Dr. Angela Waganaar, a psychologist, leads our psychological testing team. She performs psychological testing for children, adolescents, and young adults (up to age 25).
About Our Psychological Testing Services
Psychological testing can play a key role in understanding a child, adolescent, or young adult’s emotional, behavioral, and learning profile. While psychological and neuropsychological testing often overlap, they serve different purposes, and the distinction can be confusing.
Dr. Waganaar is trained in psychological assessment with additional training in neuropsychological tests. She focuses specifically on psychological testing, not neuropsychological evaluations. This is a significant difference.
Psychological testing examines a young person’s developmental and learning abilities, emotional functioning, behavior, and social skills. Our assessments are designed to help identify strengths and challenges across areas such as:
- Cognitive and developmental functioning
- Learning skills and academic achievement
- Language abilities
- Mood and emotional regulation
- Behavioral concerns
These evaluations often include a combination of cognitive, academic, memory, processing speed, and language measures, as well as behavioral and personality assessments. The goal is to clarify how a child or teen is functioning across these domains, determine relevant diagnoses if applicable, and offer individualized recommendations to help support the young person at home, in school, and other settings.
Neuropsychological evaluations, in contrast, are typically more focused on brain-based conditions and how brain structure and function relate to specific cognitive abilities. This type of testing is often used to evaluate the impact of neurological issues such as traumatic brain injury (TBI), epilepsy, stroke, dementia, or other neurodegenerative conditions, and is typically performed by a neuropsychologist.
We specialize in working with children, adolescents, and young adults, and do not assess for conditions that are more common in adults (such as dementia or stroke), or those requiring in-depth neuropsychological evaluation due to known neurological disorders.
If you’re unsure which type of assessment is best for your child or teen, We are happy to consult and help guide you to the most appropriate support.
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