Pediatric Neuropsychological Brain Injury Evaluations
United Psychological Services will provide the key components that lead to effective treatment as well as needed academic planning and accomodations in these two essential ways:
- Complete Forensic Evaluation - this comprehensive report meets the gold standard for Daubert and is completed by a Board Certified Neuropsychologist.
- Detailed and Comprehensive Treatment Report - Details the needs of the child as it applies to school and provides a complete education curriculum plan adaptable to any teaching facility. This report covers many aspects of the child’s diagnosis and treatment.
Our treatment team is comprised of experienced, well educated professionals from teaching and math specialties, speech and language pathology and occupational therapy, to various specialties in psychology and child development including neuropsychology. We have the ability to test children effectively as young as two years of age.
All cases involving litigation are managed by a neuropsychologist specializing in pediatric TBI with twenty plus years experience in the many aspects of this process. This case management includes liasing with medical staff such as neurology and the primary care physician, as well as legal experts involved in all aspects of the case; acting as the primary interface with parents, guardians, and school personnel.
Comprehesive Treatment Reports for Pediatric TBI
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United Psychological is singular in its ability to evaluate and provide specific treatment recommendations for the following areas of brain functioning:
| Language | Overall language functioning, reading comprehension, reading level, oral and written language skills, pragmatic language, auditory reasoning, expressive and receptive skills, processing and comprehension and phonological processing. |
|---|---|
| Attention | Our process of evaluation will work to effectively rule out ADD/ADHD and/or another acquired attention problem such as information processing, distractibility and divided attention as well as processing speed. |
| Memory | Assessments for verbal and visual memory, retrieval and recognition, short and long term, and delayed. |
| Frontal Processes | We can identify factors of integration, selective attention, perseveration, word retrieval, expressive output issues, problem solving and adaptive functioning. |
| Social Intelligence | This aspect of the evaluation is the determining factor for adaptation in the environment. |
This treatment report provides details on the following areas for all of the assessment criteria listed above plus:
- Affected Learning Skill
- Specific Recommendations for the Classroom
- Accomodations required for the student in the School Setting
Our TBI Team
Dr. Ennis Ata Berker - Neuropsychologist
Ennis Ata Berker, Ph.D is a member of our TBI team at United Psychological Services and is actively involved in the assessment and evaluation of our patients recovering from head trauma.
After obtaining his Ph.D in Neuropsychology from the University of Michigan, Dr. Berker has held clinical positions in the areas of rehabilitation and consultative neuropsychology. His many years as an experienced clinician also include research, speaking on a wide range of topics in professional venues as well as many well regarded publications in peer reviews.
Dr. Richard G. Ivins - Neuropsychologist
Dr. Ivins received his M.S. at Old Dominion University, his Ph.D. at the University of Southern Mississippi in 1974 and interned at the U.S. Veterans Administration Hospital, New Orleans, LA. He was the acting director and consulting neuropsychologist at The Center For Head Trauma at The Devereux Foundation (1988-90) and has consulted at several other head injury programs, including the Head Injury Recovery Center at Newark, DE (1991).
His neuropsychology background began in the United States Navy, when he was stationed at the United States Naval Hospital, Portsmouth, VA (1969-1970) and was one of the first psycho-metricians in the U.S. Navy. Dr. Ivins is one of the co-authors of The Philadelphia Head Injury Questionnaire, published by Western Psychological Services. He has performed research on the Halstead Category Test and its alternatives and has presented at national and international conferences. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology. For the last 28 years, Dr. Ivins has limited his private practice to Clinical Neuropsychology, with an emphasis in traumatic brain injury and forensic issues associated with insults to the brain. He is licensed in DE, PA, NJ, and AZ and has lectured extensively on this subject locally and nationally.
Dr. Ivins also consults with disability insurance companies in determining disability following various types of brain insults and instructs how to case manage and audit treatment in severe head injury cases. He is a consulting neuropsychologist for the PA State Workers Insurance Fund (SWIF) and also regularly audits head injury treatment programs to establish treatment protocols for brain injured clients for insurance company case managers. He also performs peer reviews for appropriate assessment and treatment procedures. In addition, in 2007, he was an invited member of the Washington roundtable: TBI: Current Status and Study of Concussion/Blast Head Injuries in Conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In addition, Dr. Ivins is the Chief Information Officer for The CIMS Group, and ChartEvolve, an EMR and productivity software product for physicians, psychologists, neuropsychologists, as well as residential care facilities and hospitals. He is the Project Director for the Neuropsychology Module, the Professional Standards Review and the Psychometric Standards Evaluation Modules.
Dr. Ivins is a forensic consultant on our TBI team of professionals at United Psychological Services.
Dr. Deborah A. Rich - Neuropsychologist
Dr. Deborah A. Rich completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, in Pediatric Neuropsychology and is a fully licensed psychologist. She has practiced for nearly 20 years with a specialization in the field of neuropsychology. Her pre-doctoral internship was in neuropsychology for both children and adults.
Dr. Rich has built an excellent reputation by teaching undergraduate and graduate students, psychology interns, medical students and residents at local colleges and universities in excess of ten years in neuropsychological and psychological assessment.
For Dr. Rich's complete profile, please see: Dr. Deborah A. Rich
Dr. Barbara C. Fisher - Administrative Director
Dr. Barbara C. Fisher, Ph.D., is United Psychological Services' managing Administrative Director and founder. She trained as a psychologist and has been in practice as a Neuropsychologist for 24 years. The author of three books and an array of published articles, Dr. Fisher is also the editor of Attention Deficit Disorder, Practical Coping Methods, Second Edition, November 2006.
Dr. Fisher is a well known speaker traveling throughout the U.S. speaking extensively on psychology related topics including ADD and ADHD, dementia, the Autism Spectrum, sleep disorders and brain injury. She is also engaged in a number of research projects comprised of seizure disorders, Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) and the disorders of ADD.
For Dr. Fisher's complete profile, please see: Dr. Barbara C. Fisher
