Essentials of NEPSY-II Assessment

Sally L. Kemp, Marit Korkman

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780470634639
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Clinical Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Quickly acquire the knowledge and skills you need to confidently administer, score, and interpret the NEPSY-II

The NEPSY-II is widely used by school psychologists, neuropsychologists, and research psychologists to assess children, ages three to sixteen, with neurological disorders and developmental disabilities and to develop effective intervention strategies. It provides comprehensive assessment over six functional domains: Attention/Executive Functioning, Language, Sensorimotor Functions, Visuospatial Processing, Memory and Learning, and Social Perception. Professionals need an authoritative source of advice and guidance on how to administer, score, and interpret the test to use it properly. Coauthored by two of the creators of the NEPSY-II, Essentials of NEPSY-II Assessment is that source.

Like all the volumes in the Essentials of Psychological Assessment series, this book is designed to help busy mental health professionals, and those in training, quickly acquire the knowledge and skills they need to make optimal use of major psychological assessment instruments. Each concise chapter features numerous callout boxes highlighting key concepts, bulleted points, and extensive illustrative material, as well as test questions that help you gauge and reinforce your grasp of the information covered.

Essentials of NEPSY-II Assessment includes vital information about the NEPSY-II, including the advantage of being able to assess a child across functions and modalities. The authors provide step-by-step guidance on test administration, scoring, and interpretation and valuable advice on its clinical applications. Expert assessment of the test's relative strengths and weaknesses is also provided in a chapter contributed by Stephen R. Hooper.

Other titles in the Essentials of Psychological Assessment series:

• Essentials of Assessment Report Writing
• Essentials of School Neurosychological Assessment
• Essentials of Evidence-Based Academic Interventions
• Essentials of Response to Intervention
• Essentials of Processing Assessment
• Essentials of Conners Behavior Assessments
• Essentials of Cross-Battery Assessment, Second Edition
• Essentials of WISC-IV Assessment, Second Edition

Two

HOW TO ADMINISTER NEPSY-II

Astandardized test for children provides scores that represent a child’s performance compared to other, typically developing children of the same age. In order to obtain results that are comparable to the national norms, the clinician needs to follow the administration and scoring procedures that were used in standardization. On the other hand, an impersonal, robot-like presentation may produce poor results due to distractibility and boredom. The assessment experience must be enjoyable for the child. Both a reasonably individualized, personal manner of administering the test and appropriate testing conditions are essential to good performance.

APPROPRIATE TESTING CONDITIONS

Physical Environment

It is important in any type of assessment that the physical setting is conducive to testing. The room should be quiet, well-ventilated, and well-lit. The temperature should be well-regulated or the child may not be able to concentrate. The testing area should have a table with a smooth surface and of appropriate height for the child to be comfortable. If a low table is not available for testing young children, the clinician may wish to acquire a booster chair to place on a chair of regular height. It is also nice to have a footstool or wooden box available for a child whose feet do not touch the floor. Providing a footrest helps to keep a child from becoming too fidgety because his or her feet are dangling without support. Chairs should be straight-backed, but padded enough to be comfortable throughout the testing session. Arms on the chairs help to contain younger children and provide elbow rests for the clinician. There needs to be ample room for test materials. Some examiners find a clipboard useful, as it facilitates writing responses without exposing the Record Form to the child. For most tests, the clinician should be seated across the table from the child, as this facilitates observation. Watching the child perform the task and recording, not only the formal Behavioral Observations provided on NEPSY-II, but also other observations and impressions, are integral parts of a thorough neuropsychological evaluation. These notations will be invaluable in understanding how the child approaches a specific task. Subsequent to the assessment, such knowledge will aid in the formulation of interventions.

For sensorimotor subtests, the clinician must sit across the table from the child in order to demonstrate the movements and positions and to observe the child from the correct orientation. However, on a few subtests (e.g., Body Part Naming, Arrows) the clinician may be able to administer the subtest more easily if he or she is seated beside or at a right angle to the child. This may facilitate the proper orientation of the materials and observation of the child’s response, pointing to the stimuli on the easel. (See Rapid Reference 2.1.)

Rapid Reference 2.1

Summary of Optimal Physical Environment for Testing

Room: quiet, well-ventilated, and well-lit. ; temperature well-regulated to help concentration.

Furniture and Accessories: table with a smooth surface, ample room for materials; appropriate height.

• Use booster chair, if a low table unavailable for testing young children.

• Footstool or wooden box available for child if feet do not touch the floor.

• Comfortable chairs with arms to help to contain younger children; to provide elbow rests for the child and clinician.

Test Materials

Only the test materials being used should be visible on the table during the testing. Other materials may be distracting or cause anxiety for a child who worries about being able to accomplish a task. The clinician may want to place the materials he or she will use on a chair nearby but out of the child’s view. The NEPSY-II Stimulus Book easel should be placed so the front cover faces the examiner. The pages of the Stimulus Books are turned toward the child. The child should not be able to see the examiner’s side of the easel. The NEPSY-II kit contains all materials needed except the stopwatch, and any extra paper desired for taking notes. Pencils (red, number two standard) are provided with the kit and need to be well sharpened for the tasks. Extra pencils can be kept available. A clipboard is a useful tool in many subtests as it facilitates observation and recording simultaneously. For young children (ages 3 to 6), use a thick, primary pencil.

Preparation of the Record Form

Prior to testing, mark the start-points for the child’s age on the Record Form. Also circle or highlight age-appropriate tests to be administered. The examiner can number the tests in the order she/he wishes to administer them or can prepare a guide sheet with the order, whichever is preferred. The clinician should note whether the child is to take a break or is to perform another subtest between immediate and delayed tasks. Note that if a subtest is to be placed between the immediate and delayed trials of a memory test, it should not be another memory test.

Establishing Rapport

It is important to establish rapport with the child before testing begins. Greet the accompanying adult in a friendly, relaxed manner so the child can be reassured about the way the examiner relates to people. Then greet the child, offering your hand for a handshake. Shaking hands with the child often makes him or her feel that this process is going to be a partnership and that he or she has an important role to play. However, if the child is shy about shaking hands, do not force it. When the child is young, get down on her or his level and chat for a few minutes about some matter to which the child can relate, for example, a toy the child has brought to the testing or an article of clothing. Explain that you will be doing all kinds activities with the child. When an adult refers to the clinician as “doctor,” or when the evaluation takes place in a hospital or medical center, the clinician should reassure the child that he or she will not be giving shots or doing anything to hurt the child. Older children need to be reassured that they will not be receiving grades on their performance.

When a young child or a child with a developmental delay has trouble separating from the parent (caregiver), the clinician may wish to invite the parent to walk back to the testing room with the clinician and the child. The clinician should reassure the child that the parent will know exactly where she or he is, and, perhaps, have the parent leave an article (a scarf, a book, etc.) with the child for security. Do not prolong the process. When the mother, father, or both have gone, the examiner may need to play with the child for a while to help him or her feel comfortable before testing is initiated. Occasionally, with a small child or a child with developmental disorders, the parent needs to be present for the testing. When this is the case, talk to the parent prior to the testing about not prompting the child. Most children, however, will perform better if the parent is not present.

Maintaining Rapport

Good rapport is essential to productive assessment. The clinician should introduce the test to the child by talking about the many different activities the child will be doing with the clinician. Explain that each task will be easy at first, and then the items may get harder. The examiner should explain that some tasks are easy and others are hard, but reassure the child that when the items get hard, he or she just needs to do his or her best. This can help reassure the child that he or she is not the only one who finds some items difficult. When items become difficult, the examiner can validate the child’s feelings by acknowledging, “Sometimes these get hard,” or “That one was tough; let’s try a different one.” Occasionally, children may need to be reassured by explaining to them that some tasks are really difficult and that they need not know or be able to solve them all, but just try their best.

In genera...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Series Preface
• Acknowledgments
• One - OVERVIEW
• Two - HOW TO ADMINISTER NEPSY-II
• Three - HOW TO SCORE THE NEPSY-II
• Four - HOW TO INTERPRET THE NEPSY-II
• Five - STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF NEPSY-II
• Six - CLINICAL APPLICATIONS OF THE NEPSY-II
• Seven - ILLUSTRATIVE CASE REPORTS
• Appendix: NEPSY-II Data Worksheet
• References
• Annotated Bibliography
• About the Authors
• Index