There is no need for a neuropsych eval to determine things like depression, behavior disorders, mood issues, anxiety problems, and typical ADHD.
Agreed that it's not necessary to have a neuropsych evaluation to diagnose any of these conditions, but we've found with two of our kids (both of whom have had extreme anxiety, one of whom was clinically depressed at one point in time) that a neuropsych evaluation teased out hidden challenges each child was dealing with. With both children, we had professionals ready and willing to treat/medicate the overlying anxiety/depression, but for each child the real issue that needed help was the underlying 2e diagnoses which weren't recognized by their pediatricians/counselors etc. Once we were aware of the 2e diagnoses (dysgraphia, expressive language disorder, associative memory challenge, etc) and remediated/accommodated for those, the anxiety/depression lessened significantly - to the degree treatment wasn't needed. Both kids have personalities that will probably always be prone to anxiety, but if we'd only looked at and treated the anxiety we would have missed a very important piece of the puzzle.
Please know I'm not suggesting anxiety/etc only exists as an outcome of underlying LD, but for a young child who's struggling in school and also showing signs of anxiety/etc, I would recommend a neuropsych eval.
Keet, I think CAPD is usually diagnosed by an audiologist who specializes or works with people who have CAPD. FWIW, we thought our middle dd might have CAPD at one point in time, but a neuropsych eval revealed she had an entirely different challenge (visual). It can be very tricky trying to understand what's up with young children simply because so many symptoms overlap between challenges. SID is usually diagnosed by an occupational therapist. It's not something you'd need a neuropsych eval to see - if you're seeing symptoms of SID, you can ask for a referral for an OT eval from your ped.
polarbear
