Outpatient Assessment Experience Electives

The Child Development Program, located at the main hospital, provides developmental evaluation and diagnostic assessment of children ages birth to 4. Interns are supervised in administration, scoring, interpretation and feedback with instruments that are specialized for this young population (e.g., Bayley Scales, DAS-II, ADOS-2). Children referred for evaluation may have a wide range of conditions affecting development, including genetic conditions, birth complications, neurologic injury, chronic illness or may be on an atypical path of social development. Patients reflect a broad cross-section of sociocultural circumstances. Parent education/training is emphasized as part of the assessment process. The intern may choose to participate in inpatient consultation as part of this rotation.

The Division of Neuropsychology provides outpatient evaluations to children from preschool through young adulthood. Children commonly seen for neuropsychological services include those with known medical or neurological disorders (e.g., epilepsy, brain tumor, leukemia, sickle cell, genetic conditions, congenital heart disease, concussion, as well as those with neurodevelopmental disorders. Interns will gain experience in test administration, scoring, interpretation, report writing, and verbal communication of results to families and other professionals, supervised by a neuropsychologist. Interns are invited to participate in the weekly pediatric neuropsychology seminar and other didactic opportunities.

The standard rotation (one day/week for six months) can be described as an exposure to clinical neuropsychology using the taxonomy for education and training guidelines. An enhanced pediatric neuropsychology experience (two days/week for six months; can combine two rotations in neuropsychology and/ or the Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders (CASD)) can be made available to those for whom this is a specialty interest area or who wish to prepare for a future postdoctoral researcher in neuropsychology. Interns may be exposed to one or more of the following specific clinical populations:

• General medical/neurodevelopmental disorders
• Attention and executive function disorders (Executive Function Clinic)
• Mild traumatic brain injury/sports concussions

The Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders (CASD), within the Division of Neuropsychology, provides multidisciplinary evaluation and treatment services for children with autism spectrum disorders and their families, with a particular specialty in working with children with autism that require minimal or no special assistance. Interns completing this rotation will be involved in assessing individuals having, or suspected of having, ASD. Interns completing this rotation will administer and interpret tests, write assessment reports, conduct school consultations and present results at both multidisciplinary meetings and in feedback sessions with families.

In addition, CASD offers intervention services for families, including behavior management, social skills and executive function skills groups for children, parent education groups and school planning assistance. Interns may choose to spend part of their afternoons involved in these focused treatment programs within the Center. The standard rotation in CASD provides an exposure to this population (per the taxonomy for education and training guidelines). An enhanced experience (two days per week for six months) may be available to interns with a particular interest in autism spectrum disorders or neuropsychological assessment (can combine CASD with another neuropsychology rotation). Options in this rotation include:

• Developmental assessment of younger children
• Neuropsychological assessment of children and adolescents (for interns with prior experience in neuropsychology and/or autism assessment)
  • Diagnostic evaluation of autism spectrum disorders (ADOS)
  • Individual/group intervention targeting executive functioning skills in children/adolescents diagnosed with ASD