What to Expect for Your/Your Child’s Testing Day at Athena Care

Schedule

Estimated Time Frame:

For adults, this appointment will typically last 3-5 hours.
For children over the age of 8, this appointment will typically last 3-7 hours.
For children 7 years of age or younger, this appointment typically lasts 1-4 hours.
Testing appointments must begin in the morning due to the length of time testing takes.
Testing will conclude sometime in the afternoon depending on tests ordered, pace, breaks, etc. If there are any assessments not completed by 4:00 pm, the client will have to return another day to complete testing.

**This overall time frame varies by patient, tests ordered by the psychologist and is an approximation. Please note this does not include the time taken for a lunch break or other breaks. Lunch breaks will be provided for people testing past noon who begin testing at 8:45 or 9:00 am

Lunch Break

Patients who begin testing at 8:45 or 9:00 am will be given a 1-hour lunch break around noon. Lunch is NOT provided. If the patient is a child, the child will be returned to the parent during this break.Patients will resume testing at 1 pm.
Patients who begin testing at 11:00 am will not be given a lunch break at noon and it is recommended they eat before their appointment and/or bring snacks.

What to Expect

Standardized testing will be administered by a Certified Psychological Examiner or graduate student. Students are supervised and have been through an extensive training program to ensure competency. All results will be interpreted by a psychologist.
Clients 16 or older will be expected to work independently for part or all of their testing. This is often in a monitored space which may include other clients who are completing similar questionnaires. This is primarily determined by what tests the psychologist orders. If there are any concerns about the client being able to work independently, please let us know ASAP.
The client will accompany the examiner independently (i.e., no pets, children, parents, etc.).
Examples of testing activities include completing computer tasks, completing questionnaires, working through puzzles, playing with toys (if patient is a child), answering questions asked by the examiner, etc.
Please note that test data is copywritten material and, unless instructed to do so, you may not take home or take pictures of tests/assessments.

How to Prepare for your Testing Appointment

Be sure to wear/bring any prescribed contacts, eyeglasses, and/or hearing aids.
If the client has had a recent illness or injury that would impact their ability to read, write, see, hear, or focus (i.e., a break with casting to their dominant hand/arm, an eye injury, fluid on the ears with hearing loss, or a concussion with altered consciousness) please inform us so we can determine if it could impact testing and testing should be rescheduled.
Please do not take stimulant medication or nonstimulant medication prescribed for ADHD.
- You may, however, take any other daily medications. You may also bring medication for ADHD with you to the assessment appointment and take it after completing assessments of attention. Be sure to tell your examiner that you would like to do so.
Avoid the consumption of alcohol and/or illicit drugs at least 24 hours prior to your appointment. You will be asked to reschedule your appointment and will incur a no-show fee if substance use is endorsed.
If you can avoid caffeine without getting a headache, it is recommended that you do so. However, if this is not possible, consume the minimum amount of caffeine necessary to avoid a headache (no more than usual).
It is also recommended that you bring snacks and bottled water.
Get a good night’s sleep.
- This might require changing schedules for people who work 3rd shift or getting a hotel room if you are traveling far from home for testing.
Eat a healthy breakfast.
It is also very important that you avoid trying to “study” for this assessment. This plan often backfires. It is important that we get an accurate assessment of your abilities without studying specific tests. It is not important that you get a “good” score, only that we get an accurate one. Just try your best and be honest. Many of the assessments include assessments of validity that will render the test invalid if you are not honest, which can contaminate results.

Notes for Parents

Typically, parents will wait in the waiting room while their child is being assessed. For very young or shy children, sometimes parents will accompany the child to the testing room until comfortable. However, it is ideal for the child to complete the testing assessments without parent/guardian present.
Parents should plan to be at Athena during their child’s testing appointment (in the waiting room). For older, very independent children without a history of high-risk behaviors, parents may step away for some period of time, however, parents need to remain within 15-20 minutes of the testing location.
- If parents choose to step away, they need to provide cell contact information and return well before the lunch break at 12 pm.
Parents MUST return for the lunch breaks, as children are returned to their parents for the lunch break.
Generally, any parent, teacher, or other informant forms requested by the psychologist are provided the day of testing. Parents are expected to fill these out during their child’s appointment, while teacher or other informant forms are generally expected to be returned within one week.
- If you received any parent, teacher, or other informant forms prior to your testing appointment, they can be brought completed to the client’s testing appointment or returned to [email protected] prior to the date of testing.
If parent forms are not completed on testing day and not returned by the expressed deadline, test results WILL be rescheduled to a later date. If teacher or other informant forms are not returned by the expressed deadline, test results may be rescheduled to a later date, or the missing information will not be included in the test results, which could impact finalization of test results.

Cancellation/No Show

Appointments must be cancelled at least 3 business days (72 hours not including weekends) prior to the scheduled appointment time. Failure to cancel a testing appointment within this time frame will result in a $200 fee. Due to the impact of alcohol and drug consumption on cognitive functioning, if you endorse the consumption of alcohol or illicit drugs 24 hours prior to your appointment, you will be asked to reschedule and will be charged the no-show fee.

Emergencies and illness are an exception to this rule. Please reach out to discuss if this occurs. Please do not come to your testing appointment sick.
Additionally, if you are more than 10 minutes late to your appointment, your appointment may have to be rescheduled due to time constraints and conflicts with other appointments. Please call (877) 641-1155 if you are going to be late.
Rescheduling Policy: We will only reschedule a testing day appointment two times. After a third testing day appointment is cancelled, we will no longer reschedule the client for any testing day appointments.

Cancellation/No Show

For those using insurance, if the insurance we have on file becomes inactive, you will be contacted and informed of your insurance being inactive. After being contacted, you will have 7 calendar days to either provide confirmation of the self-pay rate or provide new insurance. Failure to complete either of these will result in the appointment being cancelled.
If you get a new insurance prior to you/your child’s testing appointment, you MUST notify us of the change in insurance prior to the testing appointment. We need this information at least 3 weeks prior to the testing appointment, due to the time it takes to verify insurance and meet any prior authorization requirements. The appointment could be rescheduled, cancelled, or switched to self-pay rates if we do not have the new insurance prior to this time period. If you receive new insurance less than 3 weeks prior to your appointment, please call (877) 641-1155 ASAP to discuss options.

If you have any questions, please call (877) 641-1155

If you’d like to read more about the testing process, please click here.