Reinforcement Unlimited, LLC prides
itself on having only Doctoral-level staff provide psychological evaluations of
children and adolescents. We do not have you "interviewed" by a
non-doctoral-level staff person. We do not meet with you briefly and then
hand you off to an "Intern" or a "practicum student".
Simply put, we believe that your child deserves to see "the doctor"
when you have questions serious enough to warrant your asking for a diagnostic
evaluation. Its what we expect for our own children and it is what we
provide for you and your child.
Reinforcement Unlimited, LLC provides
comprehensive Psychological Evaluations and comprehensive Psychological
Evaluations with Neuropsychological Assessments for children and adolescents across a
variety of presenting concerns, including: ADHD,
Aspergers
Disorder, Autism and
Autism Spectrum Disorders, and Learning
Disabilities. Additionally, we routinely conduct FBAs
- Functional Behavioral Assessments - to determine the causes of problem
behaviors and design interventions to teach alternative positive replacement
behaviors.
Our practice provides evaluations that result in specific and concrete recommendations for
helping your child. It is very important to know that your evaluation is
being headed by a licensed psychologist who is also a Board Certified Behavior
Analyst™. This means that we never simply put a label or diagnosis on a
child. We provide detailed recommendations that we believe will make a
significant difference in your child's life. We also realize that
there are a variety of reasons that a specific diagnosis may be required (e.g.,
for eligibility with Schools, because of Medicaid regulations, etc.) and because
Dr. Robert Montgomery is a licensed psychologist our evaluations provide
specific mental health diagnoses where appropriate that meet such regulatory
requirements.
Our goal is to schedule your child to begin a
comprehensive evaluation within 30 days of your contacting our office.
While this may sound like a long time, we are aware that the major
university-based programs are routinely giving 9-15 month waiting list times to
parents. We are the only private location in Georgia where you can obtain a
psychological evaluation for eligibility and diagnostic purposes from a licensed
psychologist and a comprehensive behavioral evaluation (FBA,
ABLLS, etc.) from a
board certified person on staff. Our staff are trained in both traditional
psychometric assessment procedures and behavioral functional assessment
techniques as specified under IDEA. Which is why we founded the
ASAP
evaluation program for Autism Spectrum Disorders to provide comprehensive
and integrated evaluations for children and adolescents suspected of being in
the Autism Spectrum.
In addition to our expertise providing
psychological and behavioral evaluations for Autism Spectrum Disorders, our
consultants have experience in both mental health and mental retardation
assessment with in-patients and out-patients, including forensic cases in
schools, as out-patients, and in medical centers. Dr. R. Montgomery
has extensive experience in performing forensic evaluations on school-age
children and adolescents. He has also taught graduate courses on assessment
at several Universities and has supervised doctoral practica in clinical and
behavioral evaluation and assessment. Dr. C. Montgomery has experience and
training in performing neuropsychological assessments in both in-patient and out-patient
settings. She has worked and trained at the University System of
Georgia's Regent's Learning Disabilities Center, the Neuropsychology Unit at
Scottish Rite Hospital, and the National Institute of Health's ADHD Treatment
Research Program headed by Dr. William Pelham.
Psychological testing is not the
same as a psychological evaluation. A psychological evaluation uses
information gathered through direct interaction with the person and other
information such as personal and medical history, description of current
symptoms and problems by either self or others, and interviews with other persons about the person being
assessed. Psychological
evaluation is a flexible process with the goal of answering questions or issues
through the collection, evaluation, and analysis of appropriate data. In
order to arrive at a specific diagnosis the evaluation must be conducted by a
licensed psychologist or a physician. Only psychologists are trained
in comprehensive direct testing using intelligence, achievement, personality,
and other psychometric tests and diagnoses across the entire mental
health spectrum. Additionally, many federal programs require a
comprehensive diagnostic evaluation by a psychologist for eligibility
determination. There is often
confusion on this point by many unfamiliar with the differences in training and
skills among the various professions. A psychiatrist is a physician who is
trained in the treatment of mental health diagnoses and who principally provides
medication treatment. A developmental pediatrician is a pediatrician with
special training in disorders of development. A psychologist is trained in
both formal diagnostic evaluation using a variety of research-based assessment
tools and in the non-medical treatment of mental health disorders and behavior
disturbances. A behavior analyst is a non-physician, non-psychologist who
is trained in learning theory and teaching different people in the most
efficient way possible but is not qualified to provide mental health treatment
or diagnostic services.
We appreciate your visiting our
website. We understand that the process of seeking an evaluation for your
child can be overwhelming and frightening at the same time. We have been
there with our own children and hope that this helps us in being better equipped
to work with you. If you have any questions at all about us, our practice,
whether we are the right fit for you and your family we encourage you to call
and talk to our staff and ourselves. We aren't always the right fit, and
if we are not the best fit for you and your family we will do our best to provide you with
resources that best meet your needs.
Call us at 770-591-9552 to discuss
your child's needs.
A
complete packet of forms and information needed is available for
download via Adobe Acrobat (PDF) to assist you in preparing for your evaluation
appointment.
A
handout on what information we need in order to provide you the best evaluation
possible is available to guide you in preparing for the initial evaluation
appointment.
We also provide ABA/VBA treatment
planning using the ABLLS-R. Additional information on the ABLLS-R and our
In-Home and Clinic-Based ABA/VBA programs is available on our
website.
