We provide comprehensive psychological, neuropsychological, and behavioral evaluations in order to diagnose, plan and evaluate treatment.

By developing an understanding of how the client perceives the world and interacts with others, we can help the caretakers, partners, parents and teachers help the client master situations or cope with temperamental vulnerabilities and current stressors. By using state of the art measures such as the IVA+ Continuous Performance Test, we clarify the role of attention and response control problems  as well as emotions that often lead to behavioral difficulties. We integrate of our findings into meaningful prescriptive terms that help to guide treatment, behavior management, teaching and accommodation strategies.

Dr. Kaufman’s Procedure for Evaluating Children’s Behavior Problems

• Session 1: Meet with child’s parents to review current problems and factors responsible for their occurrence. Usually there will be a discussion of the child’s development, the family’s functioning, school and peer functioning, stress factors, and child management practices. Parents are asked to bring copies of prior evaluations, report cards and school documents, etc. Parents will usually be given a set of forms and child behavior rating scales for both parents to complete. They will usually be asked to give rating scales to their child’s teachers. All rating scales will be scored by IBH staff and reviewed by Dr. Kaufman. These help build a diagnostic picture that will be shared with the parents and used to plan treatment. Session length is at least 45 minutes but may be longer, typically over an hour or as long as two hours..

• Session 2: Dr. Kaufman will conduct most of the session with child alone. Generally the first part of the session is spent getting to know how the child views his life, family, school, friends, etc. This is done with a relaxed, fun attitude to help the child feel comfortable. Often the child is encouraged to explore various toys and manipulatives in the office while chatting. In the second part of this session, Dr. Kaufman uses the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale in a semi-structured interview in which the child answers Yes or No to 80 statements about how he feels about himself. In the third part of this session, the parents are brought in for brief feedback about their child’s behavior and cooperation. The Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale scoring is reviewed with the parents at a later session. Session length is  at least 45 minutes.

• Session 3:  To be conducted with both parents and the child present, usually at 10:30 to 11:15 on a weekday morning. Dr. Kaufman will administer the Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test (the IVA Plus) to the child, with the parents present as silent observers. The IVA+ test helps evaluate the strength of the child’s attention and response control system. It is also helpful in clarifying the child’s learning style, behavior under stress, reaction to mistakes, stamina, and degree of cooperation. Anxiety and depression factors are often clearly apparent to those observing. Objective results are printed out from the computer and copies are given to the parents.

• Session 4: The next session with parents (preferably held on the same day, immediately after the IVA+ testing) is intended to integrate and interpret the computer reported objective results with the subjective observations made during the test. Rating scale data and Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale scores are usually reviewed together with test results done in school or by “outside” professionals during this 45-minute session with the parents. The goal of the session is to reach a conclusion regarding diagnosis and treatment options. The session will usually end with a verbal review of the treatment plan.

• Additional Sessions: At times, additional information, additional testing, or additional discussions may be needed to facilitate a good plan. For example, language, achievement and intelligence testing can be very valuable in understanding the child’s learning and perceptual style. Often these evaluations have been completed by school personnel and are quite sufficient for the purposes of planning treatment if copies of the results are made available. Occasionally, Dr. Kaufman will recommend that the tests done for the first time or repeated , if necessary. On-site observations at home,  at school, or at community locations are possible and can be provided if required to arrive at a meaningful conclusions. This would necessitate additional sessions beyond those described here. If so, the rationale for these sessions will be discussed & additional sessions planned with the parents and child.

• Optional: If the parent would like a written report, letter, or summary of the evaluation, this can be prepared, but it should be understood that this is an additional service that will be billed separately. The fee for this service will be based upon the time needed to prepare and edit such documents. The fee will be $150 per clock hour. The parent may be encouraged to be present in the office to collaborate during the preparation of this documentation.