WHAT IS THE BENEFIT OF AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ASSESSMENT?
We believe that clients and their families are often faced with the financial and geographic challenges of receiving a global assessment for learning disorders such as Dyslexia and other processing issues, which includes screening potential contributing factors. There is often confusion about who to see (psychologist, audiologist, developmental optometrist) and what they should expect from the process. It is common for parents to spend thousands of dollars getting a psychoeducational evaluation by one clinician only to find out that additional testing is needed in audiology, speech and language or developmental optometry. At Stein Psychological Associates, we have implemented a new interdisciplinary model of assessment that brings all the necessary specialists into the initial psychoeducational process. This type of collaboration among different disciplines will provide a seamless continuum of care for clients and will provide an evaluation with significantly improved diagnostic power, allowing clinicians to devise and implement a more comprehensive treatment plan. This scenario lends itself to greater exchange between involved professionals, ultimately benefiting the client and the school they attend.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
The client starts with a clinical psychologist who does the Intelligence, Academic Achievement, Memory, Attention/Executive Functioning, Language, and Psychological Testing. The psychologist then shares the initial draft with our Developmental Optometrist and Audiologist who do their own screening. All of the assessment results are integrated into one comprehensive report. Lastly, the client’s family meets with the entire interdisciplinary team to go over the results and recommendations. This type of interdisciplinary assessment is done in the medical community so why is it not possible to adapt it to assessing dyslexia in pre-adolescents who present with significant red flags for a possible language based disorder.
For more information please contact Dr. Stein either through our web portal.