Does my child need an assessment?
Many parents arrive with simple questions:
Does my child have ADHD?
Why are they struggling so much at school despite their efforts?
Is it a Dys disorder?
Are their difficulties related to attention, memory, or organization?
Adults often ask themselves similar questions:
Why do I struggle so much to get organized?
Why am I constantly overwhelmed despite my efforts?
Why do I have difficulties with attention or memory?
The purpose of neuropsychological assessment is precisely to help answer these questions.
It helps to better understand a person's cognitive functioning, their possible difficulties, but also their resources and strengths.
Every child, adolescent, or adult has a unique profile.
Test results only make sense when placed in the context of their history, development, environment, and current difficulties.
This is why neuropsychological assessment always combines several sources of information.
How does an assessment unfold?
The assessment generally begins with a clinical interview.
This interview helps to clarify:
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the difficulties encountered;
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their history and progression;
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the family, school, or professional context;
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the goals of the process.
Depending on the situation, several sessions may then be needed to explore the various cognitive functions.
Finally, the results are analyzed and discussed during a feedback session.
Which functions can be assessed?
The assessment can explore different dimensions of cognitive functioning:
Attention
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sustained attention;
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selective attention;
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attentional control.
Executive functions
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planning;
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organization;
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inhibition;
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cognitive flexibility;
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working memory.
Memory
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working memory;
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long-term memory;
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episodic memory;
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learning.
Language
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comprehension;
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expression;
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reading;
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writing.
Visuospatial abilities
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visual perception;
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spatial organization;
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visual information processing.
Tools are only part of the assessment
Tests allow certain cognitive capacities to be measured.
But they are only one part of the process.
Two people can obtain comparable results for very different reasons.
This is why results are always interpreted in light of:
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the person's history;
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their development;
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their environment;
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their daily difficulties;
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their resources.
The goal isn't to produce a list of scores.
The goal is to understand a way of functioning.
The assessment relies on standardized tools widely used in clinical neuropsychology.
Depending on age and situation, it may include in particular:
Intelligence scales
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WISC-V (children and adolescents)
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WAIS-IV (adults)
Attention and executive functions
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TEA-Ch
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NEPSY-II
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Stroop
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Trail Making Test
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Tower of London
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other tests adapted to age and clinical question
Memory
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CMS
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CVLT
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Rey
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other verbal and visual memory tests
Standardized questionnaires
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ADHD
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executive functions
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adaptive behavior
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emotional or academic difficulties
The tools selected always depend on the clinical question being asked.
Not all tests are therefore used for every assessment.
Beyond the tests
Performance observed during a test never tells the whole story.
Two people can obtain comparable results for very different reasons.
Clinical observation, the way a person approaches tasks, their strategies, and how they manage effort or frustration often provide information just as important as the scores themselves.
The goal isn't only to measure performance.
It's to understand how the person functions in their daily life.
An approach grounded in neuroscience
My background as a neuroscientist and Emeritus Research Director at the CNRS allows me to approach neuropsychological assessment in light of current knowledge about how the brain works.
Results are interpreted from a perspective that takes into account:
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cognitive functions;
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development;
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emotions;
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the relational environment;
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and the person's life context.
This approach ties in with the work developed as part of the Brain of Presence project, which explores how the brain develops and functions within its human environment.
Beyond performance
Cognitive functions are never expressed in a vacuum.
Attention, memory, organization, or learning are influenced by emotions, stress, relationships, and the environment in which the person lives.
This is why the assessment isn't only interested in what the person is capable of doing in a test situation.
It also seeks to understand how their capacities are expressed in real life.
This approach is part of the continuity of my neuroscience work on the links between brain, cognition, and the human environment, developed as part of the Brain of Presence project.
To go further
Academic learning difficulties
Neuropsychological assessment methods
Neuropsychological assessment in Marseille
I see children, adolescents, and adults for neuropsychological assessments tailored to their needs and goals.
