seeking outstanding child evaluator

amother

Sun, Feb 02 2014, 12:11 am

I am in search of an outstanding professional to evaluate my nine-year-old who is having severe behavioral problems. so far he got one diagnosis of anxiety, another of odd, a third of adhd. he is doing terribly both at home and in school- aggressive, fighting- we are at wits end. Please tell me if you know anyone who could get to the bottom of this and help us help him. Child lives in Lakewood, so that would be ideal, but brooklyn could work, too.

amother

Sun, Feb 02 2014, 2:16 am

Why don't you call relief resources. I also live in Lakewood and have a son with similar issues. His school principal recommended I call Relief. They gave me some names to contact. The person I went to did help in many ways, and I think we did get the correct diagnosis.

5*Mom

Sun, Feb 02 2014, 3:46 am

amother wrote:

You first need to determine what kind of professional he should be seeing. May I ask what kind of professionals gave him the diagnoses of anxiety, odd and adhd, respectively?

It is always my feeling that for purposes of evaluation, one needs a professional with the broadest field of expertise in order to be able to make a differential diagnosis. That is to differentiate what it is from other conditions that may look similar. For children, I think the way to go is usually a pediatric neuropsychologist. Good luck.

5*Mom

Sun, Feb 02 2014, 5:28 am

amother wrote:

I had a great experience with Devora Samet in brooklyn. Both as eval and therapist.

Forgive me, but how does a name with no professional description help? What kind of professional is she? What is she qualified to evaluate for? What kind of therapy does she provide? I don't mean to pick on you, amother, but your post is helping me illustrate what kinds of questions a parent should be asking when seeking an *evaluator* for their child. You need to more, much more information.

amother

Sun, Feb 02 2014, 7:30 am

5*Mom wrote:

Her exact title I dont know. Her site is behavior4kids.com

5*Mom

Sun, Feb 02 2014, 7:45 am

amother wrote:

Her exact title I dont know. Her site is behavior4kids.com

Thank you. I haven't looked over her site, but just from a cursory glance, it would seem that she would be better suited to providing therapy rather than a comprehensive evaluation. She is a specialist. She is trained to look for problems that are limited to her specific field of expertise. OP has gotten diagnoses that are all over the place, probably from specialists looking only at their respective narrow fields of expertise. She needs someone who can see a bigger picture and pick out what is wrong and where it is coming from with that wider perspective.

You see, *behavior* is not a discrete area of child development. Behavior can be a response to/the result of many different things: organic disturbances, developmental delays, emotional distress, specific lagging skills... and each one of those things has a variety of subcategories as well. So you'd need a professional who is trained to look at each area of possible cause and rule each one out in turn, to make what is called a differential diagnosis which gets at the root of the problem. Treatment will be different for a child who is found to be aggressive due to developmental delays vs. trauma vs. sensory processing disorder vs. lacking social skills, etc.

5*Mom

Sun, Feb 02 2014, 8:14 am

WADR, there is no such thing as a Professional Child Evaluator. There are psychiatrists, psychologists, neurologists, neuropsychologists, speech therapists, social skills coaches, ophthalmologists, doctors of allergy and immunology--aggression has been known to have its roots in allergies!--, etc... It's so important to know the field of training and expertise of any professional one brings one's children, and oneself, to. It's helpful to note that in a recommendation.

amother

Sun, Feb 02 2014, 10:13 am

5*Mom wrote:

I used her as an evaluator. I knew something is wrong with my dd I didnt know what. Then I used her as the therapist

amother

Mon, Feb 03 2014, 12:31 am

OP here. Thank you very much to all who contributed. We certainly hope to check out some of these ideas. Please, let's continue the conversation.
To the mother who said she has a child with similar issues, is your child in a mainstream school or are you trying alternatives?

5*Mom

Mon, Feb 03 2014, 12:49 am

amother wrote:

What kinds of professionals have you been to and why did you not feel that they helped you?

amother

Fri, Feb 28 2014, 12:29 pm

In terms of evaluations - I have been through the system and tried many things - I've wasted my time with people who are OTs or speech or whatever and they claim to be doing a full "evaluation" but it's NOT. I learned you go to a psychologist, school neuropsychologist, or neuropsychologist - but you pick one who specializes in children and who knows how our educational system works. I don't want a recommendation like "he needs to be in a multisensory classroom." He's not GOING to be in one. I want someone to say "teach him gemarah using graphic organizers, here's the name of three special ed rebbeim who know how to do that."
IMHO, Dr. Koslowitz is the best when it comes to that. But I dk if she knows the system outside of Lakewood. But I heard she's not doing evals this year - I sent my sister and she was told she can't even be on a waiting list. I also had a kid by NYU CSC and they were very good, I think because they've had so many frum patients they are kind of "getting it."
I *believe* Devorah Samet is a special ed teacher, so I don't know how she can "evaluate."
For me, I wasted a LOT of time and money before I went to the best and then it was a total yeshua. My son went from "we are kicking him out" to regular kid in one year.
I'm posting anonymously because of my sons' privacy.
Good luck!

amother

Fri, Feb 28 2014, 12:37 pm

Dr. Karen Weiss, Manhattan, did a full neuropsychological evaluation with about 20 pg written report. She uses standardized tests given to 100k+children within 3 months of my child's age and spent at least 5-6 hours on the testing plus the time to write the report.