Pediatric Neuropsychologist

Ferne Pinard, Ph.D., provides comprehensive evaluation services for children, adolescents, and young adults with learning disabilities, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders (ADHD), psychiatric disorders as well as complex medical histories and neurological conditions. She has expertise in assessing children and adolescents with childhood cancer as well as neuro-immunological disorders, including opsoclonus-myoclonus-ataxia syndrome (“dancing eyes syndrome”), central nervous system vasculitis, Hashimoto’s encephalopathy, lupus, auto-immune encephalitis, multiple sclerosis (MS), acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), and acute transverse myelitis (ATM), and optic neuritis.

Dr. Pinard earned her Bachelor’s degree at the State University of New York – Plattsburgh. She received her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology (with emphasis in Child Clinical Psychology) from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.  She completed her predoctoral internship at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis, MN and fellowship in pediatric neuropsychology at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH). Dr. Pinard then worked as a neuropsychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Neurology at BCH for eight and a half years. She provided services in the Pediatric Neuro-Immunology Program; Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders Program and Learning Disabilities Program. She was also involved in training/supervision of predoctoral psychology interns and postdoctoral neuropsychology fellows.

Dr. Pinard’s extensive experience includes assessing children/adolescents with learning and neurodevelopmental disorders as well as complex medical and neurological conditions affecting the brain and development. She has also provided psychotherapeutic interventions and worked in both inpatient and outpatient settings.

Dr. Pinard is committed to providing quality services that provide a thorough understanding of the child/adolescent and promote their optimal development across academic, social, emotional, and behavioral domains. To do this, she considers the child’s context, quantitative test scores, individual approach to problem solving, neural substrates of behavior, and medical/neurological factors affecting development. Dr. Pinard prides herself on her ability to communicate results in a manner that is easily understood by the family, thus enabling them to better advocate for the needs of their child.

Dr. Pinard is dedicated to improving access to care and outcomes for individuals from ethnically diverse, under-represented, and low-socioeconomic backgrounds. She is part of a Service Learning and Cultural Immersion Experience, which provides psychoeducational evaluations to school-aged children in Trinidad & Tobago.

Dr. Pinard is originally from the island of Dominica in the Eastern Caribbean. She lives in Boston, MA, with her family, including two young children. She enjoys travelling and spending time outdoors with her family, cooking, entertaining, and reading.