Generally a neuropsychologist would do this kind of evaluation - be sure that he or she specializes in pediatrics and education. Many times LD schools maintain a list of evaluators that they respect, have expertise in learning disabilities, and write complete and usable reports. Some tutors can administer certain diagnostic tests, but they are often limited in their ability to diagnose and look at the complete cognitive profile of the student.

Many times a developmental neurologist works with a neuropsychologist and other experts such as speech and language pathologists. In fact, my son's Neurologist heads up the LD unit at a large Children's Hospital. But, he does not do the testing himself - just oversees each discipline.

If you can get your insurance to pay - go for it! But I found that more and more insurance companies are limiting their coverage for educational matters. They are more apt to pay if the concern is attention (ADHD) or other developmental delays or conditions such as Autism. Your primary care can probably help you to position your referral in a way that is more likely to be approved.

The other course of action is to ask the public school to evaluate. Under special ed law (child find provisions of IDEA), they must evaluate in all areas of disability if they get a written referral. Some school evaluations are very good, but many are somewhat limited and even biased in their interpretation. But, if the family hopes to get services from the school, this might be their first step. To get more information about evaluations they can go to http://www.ldonline.org/questions/evaluation

Best of luck.