Neuropsychological Evaluation
Neuropsychological evaluations test abilities such as cognition, language, visual-spatial skills, memory, problem solving, motor skills and behavioral functioning.
Neuropsychological evaluations help our team:
- Understand how epilepsy may affect the child’s behavior and abilities
- Identify problems such as anxiety, depression and learning difficulties
- Recognize side effects from epilepsy medication
Neuropsychological evaluation is best done early in a child’s treatment to help establish a baseline. Then, it is often repeated at regular intervals to help our team monitor how the child is doing. Results help us make recommendations for a child’s individualized education program (IEP) or 504 plan for school.
Depending on the child’s age and ability, evaluations last two to six hours.
Genetic Testing and Counseling
About 40% of all epilepsy is thought to be due to a genetic cause. Genetic test results can help guide treatment decisions, and indicate whether a child’s siblings or future children might also be at risk for epilepsy. Genetic testing is sometimes definitive, but not always.
Our genetic counselors can:
- Review the child’s medical history and family medical history
- Talk about genetic tests that could be useful
- Schedule and coordinate genetic testing
- Explain what genetic test results mean
- Work with the multidisciplinary team to adjust treatment based on genetic test results
- Follow up with families when new genetic tests are available