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IN THIS ISSUE
This fall Children's Resource Group (CRG) celebrated its 25th anniversary. Thank you for the privilege of serving you and your family or collaborating with you as fellow professionals for all these years! We are gearing up and looking forward to serving children, adolescents, adults and families for the next 25 years or so. Since 1993,
CRG has provided evaluations for children, adolescents and adults with neurodevelopmental disorders as well as emotional and behavioral challenges. Often these conditions overlap. We recognize that it is important to have providers with training and a passion for working with individuals with these diagnoses. We are pleased to have added several new providers with excellent
professional preparation to
work with individuals with complex developmental, learning and behavioral disorders.
And
they have passion and commitment!
In this issue we will provide an overview of neurodevelopmental disorders. This will be followed by brief interviews to help you get to know our new providers, coupled with articles written by them about areas of interest and expertise. We have also added new Front Office coordinators to our excellent team recently and welcome them in this issue, too.
Early Childhood Evaluations
CRG is pleased to announce that we are now offering early childhood (2-4 years old) evaluations for families concerned that their child may have global developmental delays or possible autism spectrum disorder.
For families interested in a psychological evaluation, we are now able to gather background information and complete direct testing in a single 3-hour appointment on Friday mornings, eliminating the need for your child to attend more than one appointment at our office.
Parents are then invited
to return approximately 2 weeks following the evaluation to review results with a psychologist and discuss recommendations and next steps in promoting their child's development. If you are interested in learning more about this service or scheduling an appointment, please contact our Intake Coordinator at (317) 575-9111, Option 3.
Holiday Hours
CRG is open at least 55 hours a week to meet our patients' needs. Please take note, however, of our holiday hours:
- Wednesday, November 21st: Office closes at 4:00 pm (Hours are 7:00 am - 4:00 pm)
- Thursday, November 22nd: Office Closed
- Friday, November 23rd: Office Closed
- Monday, December 24th: Office Closed
- Tuesday, December 25th: Office Closed
- Monday, December 31st: Office closes at 4:00 pm (Hours are 7:00 am - 4:00 pm)
- Tuesday, January 1st: Office Closed
Upcoming Webinars
We will send out more timely reminders but mark your calendars now for our next round of free webinars:
- Dr. Jill Wise: November 30th (noon) - Pediatric Neuropsychology: An Introduction to the Basics of Neuropsychological Evaluations
- Dr. Anna Merrill: January 2019 - Understanding Intellectual Disability: Definitions, Intervention, and Resources
CRG Newsletter Editor
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Neurodevelopmental Disorders
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Our spring newsletter was devoted to externalized behaviors and emotional disorders in
adolescents, including Disruptive, Impulse Control and Conduct Disorders; Disruptive Mood
Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD); and ADHD. The summer newsletter was devoted to internalized disorders including anxiety, depression and somatic symptoms. This newsletter will focus on neuro- developmental disorders,
which can include
Intellectual Disability, Specific Learning Disorders, Communications Disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity
Disorder.
Since CRG was established in 1993, a large focus of the practice has been on the evaluation and treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders. The research in this area has helped us
better evaluate
and
understand
these conditions. Neurodevelopmental
disorders are a group of conditions with
onset in childhood. They typically persist throughout life, although the impact of the disorder may change over time. These disorders cause impairments in one or more domains
of daily life. It is not uncommon for an individual with one neurodevelopmental disorder to have other co-occurring neurodevelopmental disorders. They are
at
higher risk for mental health disorders. The most common neurodevelopmental disorders are outlined below:
- Previously referred to as Mental Retardation
- Impairment in capacity for individual responsibility
- IQ in the lower 2-3% of population
- Impairment in adaptive functioning
- Learning continues throughout life but at a slower pace and in a narrower range
- Learning is qualitatively different
- Behavioral difficulties often mirror academic learning
- Language disorder - difficulty with acquiring and using language as manifested by reduced vocabulary, difficulty with sentence structure, and difficulty with conversation
- Speech Sound Disorder - difficulty with speech sound production and articulation of speech
- Childhood-Onset Fluency Disorder (Stuttering)
- Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder - difficulty in using communication for social purposes, changing communication to match the context of the situation, and difficulty following rules for conversation
- Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, nonverbal communication, and the development, maintenance, and understanding of relationships and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests and activities
- Current estimates are that 1 in 59 children (1.7% of the population) meet criteria for an Autism Spectrum Disorder
- More prevalent in males than females
- Cognitive level may range from severe intellectual disability to intellectual giftedness
- Those with ASD typically do not function at their cognitive capacity
- ASD has significant negative impact on adaptive functioning
- Specific Learning Disorder with impairment in reading (dyslexia)
- Specific Learning Disorder with impairment in written expression (often associated with dyslexia)
- Specific Learning Disorder with impairment in math (dyscalculia)
- Combined presentation
- Predominantly inattentive presentation
- Predominantly hyperactive-impulsive presentation
- Developmental Coordination Disorder
- Stereotypic Movement Disorder
- Tic Disorders
We hope you will enjoy these articles. All of our past newsletter articles are archived on our
website.
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Tell us more about your professional background and education.
I recently finished my predoctoral psychology training at Indiana University School of Medicine (class of 2017-18). During my time as a psychology resident, I completed rotations in child and adolescent outpatient therapy clinics, pediatric behavioral sleep medicine, pediatric gastroenterology clinics, and a child and adolescent inpatient unit. My responsibilities included diagnostic assessments, psychoeducational evaluations, and providing evidence-based interventions for a range of presenting concerns (including anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, tic disorders, ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, and trauma-related disorders. Prior to this, as a clinical psychology Ph.D. student at IUPUI, I gained clinical experience in a wide range of settings including the Psychiatry Department at Riley at Indiana University Health, Beacon Psychology Services, Larue D. Carter Memorial Hospital, Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center, and Pike Township Metropolitan School District.
With respect to my education, I received a bachelor's degree in psychology from California State University, Northridge. I then attended graduate school at IUPUI where I received a Master's Degree in clinical rehabilitation psychology and a doctoral degree in clinical psychology. I'm thrilled to now be joining CRG as a post-doctoral fellow.
Click
here to read the rest of the story.
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A Brief Overview of the ADOS-2:
An Assessment for Autism Spectrum Disorder
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Understanding the ADOS-2
The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Second Edition (
ADOS-2) is an activity-based assessment administered by trained clinicians to evaluate communication skills, social interaction, and imaginative use of materials in individuals who are suspected to have autism spectrum disorder (
ASD). The ADOS-2 was developed by
Dr. Catherine Lord and her colleagues to provide an opportunity to observe symptoms and behaviors associated with ASD in a consistent manner across different clients, clinicians, and locations. The ADOS-2 is currently considered the "gold standard" in the assessment of ASD.
Click
here
to read the rest of this story.
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Tell us more about your professional background and education.
My first degree was from
Wheelock College
(part of Boston University) in child development. After working on a brain injury unit as an OT/PT aide, I worked up the nerve to apply to nursing school. Next, I earned an Associate of Science in Nursing degree. I really enjoyed the psychiatric clinicals in nursing school. I have worked as an R.N. in three different states (Massachusetts, Florida, and Indiana). All patients are "psych" patients.... we may not realize it. My Master's Degree is from IUPUI. I did Nurse Practitioner (NP) clinical hours at
Gallahue Mental Health Services
in downtown Indianapolis.
Click
here
to read the rest of this story.
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ADHD Medications: A Primer for Parents
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You just knew he had ADHD! Now, he is prescribed a stimulant...is that safe? Parents often raise important questions about the risk of developing a substance abuse disorder when their child is diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed a stimulant such as Focalin, Ritalin, or Concerta. According to the
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, "There are persistent concerns of long-term effects of stimulant ADHD mediation on the development of substance abuse" (Zheng et al., 2014). A
study
on 26,000 men and 12,500 women from 1960 to 1998 examined the association between stimulant ADHD medication and substance abuse-related death, crime or hospital visits. The results? ADHD medication was NOT associated with an increased rate of substance abuse. Instead, the authors found that the rate of substance abuse was 31%
lower
in those prescribed ADHD medication.
Conclusions? There is not a direct correlation of increased risks of substance abuse among individuals prescribed stimulant medication. The authors postulate that treatment for ADHD with the use of a stimulant may provide a long-term protective effect on substance abuse.
Click
here
to read the rest of this story.
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Tell us more about your professional background and education.
I studied psychology at Bard College in New York when I was an undergraduate. It was during this time that I became interested in working with children, specifically children with neurodevelopmental disabilities. My doctoral level training was at
Indiana University in Bloomington.
In my time at IU, I received broad clinical training related to working with children with behavioral health and learning concerns. I also focused in on my interest in adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). I worked in the
Social Skills Research Clinic
and my dissertation focused on learning new ways in improve social skills in high schoolers with ASD.
Click
here
to read the rest of this story.
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Behavioral Management Tips for Children with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities
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Children with neurodevelopmental disabilities such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Learning Disabilities, or other developmental delays often do not respond well to standard approaches to discipline. This leaves many families feeling frustrated and concerned on how to best help their child improve their behavior. Researchers and clinicians have spent years determining what practices are most effective in improving behavioral challenges in this population (see work by
Russell Barkley or
Ross Greene).
Click
here
to read the rest of this story.
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Tell us more about your professional background and education.
I earned my Bachelor's Degree from Purdue University in 2011 with a major in Psychology. I then pursued my doctorate degree at Indiana University in the School Psychology Program. During my final year of graduate school, I was a Pediatric Psychology Intern at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital/University of Tennessee Professional Psychology Internship Consortium in Memphis, TN prior to graduating in 2016. I then completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in Pediatric Neuropsychology at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, FL in order to specialize in Pediatric Neuropsychology.
Click
here
to read the rest of this story.
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Introduction to Pediatric Neuropsychology
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Neuropsychology is a subspecialty of psychology that focuses on the study and application of brain-behavior relationships. That is, neuropsychologists are not only interested in the behaviors that can be observed or specific diagnoses given to an individual, but also how brain functioning and processes contribute to areas of weaknesses in order to provide specific recommendations. Neuropsychological evaluations are often conducted in the context of an individual with a complex/chronic medical condition in order to document the impact of brain abnormalities, damage, or dysfunction.
Click
here
to read the rest of this story.
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New Members of Our Front Office Team
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Whether you speak to our Front Office coordinators in person or over the phone, we know they represent CRG and may be your first contact with our office. We try to hire talented young adults who combine warm people skills with professional competencies so they can help you in the best way possible. Many of our Front Office coordinators work at CRG while in college, often while pursuing degrees related to behavioral healthcare. CRG recently hired three new people whom we believe fit this profile to a "T." Read on to learn more about Karla Gonzalez, Jessie York and Megan Rulli.
Our wonderful Front Office coordinators include (l. to r.) Rashida Greene, Jennifer Burns, Karla Gonzalez, Megan Rulli and Jessie York.
Click
here
to read the rest of this story.
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