty with memory, attention, or executive functioning skills (organization, planning). This type of comprehensive evaluation may also be helpful for children who may be struggling with behavioral, social, and/or psychological difficulties (anxiety, depression) that seem to be interfering with cognitive and/or academic functioning. Neuropsychological evaluations may be indicated for a child or adolescent in whom the reason for difficulty is largely unclear.

lindsaywhitmanphd.com

Live fully. That is, really living in the moment, in the here and now, whether it be working on a task or eating an ice cream. Practice the art of just being, experiencing with all your senses. If you bring this art of being to whatever activity you engage in, you will find that life starts to become more full. Living fully is also about learning, becoming more self-aware and self-reflective about your life, relationships, and your capacity to experience and channel the range of human emotions available to us.

Laugh often. I’m sure you’ve heard it said that laughter is the best medicine; it truly is! Laughing releases serotonin and increases endorphins – happy brain chemicals that improves our immune system, reduces stress, symptoms of depression, and leads to a positive sense of well being. Laughter is a healing activity. Laughter operates on biophysical and biochemical levels. At the biophysical level, laughter moves lymph fluid around your body simply by the convulsions you experience during the process of laughing; so it oxygenates your organs, boosts circulation & immune system function. The harder you laugh, the greater this effect. Have you ever laughed so hard that your stomach hurt and facial muscles were exhausted? If you have, that’s some serious exercise for your face and stomach muscles! At the biochemical level, laughing, as stated earlier, releases positive biochemicals that are distributed throughout our bodies. When you laugh, you generate a wealth of healing biochemicals. I encourage you to find more things to laugh about in your day-to-day life with friends, family, and co-workers.

Love deeply. Let us start with ourselves – loving ourselves deeply, for our genuine, true selves. Once we know love in ourselves, we can learn to love others and accept love into our lives. It is my experience that loving and accepting ourselves, with all our human flaws, insecurities, vulnerabilities, intrapsychic conflicts, and angst, takes tremendous courage. In fact loving ourselves demands the courage to heal, to re-author the script or narrative we were taught, learning how to be kind, accepting, and loving toward ourselves.

Between work, chores, family and daily responsibilities, expectations, and obligations, you may find sustaining a healthy, vibrant, and meaningful relationship with yourself and/or with others more difficult. If you are struggling with living life more fully, living your best life possible, then I may be able to help. Through education, discussion, and unique exercises, I will provide a healing space for you to explore a reconnection to yourself, your interests, and an acceptance of who you are – your true self. Let’s walk this journey together.

Dr. Damaliah Gibson is a NY licensed counseling psychologist with expertise in helping people to create and live their best lives possible. Dr. Gibson treats clients struggling with mood, anxiety, and thought disorders, including depression, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Her area of expertise includes working with individuals – children, adolescents, adults, families, and groups within various therapeutic techniques. Building and fostering a strong therapeutic alliance is an exceptional strength. She is skilled at working with people coping with trauma, struggling with depression, anxiety, identity and self-esteem related issues, including but not limited to sexual orientation and race/ethnicity.

The small intimate supportive culture of the Sterling School, located in Brooklyn, helps support boys and girls with Dyslexia and ADD to learn how to read, write, and do math and science using the Orton-Gillingham method, in combination with a ‘one student/one tutor’ approach to education in a warm, friendly environment.

Ms. Arberman will discuss what you need to know about the Individualized Education Program (IEP). An Individualized Education Program (IEP) is a legal document that describes your child’s needs, goals and mandated supportive services. In this lecture, you will gain knowledge of how to navigate and use the IEP school meeting to advocate for your child. You will obtain the skills to become an “insider,” advocate, and equal partner in the IEP planning and implementation process. Specifically, you will learn what opportunities the new SESIS system provides in terms of your child’s schooling as well as the differences between your child’s diagnosis (e.g., expressive versus receptive language difficulties, dyslexia, difficulties with math or written expression) and the formal Department of Education (DOE) classification (and the ramifications of these differences).

When: Wednesday May 2nd, 6:45pm-8:30pm.

Lecture starts promptly at 7:00pm and a question and answer will follow from 7:45-8:30pm.

Where: Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture- 53 Prospect Park West.

By subway: 2 or 3 train to Grand Army Plaza, Q train to Seventh Avenue (and Flatbush Avenue), F train to Seventh Avenue (and Ninth Street)

Cost: $20 per person at the door and spots are limited to 50 people.

Interested?
To reserve a seat, please email Craig at craig@brooklynletters.com and once confirmed, please pay at the door.

Today’s adult service delivery system for people with developmental disabilities strives to honor their status as full-fledged citizens who have reached the age of majority. They are “grown-ups” who want to make lifestyle choices in keeping with their individual preferences and desire for independence. To this author’s mind, there is no more noble task than supporting this basic desire. Associated challenges are numerous and wide-ranging—making for an extraordinarily stimulating mission. Professionals and parents, sometimes of the same mind, sometimes with opposing views, are presented with ongoing issues requiring a delicate weighing of protective oversight vs. dignity of risk in the essential effort to assist an especially vulnerable human being in living a rich and self-actualized life.

Family members are particularly challenged to make identity adjustments, both in terms of their grown child and their own role in their grown child’s life. It is sufficiently daunting to grant autonomy to any human being who you have fed, clothed, consoled, counseled, cajoled, disciplined, cheered, and housed for twenty years. How do you “let go” when that person is someone who rarely makes eye contact, makes loud, odd vocalizations and flaps their hands every time they change location, and if left to their own devices would eat only pizza, water crackers and grape jelly? How do you switch gears from being that child’s caregiver and protector to that adult’s supporter and advocate?

Professionals, too, are confronted with seemingly dichotomous responsibilities. On one hand, they are charged with insuring the health and safety of every individual for whom they have oversight. This includes folks who want to escape environments that may, for them, be too bright, too noisy, too crowded, or too unfamiliar; who may provoke aggression in others due to a compulsion to repeat the same word, phrase, or snippet of a commercial again and again and again; who may have no awareness of danger. On the other hand, they are trained to enable and honor choice-making; respect preferences; and encourage and promote independence.

I assert a trite but I think true summation: nothing worth doing is ever easy! I am privileged to have come to know many families whose diligent efforts and dedication to bringing their children up to “be all they can be” have resulted in many successes. One young man who comes to mind, who has an intellectual disability in the mild/moderate range and is prone to high anxiety, has successfully learned to use the New York City subway system, is holding 3 part-time jobs, and lives semi-independently in an apartment where he enjoys both privacy and company.

I also have the good fortune of working at an agency with colleagues who thoughtfully toil to do right by the people entrusted to our care, while complying with ever-increasing demands from various authorities for meticulous documentation and budget matters. Individuals who started services with us by attending a school holiday respite program have transitioned to our day habilitation and residential services, followed by service coordinators who strive to insure that outcomes important to the individual are identified, pursued, and achieved. These goals can include being able to hand a cashier the right amount of money to purchase a favorite CD; cooking a favorite meal from their country of origin; or simply selecting and wearing fabrics that maximizes their comfort because they are highly sensitive.

When working with people who have very limited communication skills and do not initiate activities or interactions, staff need to be extremely attentive to body language and facial expressions, and provide a wide variety of activities to discover what interests and pleases the individual.

Access to these services is quite different than accessing education services, which are mandated by law. Services for adults with developmental disabilities are not entitlements. They must be requested and pursued by the individual and their advocates.

Families should not assume that if their child has been in special education they will automatically be determined to be eligible for adult services. There are very specific documentation requirements and enrollment procedures that must be followed to be able to access services funded through the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, which contracts with New York’s vast network of non-profit providers.

Every county currently has a local branch of OPWDD called a DDSO (Developmental Disabilities Service Office). DDSO’s have lists of agencies that provide services in their county. In New York City Resources for Children with Special Needs is also an excellent place to learn about agencies and services.

The first thing the parent of a student close to graduating needs to do is find an agency that provides Medicaid Service Coordination, and work with that agency to apply for that service. The DDSO or non-profit providers can make referrals to families for obtaining the right type of evaluations needed to apply for eligibility, which often are not available from school.

Using family support services, such as respite, a social skills program, or parent training – from an agency prior to graduation, is an excellent introduction to services in the adult service delivery system while John or Jane is still a minor.

It happens that New York State’s service delivery system is on the cusp of some major changes. The system will, however, continue to be largely funded by Medicaid. Individuals reaching the age of majority will not have their parent’s income counted toward eligibility, and should be enrolled in Medicaid as soon as they turn 18 if they have not been eligible prior due to family resources. Information about system changes, which will come about due to New York’s application to the 1115 Waiver – is available at OPWDD’s website www.opwdd.ny.gov.

Parent-to-Parent of New York State is another organization that can be contacted for assistance with the transition process. It can be overwhelming to navigate the adult service system and decide which agencies to contact, all while adjusting to your child leaving school – and childhood – behind. Information about Parent-to-Parent can be obtained from their web site www.parenttoparentnys.org.

Early adulthood marks a major transition – a significant milestone that underscores the lifelong nature of developmental disability. Differences between affected individuals and non-disabled peers may have become increasingly evident, and some goals may need to be adjusted. Adulthood may also bring unexpected maturity, improvements in adapting to environmental expectations, and most importantly, ongoing skill development. Today’s adult service system is focused on supporting continued personal growth, respecting individual rights and preferences, and the rewards of contributing toward enriching each person’s quality of life.

Laurie is an educational therapist who practices in Midwood, Brooklyn and makes home visits throughout the city. Laurie’s background includes instructional, behavioral, and rapport building strategies with pre-schoolers with autism; children, teens, and adults with intellectual disabilities and/or autism; school-aged children with reading disabilities; and adults dually diagnosed with intellectual disability and behavior disorders. Laurie works to identify the underlying causes of learning difficulties when developing the best intervention plan to set the student up for success. She can be reached at laurie@brooklynletters.com.

If this sounds like you please come to our first meeting at my apt.:

Tuesday, April 3
8am-10am (fine to come late or leave early)
135 Eastern Parkway, #8a (between Washington and Underhill, @ Brooklyn Museum 2/3 subway stop)
(There is construction on my street so parking on my block is iffy)

Please RSVP to baybrown718@gmail.com if you plan on coming. Feel free to forward to other parents.

Issues this group might cover:
When to pursue a neuropsych evaluation
Most appropriate schools for my child (from K-12)
Services, tutors and camps that work
Success with various legal services
Strategizing interaction with DOE & child’s school

At this first meeting I hope to cover the following:
Introductions
Collecting contact info. for group list
Immediate attendee issues (need advice for upcoming DOE meeting; need an attorney ASAP)
Getting to know each other
Best way to communicate online (FB, Yahoo or Google group, etc.)
Other logistics

Hope to see you next week!
Bay Brown