Pediatric Neuropsychologist

Kids say the darnedest things. So darned, in fact, that in the 1990s, Bill Cosby hosted a TV series dedicated to their peculiar musings. Of course, the same thing that causes kids to say funny things — their brains, which continue growing, developing, and maturing until age 12 — often causes them to do funny things, too.

As a Pediatric Neuropsychologist, you’re an expert on the link between children’s brains and behaviors. Unfortunately, that link is sometimes broken, resulting in a glitch in the mind-body connection that’s not at all funny, but rather extremely serious. When that happens, your job as a Pediatric Neuropsychologist is to help Doctors and parents understand the causes and effects.

A Neuropsychologist who specializes in treating children and babies, you’re part of a medical team that often includes Neurosurgeons, Psychiatrists, Physicians, and Speech Therapists, all of who collaborate with the Pediatric Neuropsychologist in order to diagnose and treat kids who suffer from brain-related illness and injury.

When a child gets sick or hurt, you determine whether their brain has been affected using a series of cognitive tests involving everything from speech to memory to motor skills to learning. You might find good news (the child’s brain is functioning normally, which means their injury is purely physical and not mental) or bad news (ranging from ADHD to mental retardation to autism to Asperger’s syndrome). Either way, your role typically isn’t treating the condition. It’s diagnosing it — which is no easy task, since even a healthy child’s brain is like a strand of Christmas lights that hasn’t been untangled yet!