Dr. Meredith Hickory
Pediatric Neuropsychologist
The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has impacted our day-to-day lives in ways we never anticipated. Thankfully, many of us have found a safe place to settle and have been able to transition to work & school-from-home-scenarios. Neuropsychologists possess a wide range of competencies and knowledge that go beyond traditional face to face assessment procedures. As a neuropsychologist providing services via telehealth, I wanted to convey the breadth of clinical services I can offer during the COVID-19 pandemic. I am reaching out to update you on my commitment to helping you better understand your child’s development, identify areas of strengths & weaknesses, and assist you in finding available resources. I want to acknowledge the time, effort and resources that you have already devoted to your child and avoid the need to restart at a future date. Here are some ways in which I am helping to support the families I work with in order to maintain as much continuity as possible:
- Offer telehealth intake assessments via a HIPPA compliant video call resulting in actionable treatment plans. This intake meeting will also prepare us to conduct the testing virtually or when it is safe face to face testing.
- Provide support to patients and families who are struggling to cope with the current situation in the context of their developmental or acquired cognitive limitations.
- Consultations including assisting families homeschooling children with learning and developmental disabilities.
- Offer, personalize, & organize resources to support patients & families during this time of physical distancing. Provide up to date online & telehealth resources.
- Collect parent & teacher questionnaires in order to assist in diagnosis, treatment planning, and in preparation for testing and return to classroom learning once schools re-open.
- Conduct teacher interviews in order to gather their classroom observations of your child.
- Psychotherapy via telehealth for children, teens, college students, and parents.
- Administer Cogmed https://www.cogmed.com/ which is a research supported computer based intervention for ADHD. It is 5 week (five 45 minute sessions a week) computer program for kids, teens, and adults.
- Conduct neuropsychological testing via virtual telehealth with children & teens. The test publishers I have been working with have informed me some tests (including IQ, language, & academics) will come available as soon as the end of the week.
- I am working remotely with my local and nationwide professional contacts (speech & occupational therapists, psychologists, pediatricians, tutors, counselors, psychiatrists etc.) and maintaining active dialogues with them about available resources via telehealth for children, teens, and their families.
Please let me know if you would like to schedule a call or virtual telehealth meeting. For those of you that are currently on my schedule, I plan to keep our appointment times via telehealth using https://doxy.me/ a free telemedicine website. I have the flexibility to adjust our scheduled appointments to meet your needs. I am fully prepared to help create a tailored plan for your child and family to minimize disruption during this unprecedented time. When face to face meetings do become available and safe, your child will be at the top of my priority list.