Clinical Pediatric Neuropsychologist?

[ayexsapanda]

Hello everyone. I'm in high school right now, and I'm just wondering about my future. I want to get into the psychology field because the topic interests me, but I'm not sure which jobs I should strive for. I have thought about becoming a clinical pediatric neuropsychologist and just wondering if anyone's currently one right now? How's your experience and how was college/grad school? Do you enjoy being one?

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[smalltownpsych]

I think most neuropsychologists tend to work with a broader age range, although some may work more with kids than others. What is it that you like about neuropsych? What kind of job are you thinking about doing? Most clinical neuropsychologists conduct a lot of testing. There is also a strong research component for many of them. Psychotherapy is part of their skill set, but it is not something they do day in and day out the way I do, for example. As a high school student the important thing is to keep working hard in school and keeping your options open by getting good grades and finding information by exploring sites like this. 🙂

 

[AcronymAllergy]

There's a demand for good pediatric neuropsychologists, and folks who see kiddos do tend to generally focus on them (and adolescents), given the expansiveness of the knowledge base. It can be a tough gig. As smalltownpsych noted, it would be helpful to start thinking about what it is you like, or suspect you like, about neuropsychology (clinically and research-wise).

 

[WisNeuro]

I will say, at least at this juncture in my area, there are more jobs available for peds npsych's than there are for adult. I'm in a medium sized metro area and I've only seen 2 adult jobs (at not great locations) for adult npsych's, but like 6 for peds.

 

[Pragma]

I will echo what others are saying - my colleagues that are pediatric neuropsychologists have no problems finding work, and I see job postings on a regular basis. It can be lucrative work - a lot of it is done outside of the context of insurance. In my area, good (boarded) pediatric neuropsychologists are booked out for many months in advance.

While there are some lifespan neuropsychologists out there, the trend has been to have people focus more specifically on pediatrics or adult populations. You can get experience with both populations during graduate school - I know plenty of folks who did some work with both. But generally once you hit the internship and postdoctoral training levels, you are going to focus mostly on one. There are exceptions to this, but this is the trend.

 

[Kadhir]

There was also a greater number of pediatric vs. adult neuropsych postdocs in the APPCN match when I was going through the process, which is one of the reasons why I didn't find this avenue too helpful. But good news for the peds folks! Lots of training opportunities.

 

[WisNeuro]

There was also a greater number of pediatric vs. adult neuropsych postdocs in the APPCN match when I was going through the process, which is one of the reasons why I didn't find this avenue too helpful. But good news for the peds folks! Lots of training opportunities.

It's changed over the years, especially these last couple. I believe there are 80+ programs in the match, many of them adult, and many with more than one slot. APPCN's membership has continued to grow every year. I also don't remember much of a problem when I did the match years ago. If anything, I had to pare down my list as I only wanted to interview a max of about 8 times.

 

[bcliff]

IME, peers applying for peds-neuro internship and fellowship positions have described it as seemingly more competitive than my friends who have applied for similar adult neuro positions. I’ve similarly heard that there is high demand for boarded peds neuropsychologists.

To give you an overview of how you’d get from A to B: After HS, you’d want to get a 4-year degree (most likely in psych), during which you should get involved in ongoing research that interests you. After graduating, you would then apply to clinical psychology PhD programs. The PhD should provide you with strong generalist (i.e., scientist-practitioner, assessment and treatment across the lifespan) training, and will, ideally, provide you with full funding (i.e., tuition/fee waiver, annual stipend/salary). It would be ideal if you could find a doctoral advisor (professor who is your primary mentor) who works predominantly in pediatric neuropsychology. After ~4-5 years of doctoral training, you will apply for a 1yr internship, which will likely be more targeted and specialized than your pre-internship doctoral training. After completing internship (and defending your dissertation), your PhD is conferred, after which you begin your postdoctoral residency/fellowship, which, for peds neuro, will be (at least?) two years.

tl;dr - peds neuro can be competitive but lucrative; timeline = undergrad (4) + PhD (4-5) + internship (1) + postdoc (2) = 11 years of higher ed

 

[PsyDr]

I caution people interested in peds neuro:

When you are truly in the medical side (I.e., not learning disorders), things can get VERY bad for little kids. It would be wise to consider if you can handle a patient dying or seeing a kid with severe injuries.

Sometimes a kid can fall off of a skyscraper because a construction firm decided to ignore safety regulations and go with a hand rail that looked nicer. Sometimes surviving isn’t the better option.

 

[WisNeuro]

Sometimes a kid can fall off of a skyscraper because a construction firm decided to ignore safety regulations and go with a hand rail that looked nicer. Sometimes surviving isn’t the better option.

True, although I would caution people against Neuro in general if they don't like adverse outcomes. Make sure you can tell a family that so-and-so has a degenerative condition that will not get better, and in the end they will be fully dependent on even basic activities like grooming, and they may also lose all inhibition and engage in very aggressive or sexually inappropriate behaviors. Neuro is not for people who can't stomach giving bad news and dealing with patients who likely will not improve.

 

[PsyDr]

True, although I would caution people against Neuro in general if they don't like adverse outcomes. Make sure you can tell a family that so-and-so has a degenerative condition that will not get better, and in the end they will be fully dependent on even basic activities like grooming, and they may also lose all inhibition and engage in very aggressive or sexually inappropriate behaviors. Neuro is not for people who can't stomach giving bad news and dealing with patients who likely will not improve.

At least for me: kids are different.

 

[WisNeuro]

At least for me: kids are different.

I agree. Probs a little easier to give terrible news to a family of a patient who is in their 70s plus that that person will not make the next decade, having lived a full life and all vs a 5 yo kid who will need 24 hr support for the rest of their life. But, still hard nonetheless if you can't handle a lot of emotionality. We don't get to give a lot of cheery feedback outside of the "worried well" types of cases.

 

[bcliff]

neuro in rehab contexts (while not necessarily cheery) at least has a tendency to work with tracking improvements over time rather than decline; there are some solid pediatric neuro-rehab training sites out there (e.g., KKI)

 

[ClinicalABA]

...just wondering if anyone's currently one right now? How's your experience and how was college/grad school? Do you enjoy being one?

I wouldn't refer to myself as a "pediatric neuropsychologist" (don't have the training or credentials), but my job consists mainly of assessment and diagnosis of young (under 5 y.o.) children. I don't get into much neuropsych stuff (only and occassional NEPPSY subscale here and there), and am mainly looking at differential diagnosis between language delays, global delays in development, and autism spectrum disorder. Just posting here because there are other options for training and credentialling if your goal is to perform assessments with children. I typically will only see kids for the first time if they are 3 or younger, and will see up to 5 for follow-ups. I'm trained/credentialled as a clinical psychologist and behavior analyst. Seems like there's plenty of this type of work to go around. It's fun for me (the kiddos i assess seem to be having fun too!), the families and other professionals working with them are, on the whole, wonderful to work with, and it keeps me thinking, if not behaving, younger than I really am.

 

[ayexsapanda]

Thank you all so much for your experienced advice! This thread has truly helped me. One more question: do you believe that the neuropsychology field would be as lucrative and competitive in 5-10 years or so?

 

[ayexsapanda]

IME, peers applying for peds-neuro internship and fellowship positions have described it as seemingly more competitive than my friends who have applied for similar adult neuro positions. I’ve similarly heard that there is high demand for boarded peds neuropsychologists.

To give you an overview of how you’d get from A to B: After HS, you’d want to get a 4-year degree (most likely in psych), during which you should get involved in ongoing research that interests you. After graduating, you would then apply to clinical psychology PhD programs. The PhD should provide you with strong generalist (i.e., scientist-practitioner, assessment and treatment across the lifespan) training, and will, ideally, provide you with full funding (i.e., tuition/fee waiver, annual stipend/salary). It would be ideal if you could find a doctoral advisor (professor who is your primary mentor) who works predominantly in pediatric neuropsychology. After ~4-5 years of doctoral training, you will apply for a 1yr internship, which will likely be more targeted and specialized than your pre-internship doctoral training. After completing internship (and defending your dissertation), your PhD is conferred, after which you begin your postdoctoral residency/fellowship, which, for peds neuro, will be (at least?) two years.

tl;dr - peds neuro can be competitive but lucrative; timeline = undergrad (4) + PhD (4-5) + internship (1) + postdoc (2) = 11 years of higher ed

Thank you so much for this information!