#53 Evaluation of Children for Learning and Autism Spectrum Disorders with Rebecca Parrish Snowdon, PhD

Recorded Saturday, February 20, 2021 and our guest today is Becca Parrish Snowdon, a psychologist who specializes in evaluating children to determine if they would benefit from additional services at school.

After receiving her bachelors degree from Duke University in Psychology and Human Development, Becca worked in a private school for children with special needs and eventually went on to earn her masters degree in school psychology from Northeastern and her PhD in School and Counseling Psychology.

In graduate school she focused on positive behavior supports for students and assessment of children ages 3-21 and did an internship at South Shore Mental Health and a therapeutic collaborative day school providing outpatient therapy, conducting psychological assessments and school placement assessments.  She did a post-doctoral fellowship at Mass General Hospital focusing on neuropsychology and assessment and services for children with autism spectrum disorders.

She is currently a school psychologist in the Newton Public Schools, specializing in early childhood and autism spectrum disorders and providing assessment, consultation and therapeutic service for children and families.

She lives in Central Massachusetts with her husband, 4.5 year old daughter, 2 year old son and 5 year old dog.

In this episode we discuss what an evaluation is, why they are done, how and when and by whom. We also talk about integrative schools, creative playdates, how the pandemic seems to be affecting children and what parents can do to help  the kids and themselves. 

We mention Early Intervention and how fabulous those services are for families. In Massachusetts, you can learn more about Early Intervention here: https://www.mass.gov/orgs/early-intervention-division