What’s the difference between the Healthy Brain Network assessment and a Comprehensive Neuropsychological (i.e., Neuropsych) Assessment?

Like neuropsychological testing, our evaluation provides valuable information on your child’s thinking and learning strengths and weaknesses or needs. However, our evaluation does differ from a typical pediatric neuropsychological evaluation.

There are a few key ways our evaluation is different from a full neuropsychological evaluation:

• The Healthy Brain Network evaluation uses a fixed battery for research purposes, while a traditional neuropsych evaluation may use a more flexible battery approach where the clinician selects the specific tests to use based on the current concerns about the child as well as the child’s strengths and weaknesses. See what participation involves.
• The Healthy Brain Network evaluation may not include as many tests of attention and executive functioning as may be included in a traditional neuropsychological evaluation.
• In some cases of a specific learning disorder in reading (i.e., dyslexia), or disorders of movement and coordination (i.e., dysgraphia) additional testing may be required in order to confirm a diagnosis.
• During our evaluation, children also are asked to complete some tasks that are not used for making a diagnosis – they are used only for research analyses. It is important to note that families are expected to complete all tasks in order to receive their child’s report.

For more details and a head-to-head comparison of our evaluation and a neuropsychological evaluation, view the evaluation comparison chart.

Still not sure if our evaluation will meet your child’s needs? You can learn how other families benefited from participation. But the best way to get a good sense of whether or not the Healthy Brain Network evaluation can address your concerns about your child is to review the list of assessments we provide and discuss that with your school’s assessment team or your child’s doctor.