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The goal of neuropsychological evaluation is to provide diagnostic clarification and recommendations for how to best support the patient moving forward. Full neuropsychological evaluations are more comprehensive than a targeted assessment for a specific concern (e.g., ADHD, learning disorder) and are tailored to meet individual patient needs and concerns. This can include neuropsychological, academic, and psychological assessments. Neuropsychological tests are designed to evaluate brain-behavior relationships by examining cognitive skills in areas of attention, processing speed, executive functioning, language, visuospatial understanding, learning/memory, and motor functioning. Academic achievement testing assesses skills in areas of reading, writing, and mathematics relative to same-aged peers. Psychological assessment of mood, behavior, social abilities, and adaptive skills is also part of a formal evaluation. Evaluations involve integration of information from multiple sources, such as clinical interviews, standardized measures, observation, questionnaires, record review, and collateral information.

Sometimes there is only a specific concerns for ADHD. Targeted evaluation of symptoms can be conducted to determine whether or not a patient has ADHD. This includes direct assessment of cognitive symptoms through in-person testing as well as gathering of information from the patient and collateral sources (e.g., parents, spouse, roommate). Targeted ADHD assessments are much shorter than a full neuropsychological evaluation with in-person testing typically around 3 hours or less. ADHD evaluations are most appropriate when there are not concerns for symptoms of other underlying conditions. 

Learning disorder evaluations can be done with individuals of any age but are most commonly done with children. Concerns often arise when a child is struggling with academic learning in school. There are 3 types of learning disorders: reading (dyslexia), writing (dysgraphia), and mathematics (dyscalculia). Evaluation consists of intellectual, academic, cognitive, mood, and behavioral assessments. This type of evaluation is most similar to a psychoeducational evaluation that the school district would conduct with a child. Academic skills will be assessed in areas of reading, writing, and mathematics relative to same-aged peers. If there are more concerns in one academic area, all areas will be screened with more intensive testing in the problem area. 

Autism evaluations can be done with individuals of any age and range greatly in complexity. Evaluations always include assessment of intellectual functioning, language, social abilities, mood, and behavior. When symptoms are more nuanced, such as with a high functioning autism profile, evaluation tends to take longer and require more hours of direct in-person assessment. Testing includes gold standard measures (e.g., ADOS-2) as well as other measures deemed relevant for the evaluation. In addition to assessment of current presentation, comprehensive developmental history of early childhood symptoms is also an important part of the evaluation. This may be done through a structured interview with the patient's parents or caregivers. 

IQ-only testing is typically done in the context of suspected giftedness in children. Schools for gifted children may require an IQ assessment as part of their application process. For applications, results will need to be submitted directly from the psychologist to the school. Parents/guardians are always provided a copy of the results for review prior to submitting the IQ results to the school. 

If an intellectual disability is suspected, this type of evaluation is not appropriate. More comprehensive assessment is required in cases of suspected disability to ensure that aspects cognitive, social, and psychological functioning are also being evaluated to gain a complete understanding of the individual.