UAB Pediatric Neuropsychology
The UAB Department of Pediatric Neuropsychology accepts clinical psychology trainees each academic semester. Trainees may include UAB Medical Psychology or UA / UAB Clinical Psychology graduate students, as well as UAB Clinical Psychology interns and fellows. Following is a description of our lab and pertinent information that interns should consider.
PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS
Children and adolescents aged 2-18 with diverse medical, psychiatric,
and neurodevelopmental disorders are seen in our clinic. The trainee
will be exposed to primarily outpatient clinical training experiences
involving pediatric Neuropsychology approaches to evaluating and
treating acute and chronic illness. This clinic receives the following
referral base (in order of frequency): Pediatric Neurology (epilepsy,
genetic, metabolic, developmental, and acquired disorders), Rehabilitation
(traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury), Neurosurgery (pre-
and post-surgical evaluations), General Pediatric, Neuro-oncology
(brain tumor, cancer), Hematology/Oncology (leukemia, sickle cell,
cancer), Infectious disease (CNS, HIV), and Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry. Pediatric traumatic brain injury and epilepsy are the
most frequently seen populations. Our psychologists also provide
an active inpatient and outpatient clinic consultation service for
both UAB and Children’s Hospital.
DISTRIBUTION OF CLINICAL ACTIVITIES
The distribution of clinical activities is dependent on student interests.
There is a typical requirement of one full day of testing, plus associated
paperwork (scoring, documenting, observations, and report writing).
This will encompass 70-80% of the intern’s time. Other activities
may include attending outpatient medical clinics (Neurofibromatosis,
Rehabilitation, Neurology, Hemotology/Oncology, Tourette’s/Movement
Disorder), participating in hospital based consultation/liaison activities,
outpatient psychotherapy, and research. The release for research
time for UAB interns will need to be negotiated with the intern’s
primary supervisor.
ASSESSMENT CHARACTERISTICS
The trainee will typically engage in one full day of outpatient Neuropsychology
evaluation per week. S/he will become proficient in administering,
scoring, and interpreting a wide battery of standardized tests. Once
the trainee has demonstrated proficiency in test administration and
scoring, s/he will begin to learn how to select appropriate instruments,
conduct clinical interviews, and provide feedback. Technician support
will be available for some of the test administration and scoring.
Another half-day can be spent in a variety of activities including
report writing, evaluation feedback to families, attending outpatient
medical clinics, and/or participating in consultation/liaison activities.
INTERVENTION CHARACTERISTICS
All evaluation and consultation reports include writing and explaining
a treatment plan following a family-centered philosophical approach.
If interested, trainees may participate in provision of school consultation
services. In addition, interns who participate in this rotation may
choose to follow some of our evaluation and/or consultation patients
for short-term problem focused or long-term psychotherapy. Depending
on interest and client availability, we may also offer disease specific
(e.g. epilepsy, Tourette’s, and traumatic brain injury) group
therapy. Our psychologists will supervise individual, family, and/or
group therapy. The intern should be ready to assume responsibility
for the case until the completion of the internship year.