On-Demand Webinar: Assessing High-Support-Needs Children: Neurobehavioral Evaluation at the Intersection of Cognition, Language, and Social–Emotional Needs
Description of On-Demand Webinar
Many practitioners find it challenging to evaluate or characterize the skills of high-needs children and adolescents. However, every child can be evaluated, regardless of their deficits. This webinar will provide clinicians with the necessary knowledge to evaluate children with high support needs across cognition, language, and social–emotional domains to support treatment planning. Attendees will benefit from discussing broad evaluation principles, test selection and interpretation, progress monitoring, and behavioral management during evaluation.
Clinicians will learn elements to consider when choosing an assessment battery for children with high needs, including child factors (e.g., age, functional level), test characteristics, and referral questions. Clinicians will also gain the knowledge and skills to identify which alternate scores may be helpful in explaining results when standard scores are not meaningful due to floor effects or children’s varying ability to participate in standardized administration. In addition, measuring progress can be challenging when working with high-needs children, especially those with standard scores that represent the lowest possible score year after year. This session will help participants understand which scores might best represent change for these children and how to determine if a change is significant. Finally, clinicians will discover behavioral and test management strategies that can be crucial to the success of the evaluation.
Learning Objectives
At the end of this on-demand webinar, the learner will be able to:
- Select appropriate assessment batteries for high-needs children and adolescents across cognition, language, and social–emotional domains;
- Measure the progress of a high-needs child or adolescent across repeated evaluations; and
- Explain how to effectively manage behavioral and test requirements of children and adolescents with high needs.
Registration Cost
Number of Contact Hours Offered
3 Contact Hours (APA, ASHA)
Presenter Bio(s)
Emma Cole, PhD, LP, NCSP, is a licensed psychologist, a board-certified school psychologist, and a Nationally Certified School Psychologist within the Kennedy Krieger Institute’s (KKI) School Programs and the Center for Psychological and Neuropsychological Assessment. She also holds an appointment as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her primary clinical responsibilities are as KKI’s School Programs’ neuropsychologist, assessing students ages 5 to 22 years whose special education needs are too complex for public school services. She also sees outpatients ages 5 to 21 via direct referrals as well as across the Congenital and Genetics and the Executive Function specialty clinics. Dr. Cole has expertise in assessing emotionally/behaviorally disruptive and/or high-needs individuals. She also has expertise in special education law and in translating assessment findings for educational planning.
Natasha Ludwig, PhD, LP, is a licensed psychologist and pediatric neuropsychologist at Kennedy Krieger Institute, and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She also serves as the Program Director of the Developmental Neuropsychology Phenotyping Unit at the Kennedy Krieger and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center. Her clinical work is focused on serving individuals with neurogenetic conditions associated with severe to profound intellectual disability and profound autism. Dr. Ludwig’s research is focused on neurodevelopmental phenotyping and patient-focused outcome measure development for clinical trial readiness.
Disclosure
Dr. Cole and Dr. Ludwig are paid honorariums for presenting this webinar.
Original Webinar Date
March 11, 2026
Webinar Time
180 minutes
Instructional Level
Introductory
Target Audience
Assessment professionals, including school psychologists, clinical psychologists, neuropsychologists, speech–language pathologists (SLPs), and occupational therapists (OTs)
Agenda
The on-demand courses are designed to be self-paced. You can start and stop as needed. You must watch the videos in their entirety before taking the CE test.
Registration Confirmation
Customers will purchase their course on the WPS website by adding selected item(s) to their cart and completing their transaction with a credit card. Customers who wish to pay with a purchase order will need to contact a representative at prolearn@wpspublish.com or 800.648.8857. Once payment is rendered, customers will receive a sales order confirmation email, followed by an email that contains the License Key link. Customers will click on the link to register on the WPS website or sign in if they have already registered. There, customers will be able to access course(s). Once registered, customers will receive a registration confirmation email.
Refund/Cancellation Policy and Late Registration/Transfer Fees
The on-demand courses available through the WPS Professional Learning Center (WPS ProLearn®) cannot be returned after they have been accessed and cannot be transferred.
Webinar Completion Requirements
To obtain your Certificate of Completion for on-demand CE courses, you must first watch the video. Then, answer the questions contained in the post-test on the WPS Professional Learning Center (WPS ProLearn®) and submit the post-test for scoring. A post-course evaluation survey will also be provided for you to submit feedback to WPS.
For a certificate to be issued, you must pass the post-test with a score of 75% or higher. If you do not pass on your first attempt, you will be allowed two opportunities to retake the post-test. If you do not pass after a total of three attempts, you will need to repurchase access to the materials. We recommend that you make a copy of your post-test answers for your records before submitting them to WPS for scoring. All Certificates of Completion will be provided electronically in the WPS ProLearn system. No partial credit will be awarded.
Special Needs Request
WPS will make accommodations in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If you require specific accommodations, please email prolearn@wpspublish.com prior to or at the time of course registration so that appropriate arrangements can be made.
Policies
- Click here for Cancellation and Refund Policies
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Continuing Education Credit
APA Approved Sponsor
3 CEs
WPS is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. WPS maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
ASHA
(WPS)
ASHA CE Provider approval and use of the Brand Block does not imply endorsement of course content, specific products, or clinical procedures.
Contact Us
prolearn@wpspublish.com or 800.648.8857