PsychStudent203
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- Nov 25, 2025
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Hi all,
I’m very sorry for the length but am super grateful for whoever takes the time to read this. I’m hoping to receive a little bit of input/guidance. I haven’t come across comments or threads that weigh in on the specifics of my questions, but please feel free to point me to relevant threads if they exist!
For context, I’m in a school psychology program, and my interests lie almost exclusively in assessment. I have background in psychoeducational testing, neurodevelopmental (i.e., autism) assessment in a community healthcare setting, and I’m currently in an outpatient hospital-based pediatric neuropsychology practicum where we receive referrals from primarily cancer survivors but also other medical conditions. We also get more general learning concern referrals in patients referred by their pediatrician. I plan to obtain another pediatric neuropsych practicum for the following year (which is when I will also be applying for internships). I’ve familiarized myself with the competencies and training required to pursue a career in pediatric neuropsychology (as well as my own shortfalls coming from a school psych background), but I'm trying to better understand how my interests may align with a typical pediatric neuropsychology role.
I love the medically complex cases I receive currently, and I really enjoy being part of a multidisciplinary team where we provide follow-up care for medical treatments/injury impacting cognition and learning. I love the piece of this work where we're able to point families to resources and recommendations that will help their kiddo learn best based on their neuropsych profile and their medical history. But, reflecting on my earlier assessment experiences, I think about how I also miss the “crawl under the table and administer the ADOS with a 4 year old” early developmental/behavioral assessment world. I also love working with LD/IDD populations.
I guess my question is really: is my pursuit of pediatric neuropsychology appropriate, if a large domain of what I also want to do involves ASD and other early childhood developmental assessment? Or, am I misunderstanding the roles? Even on SDN, I see conflicting approaches to whether pediatric neuropsych folks conduct ASD evals in their role, or if they refer out to other psychologists (maybe due to billing?). And if so, is this just really dependent on where you work? I see the role of a peds neuropsych wildly differ when I look at current professionals in the field - for example, some just work in a particular medical department with a fairly specific patient population (e.g., epilepsy), others work in child study centers, and others just more vaguely work in hospital-affiliated centers that conduct neuropsychological evaluations for children experiencing learning difficulties. I think the fact that I see such varying roles of psychologists with different expertise working in pediatric neuropsych departments is what makes me confused.
If anybody could potentially help me better understand the differing settings/roles in the pediatric neuropsych world and if my interests align accordingly …. I would greatly appreciate it 🙂
I’m very sorry for the length but am super grateful for whoever takes the time to read this. I’m hoping to receive a little bit of input/guidance. I haven’t come across comments or threads that weigh in on the specifics of my questions, but please feel free to point me to relevant threads if they exist!
For context, I’m in a school psychology program, and my interests lie almost exclusively in assessment. I have background in psychoeducational testing, neurodevelopmental (i.e., autism) assessment in a community healthcare setting, and I’m currently in an outpatient hospital-based pediatric neuropsychology practicum where we receive referrals from primarily cancer survivors but also other medical conditions. We also get more general learning concern referrals in patients referred by their pediatrician. I plan to obtain another pediatric neuropsych practicum for the following year (which is when I will also be applying for internships). I’ve familiarized myself with the competencies and training required to pursue a career in pediatric neuropsychology (as well as my own shortfalls coming from a school psych background), but I'm trying to better understand how my interests may align with a typical pediatric neuropsychology role.
I love the medically complex cases I receive currently, and I really enjoy being part of a multidisciplinary team where we provide follow-up care for medical treatments/injury impacting cognition and learning. I love the piece of this work where we're able to point families to resources and recommendations that will help their kiddo learn best based on their neuropsych profile and their medical history. But, reflecting on my earlier assessment experiences, I think about how I also miss the “crawl under the table and administer the ADOS with a 4 year old” early developmental/behavioral assessment world. I also love working with LD/IDD populations.
I guess my question is really: is my pursuit of pediatric neuropsychology appropriate, if a large domain of what I also want to do involves ASD and other early childhood developmental assessment? Or, am I misunderstanding the roles? Even on SDN, I see conflicting approaches to whether pediatric neuropsych folks conduct ASD evals in their role, or if they refer out to other psychologists (maybe due to billing?). And if so, is this just really dependent on where you work? I see the role of a peds neuropsych wildly differ when I look at current professionals in the field - for example, some just work in a particular medical department with a fairly specific patient population (e.g., epilepsy), others work in child study centers, and others just more vaguely work in hospital-affiliated centers that conduct neuropsychological evaluations for children experiencing learning difficulties. I think the fact that I see such varying roles of psychologists with different expertise working in pediatric neuropsych departments is what makes me confused.
If anybody could potentially help me better understand the differing settings/roles in the pediatric neuropsych world and if my interests align accordingly …. I would greatly appreciate it 🙂
