Julie O'Rourke, PhD

Where do referrals come from?

While many clients are self-referred or referred from family or friends, frequently Dr. O’Rourke’s referrals come from private/independent schools in the area. Public schools have their own Child Study Teams which conduct assessments when the educational professionals within the school determine the need.  Sometimes parents of public school students seek a private assessment because their child has not been determined to be a candidate for a Child Study Team assessment. Some parents do not want to go through the Child Study Team or do not believe that assessment process will be sufficiently comprehensive to benefit their child.  Adults, particularly young adults, seek evaluations because of difficulties they are having with college, graduate school, work and standardized tests.   Dr. O’Rourke enjoys working collaboratively with other professionals and frequently receives referrals from pediatricians, internists, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, learning specialists, tutors, occupational therapists, speech/language pathologists, etc.

 

What is an assessment?

“Assessments” or “evaluations” can be conducted by a variety of professionals although each will have a different focus and utility. Psychologists like Dr. O’Rourke are capable of conducting a range of specific assessments depending on the concern or referral.  As such, Dr. O’Rourke’s assessments might be considered psychological assessments, psychoeducational assessments, neuropsychological assessments, learning assessments, cognitive assessments or educational assessments. 

 

What does an assessment assess?

The scope and focus of an assessment will depend on the unique concern(s) or referral question.  Dr. O’Rourke’s assessments can examine any combination of the following functions: cognitive/intellectual, memory, information processing, working memory, executive functions, attention controls, auditory and verbal-language, visual-perceptual, visual-spatial, visual-motor and emotional/psychological. 

 

What is the process for an assessment?

Each assessment is unique to the person being assessed.  However, the following is a typical sequence for an assessment:

• Forms to be downloaded, completed and submitted prior to the first appointment.

• Intake appointment to gather relevant history as well as elicit and explore the concerns prompting the assessment.

• Two or three separate assessment appointments each 1-2 hours in length. Assessments are typically 4-5 hours total.

• Feedback appointment to provide a summary of the assessment results and discuss recommendations.

• A full written report including test results, summary and recommendations is sent to the client.   

 

Who gets the information?

Clients will receive a copy of the assessment report and can choose to disseminate it as desired.  Upon request and with written permission, Dr. O’Rourke is happy to discuss the assessment results with such people as specified by the client.