By: Jane Hauser
Director of Marketing & Outreach, NESCA
You adapt your approach with neuropsychological evaluations for each individual based on their developmental stage. Tell us about that.
With younger kids, it’s a much more interactive experience. Their attention spans are shorter, so they often need a warmer environment that feels less intimidating. Sometimes it’s getting on the ground and playing with them, other times it is starting testing under a table until the individual feels confident enough to sit at a table. I try to make it feel like a collaborative process.
It ultimately comes down to how you connect with someone. I connect very differently with a four-year-old than I do with a 14-year-old or a 20-year-old.
How do you get older adolescents, who may not be eager to be evaluated, to buy-in on engaging in evaluations?
This can be tricky. Usually, we can find a reason that they are comfortable sharing about why they are being evaluated, and I use that to explain what an evaluation can do to help them with that reason or issue. I try to understand what they want to get out of an evaluation and what it will help clear up for them.
Sometimes parents and adolescents are not aligned. Maybe a parent wants their child evaluated because they think that they have ADHD. The individual being evaluated may agree that they are neurodivergent, but may feel like their symptoms align better with Autism than ADHD. We can work with whatever that individual is feeling, even if it’s different from their parents’ concerns. We take the information and feelings from both the parents and adolescents – as well as input from educators and professional providers – and combine that history with the testing data, our observations during the evaluation, and synthesize it all to identify a diagnosis (when applicable). Then we develop highly personalized recommendations for interventions and hope to partner with the family along the way to support both parents and the adolescent.
You conduct neuropsychological evaluations and also projective testing here at NESCA. What is your approach to projective, or psychological testing?
If you’re questioning major psychiatric diagnoses that often feel very scary and are hard to talk about, projective testing can be very useful. It gives us a way to look at someone’s inner world or emotions, especially when they’re unwilling or unable to talk about it directly.
Describe the most challenging but rewarding individuals you’ve evaluated.
I enjoy working with the kids who think differently from their parents. It can be really rewarding to validate their feelings, explain their concerns to their parents and do some psychoeducation for their parents to get the adolescent or young adult and the parents back on the same page. Getting members of a family to understand each other’s perspectives is a really rewarding experience.
I also enjoy working with families who have gone through some kind of really hard experience, perhaps for a long time – whether that’s a traumatic experience or an adoption. And again, the part that I like so much is the feeling of bringing people back together and giving them some hope for the future.
Finally, I like incredibly complicated cases where there isn’t a clear answer – the ones where it’s a bit of a struggle to figure out or, in some instances, you work with a family as part of a longer-term partnership to gradually see a path forward. It’s not always clear-cut. When you can’t immediately clarify all of the pieces, you need to find a path forward for the family to start out on, revisit that path and potentially change or enhance that path. I like knowing that I can be part of someone’s team for the long term, like I’m joining the family and other providers, who are all working for that child. I’m talking about the ones that aren’t one-offs, rather the ones where we can build lasting relationships on behalf of a child.
You’ve worked in private and public schools and at a clinical treatment center. What brought you to NESCA, and how do you feel your past experiences impact your work with NESCA families?
Having lots of different experiences at different places and settings makes it easier for me to connect with a huge variety of people. I’m very rarely uncomfortable or fazed by the families or individuals I work with, their comments, or experiences, because I feel like I’ve heard so much from so many different people throughout my career.
I enjoy working with adolescents and young adults. Since they spend so much time in school, it has been beneficial for me as a clinician to have spent years working in the school setting. You have that perspective on schools – where they spend more waking hours than even at home. I have a good understanding of how schools work and the social dynamics for adolescents in schools. That has been especially useful in my work as a neuropsychologist.
What brought you to NESCA and why?
In my last position, I was in a mostly administrative role, doing a lot of supervision and teaching, which I really liked, but I missed the clinical work.
I was also looking for more exposure to different ways of doing things.
Since NESCA’s Founder and Director Dr. Ann Helmus is such a phenomenal clinician and is so well-known and respected, it felt like a great opportunity to learn from her. I had also trained as an intern with Dr. Miranda Milana, who is in NESCA’s Plainville office, and she talked a lot about the culture, the people, and how great everyone was. She was right! It’s a very supportive environment.
What I’ve found in the several months that I’ve been with NESCA is that the people are very smart here. I remember coming to one of NESCA’s weekly Case Conferences before I had agreed to join and thinking, “Wow, these people certainly know what they’re doing!” I learned something new in that Case Conference that I hadn’t thought about before, even though I had been practicing for years. I thought that was really powerful. NESCA is a group of professionals who truly love what they do and are so passionate about it. It is impressive to see so many people who have different perspectives and experiences come together to be so skilled at what we do. To be quite frank, I have learned a ton since being here and it hasn’t even been that long!
About the Author
Dr. Rebecca Dautoff provides comprehensive neuropsychological and psychological (projective) evaluation services for children, adolescents,
and young adults who have complex presentations with a wide range of concerns, including attention deficit disorders, psychiatric disorders, intellectual disabilities, and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). She also values collaboration with families and outside providers to facilitate supports and services that are tailored to each child’s specific needs.
If you are interested in booking an appointment for an evaluation with Dr. Dautoff or another NESCA neuropsychologist/clinician, please fill out and submit our online intake form.
NESCA is a pediatric neuropsychology practice and integrative treatment center with offices in Newton, Plainville, and Hingham, Massachusetts; Londonderry, New Hampshire; the greater Burlington, Vermont region; and Brooklyn, New York (coaching services only) serving clients from infancy through young adulthood and their families. For more information, please email info@nesca-newton.com or call 617-658-9800.
young adults with diverse developmental and learning abilities. Since 2013, she has served as Director of Transition Services at NESCA, offering individualized transition assessments, planning, consultation, coaching, and program development. She specializes in working with students with complex profiles who may not engage with traditional testing tools or programs. Ms. Challen holds a BA in Psychology and a Minor in Hispanic Studies from The College of William and Mary, along with a Master’s and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in Risk and Prevention Counseling from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is a member of CEC, DCDT, and COPAA, believing it’s vital for all IEP participants to have accurate information about transition planning. Ms. Challen has also been actively involved in the MA DESE IEP Improvement Project, mentored candidates in UMass Boston’s Transition Leadership Program, and co-authored a chapter in Technology Tools for Students with Autism.
and developmental disabilities. She has a particular interest in children with autism spectrum disorders, intellectual disabilities, and those with complex medical histories. In addition, she evaluates adults who have concerns about whether they meet criteria for an ASD or ADHD diagnosis.
research and academia for over 30 years. She is a national consultant and speaker on program design and the inclusion of children and adolescents with special needs, especially those diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Prior to joining NESCA, Ms. Lucci was the Principal of the Partners Program/EDCO Collaborative and previously the Program Director and Director of Consultation at MGH/Aspire for 13 years, where she built child, teen and young adult programs and established the 3-Ss (self-awareness, social competency and stress management) as the programming backbone. She also served as director of the Autism Support Center. Ms. Lucci was previously an elementary classroom teacher, special educator, researcher, school psychologist, college professor and director of public schools, a private special education school and an education collaborative.
meaningful skills in order to reach their goals. She has spent the majority of her career working in a private school for students with ASD. She has also spent some time working in an inpatient mental health setting. Lyndsay uses occupation-based interventions and strategies to develop life skills, executive functioning, and emotional regulation. While completely her doctoral degree at MGH Institute of Health Professions, Lyndsay worked with the Boston Center for Independent Living to evaluate transition age services. She uses the results from her research to deliver services in a way that is most beneficial for clients. Specifically, she focuses on hands-on, occupation-based learning that is tailored the client’s goals and interests.
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extensive experience working with children and adolescents with a range of learning and social/emotional abilities. Kristen’s strengths lie in her communication and advocacy skills as well as her strengths-based approach. She is passionate about developing students’ self-awareness, goal-setting abilities, and vision through student-centered counseling, psychoeducation, social skills instruction, and executive functioning coaching. Mrs. Simon has particular interests working with children and adolescents on the Autism spectrum as well as individuals working to manage stress or anxiety-related challenges.
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