Assessments

Psychologists perform a range of assessment tools depending on concerns about children that are raised by the parent or the child’s treatment team.  Types of assessments include:

·         Developmental assessments to determine children’s functioning across all areas of development.

·         Diagnostic assessments to determine whether children meet criteria for autism or a related pervasive developmental disorder (PDD).

·         Psychological assessments that specifically evaluate children’s social-emotional functioning, including their socialization skills with peers and adults, their ways of expressing their negative emotions, coping skills, and frustration tolerance.

·         Cognitive assessments that specifically measure children’s understanding of cognitive concepts.

·         Psychological screenings are conducted for children currently receiving services at EICB to determine whether they are displaying challenging or unusual behaviors that warrant a more formal psychological or diagnostic assessment.

Counseling services

Various methods of counseling and training are provided to children and their families.  . 

·         Individual counseling is provided directly to the child, and often includes individual play therapy.  Individual counseling often target children’s socialization skills, frustration tolerance, self-esteem, passivity, and anxiety, as well as other aspects of their social-emotional development. 

·         Family counseling is provided to the family, including either or both parents, grandparents, and/or siblings.  Family Counseling allows the family to explore the relationships among family members and/or the environmental stressors in the home that likely impact the child’s development.

·         Family training is provided to families

·         A Family Support Group for caregivers of children with autism/PDD (see below for more information on these diagnoses) is currently held twice monthly to provide parents of children on the autism-spectrum with information regarding these disorders, gain support by communicating with parents of other children with similar diagnoses, teach stress management techniques for parents, and teach them strategies to more effectively manage their children’s challenging behaviors at home.

Other Psychological Services

·         Classroom consultation is provided to the teachers and teacher assistants in order to help them more effectively manage the challenging or unusual behaviors displayed by children in their classrooms.  Psychologists help the classroom staff identify and address any maladaptive behaviors before they increase.  Consultation also includes promoting the socialization skills among the students.

Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDDs)

The psychology department has a strong focus in the area of autism and related PDDs and provide a number of resources for families and other EICB staff members.  PDDs are a five group of disorders characterized by qualitative impairments in children’s socialization skills and their communication skills, as well as restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behaviors, interests, and activities (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).  Autism is one type of PDDs.  According to the Centers for Disease Control Prevention (2004), autism currently occurs at a rate of 1 out of every 166 children.  This rate has sharply increased over the past several years, indicating a strong need for clinicians to provide services to this population.  Autism is four times more prevalent in boys than in girls (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).

For more information regarding autism and PDD, please visit

 Autism Society of America at:

References:

American Psychiatric Association.  (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition (DSM-IV).   

Centers for Disease Control Prevention (2004)