Can an Ed Psych Diagnose?

[Heathermomster]

I simply do not understand.  If a mom gets their kids evaluated by an Ed Psych, what testing and diagnosis are you going to walk away with?  

 

How are they different than a PhD Neuropsychologist?  What kind of cost differential are we talking here?  

 

Blessings and Thank-you, h

[FairProspects]

They will not diagnose here because it affects your medical records and can disqualify you from insurance coverage due to pre-existing conditions. I don't know if they are qualified to diagnose or not though. That also might change after healthcare changes in January and the pre-existing condition issue disappears.

[wapiti]

First off, there's technically qualified and then there's special areas of expertise.  Maybe it depends on what the diagnosis is.  Our ed psych will diagnose dyslexia, dysgraphia, and other LDs as necessary for College Board accommodations, for example (sometimes after referring for and reviewing outside evals such as OT, language testing, etc.).  However, our ed psych will refer to a psychiatrist for ADHD and anxiety, which makes sense as those may involve prescribing meds, which the ed psych cannot do.  Our ed psych handles IQ and achievement testing and also counseling for gifted kids.  Gifted ed and 2e/LDs are her special areas of emphasis.

 

It's always been unclear to me the difference between an ed psych and a PhD neuropsychologist - our ed psych has a PhD - aren't they the same thing?  Maybe, maybe not.  Obviously, an MD neuropsychiatrist is a whole 'nother ball of wax, and when I say "neuropsych" I usually mean the MD and the typically more-extensive evaluation.  The bottom line for me is that the term "neuropsych" is vague and ambiguous.

 

Eta, I think there are at least a couple psychologist moms on these boards - perhaps you could enlighten us :).  I admit I have never googled this question - maybe I should do so at some point...

 

Eta, cost varies by geographic location, but if this helps, our ed psych is $1200 for IQ and achievement testing, 1 hour conference and report (report is typically written for schools and includes a list of recommendations which are fairly standard for the findings).  There are more expensive ed psychs in our area; I think the university charges $1400 for the exact same services (hey I think that's the "neuropsych" department!) and I know of one other more expensive psychologist.  An MD neuropsych, I imagine, runs about double or more.

 

I should have mentioned above that, in fact, our ed psych has referred us to a particular SLP for language testing, COVD for vision testing, and OT for testing, based on the issues spotted during the IQ testing and relatively complicated analysis of the subtest scores.

[texasmama]

By ed psych, do you mean someone with a Ph.D?  Someone with a masters degree in educational psychology?

 

 

 

 

[Heathermomster]

By Ed Psych, I mean ones that are commonly used in lieu of an NP because they cost less.

[texasmama]

May I suggest that you pm Rivka?  She is a Ph.D psychologist and can likely give an accurate answer to your question.

[TheReader]

We saw an Edu Psych (Educational Psychologist) for testing last year. She did several tests, spent a full day doing the testing, and cost was $1200. 

 

She diagnosed: dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia. She identified deficits in working memory & processing speed. She encouraged  us to seek further testing with professionals who can officially diagnose other problems she identified, but cannot legally/actually diagnose -- auditory processing disorder, visual processing delay/disorder, probably ADD or ADHD. 

 

We got a 20+ page report detailing his test results and what they all mean, suggestions for remediation, including what curriculum to use & how to implement it, a referral to an audiobook service, a list of accommodations, similar to what she would list in an IEP report, but tailored for us as we homeschool and don't live in the US so don't have access to a lot of therapies. We got referrals to US based therapists with notes on type of therapist in case we could find them ---  OT & SLP.  The information was overwhelming and incredibly helpful; we had a 2 hr phone conference with her (usually done in person, but we were already back in Brazil by then) to go over the report, ask questions, etc. 

 

The test results themselves were mildly helpful in understanding what is going on with my youngest, but the additional page after page after page of "now, this is what you do to help him" was amazing. I found her to be well worth the money. 

[Lecka]

I talked to an Ed Psych about testing my son. She could diagnose reading disorder, disorder of written expression, or something math (maybe math disorder, I didn't pay attention to that one).

 

It would have cost $400. She would have broken the testing into 2-4 afternoons depending on how the first afternoon went. It would have included IQ testing.

 

That was in Oklahoma City and my mom got the name through someone she knew who recommended her.

 

However I decided to wait on it, partly because I think I should find someone more local, because my son is in public school and I think if I go in with a name or clinic they recognize, it will be easier.

 

Also from my conversation -- those would be the only things she would be looking to diagnose. Honestly I think my son needs a broader eval that could look at other possible diagnoses. Just in case.

 

Also locally, the OT my son sees has seen written reports with recommendations, and can tell me what places have better written reports. I don't have a way to get that info for the place my mom found for me.

[Tokyomarie]

An educational psychologist or school psychologist can be a master's level professional, but many/most are doctoral level professionals. I wasn't quite sure, so I did some googling. It looks like an educational psychologist focuses more on research, while a school psychologist focuses more on clinical practice. However, they both receive significant education, not only in testing and counseling, but in management of conditions relative to the school or other educational setting.

 

In contrast, a neuropsychologist has 2 years additional training in a post-doctoral residency which focuses heavily on the neuroscience of brain function and its relationship to behavior and learning. This is 2 years in addition to a 1 year internship served by all doctoral candidates.

 

The person who did my daughter's evaluation when she was 9.5 was a qualified PhD psychologist at the time of her evaluation. About 2 years later, he started a post-doc program in neuropsychology. After finishing that program, he returned to his private practice as a fully qualified neuropsychologist.

 

[geodob]

The basic difference between and Ed Psych and a Neuro-Psych?

Is that while an Ed Psych arrives at a diagnosis after a review of symptoms defined in tests.

A Neuro-Psych has more training in the underlying neural processes that will result in the symptoms.

 

So that a Neuro-Psych can take a deeper look. Which can provide more clarity, that goes beyond the label.