Maya Guendelman, PhD

Hi. Our 9-year-old just completed a comprehensive neuropsych evaluation with Dr. Maya Guendleman, who I found recommended on BPN, and who I also recommend to you. I debated for years about seeking an evaluation and now cannot say how grateful I am that we finally can understand where certain puzzling behaviors come from and how to help. Relieved beyond measure (not by the diagnosis per se but just to feel like I finally have a handle on what she’s struggling with and what we can do for her). Dr. G is incredibly well-qualified, professional, responsive, thoughtful, and kind. I can’t say enough good things about our experience with her. My daughter didn’t enjoy the testing experience, it’s definitely intense, but when I asked what she thought of Dr. Guendleman she said, “Oh, I really liked her, she was great, the work was just tiring.” So…strongly recommend. 

Hi there, 

The BUSD just sent out communication regarding assessments, among other things. See his email from 9/8.  However, it seems like it will be a while before assessments are put in place and I know there a number of families with assessment plans overdue who will likely be served first.  
 

We had an Independent Ed Evalution (IEE) in 2019 by Dr. Maya Guendleman and I recommend her strongly.  She is extremely thorough, a fierce advocate for the child, very caring and professional.  

Our daughter is older but we cannot recommend Maya Guendelman highly enough.  https://www.bayareaneuropsych.com/   She is an expert on ASD and after years' worth of school testing for IEPs, Maya's evaluation blew all of them out of the water.   She really got into the nuance of our daughter's situation and how her autism and other learning disabilities intersected with one another.  As parents we left with names and explanations for aspects of our daughter's behavior and challenges that had previously baffled us.  Maya attended an IEP meeting and presented her findings to my daughter's teaching team that gave us all clear directives about *how* she needed to be taught, what right-sized expectations looked for our daughter and which next steps to prioritize.   My daughter has a lot more going on than her HF ASD so her situation may be more complicated than your son's.  I am a social worker by profession and could recognize that Maya is great at testing AND relating to kids AND conveying challenging and sometimes sad news to parents AND presenting clear directives to IEP teams. 

Hi Rhoda - you should contact Dr. Maya Guendelman, based in Elmwood/Berkeley. She is extremely smart, caring, and thorough. Her reports and recommendations are clear and helpful - so you feel like you understand the problems and exactly what needs to be done to address them, specifically who can help (e.g., therapists, specialists, etc). My understanding is her prices are between the extremes you mentioned, and her report (that I've seen) is very individualized. That quote for $15K/60 hours of testing seems crazy to me given what you're looking for.  In my experience there's a wide range in quality of people out there doing "neuropsych" evals. Your best bet is to choose an actual neuropsychologist with a PhD- rather than a psychologist, school psychologist, etc. who say they do neuropsych testing -- it's not the same. A neuropsychologist who only does neuropsych should be able to integrate the results from all of the assessments you've gotten and help you make sense of them, figure out the appropriate diagnoses, perform testing that connects all the pieces together, etc. Finally, you should talk to the person you're considering (most I know of will offer a free phone consultation) and make sure they seem like they understand your needs and goals for the assessment. Dr. Guendelman will do that - and I seriously cannot recommend her highly enough. Plus she's from Berkeley and her PhD is from Cal. I know she works with kids in your daughter's age range too.