Executive Function Testing in San Francisco & Berkeley

Finally Understand Why Your Child Struggles, And Get a Clear Plan to Help Them Succeed

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You know something isn't quite right. Your child is smart, maybe even gifted, but they can't seem to get started on homework.

They lose track of assignments, struggle to organize their thoughts, or have meltdowns over transitions. Teachers mention "focus issues" or "not working to potential." You've tried reward charts, timers, and countless strategies, but nothing seems to stick. The hardest part? Not knowing if this is just a phase, if you're missing something, or if your child needs real support.

Executive function challenges affect how children plan, organize, focus, remember instructions, and manage their emotions, the very skills they need to succeed in school and life. When these skills don't develop typically, children face daily struggles that have nothing to do with intelligence or effort. At Mind Matters, we provide comprehensive executive function assessments that reveal exactly how your child's brain processes information, what's making everyday tasks so difficult, and most importantly, what will actually help.

Our evaluations go beyond identifying ADHD or other diagnoses. We uncover your child's complete cognitive profile, their strengths, their specific executive function challenges, and the personalized strategies that will work for their unique brain. You'll leave with IEP-ready documentation, clear school accommodations recommendations, and practical guidance you can implement immediately at home and school. Serving families in San Francisco, Berkeley, and throughout the Bay Area, we help you move from confusion and worry to clarity and confident action.

Executive function testing is a specialized neuropsychological assessment that evaluates the cognitive processes your child uses to plan, organize, initiate tasks, maintain focus, regulate emotions, and shift between activities.

These "brain management" skills are essential for academic success, social relationships, and daily functioning, yet they're often the hidden culprit behind school struggles that seem puzzling given a child's obvious intelligence. Our comprehensive evaluations assess working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, planning and organization, emotional regulation, and task initiation, providing a complete picture of how your child's executive functions are developing.

The assessment process at Mind Matters is thorough yet efficient. We begin with an in-depth intake consultation where we learn about your concerns, your child's history, and the specific questions you need answered. We gather detailed information from teachers and review any previous evaluations to understand the full context. The testing itself involves evidence-based cognitive measures, executive function scales, attention assessments, and emotional/behavioral screenings administered in a comfortable, supportive environment where children feel safe to do their best work. Dr. Rebecca Murray-Metzger and our team create an engaging assessment experience, using our expertise to keep children motivated and comfortable throughout the process.

Within two weeks of completing testing, you'll receive a comprehensive written report that clearly explains your child's executive function profile in language you can actually understand, no jargon-heavy paragraphs that leave you more confused. We detail specific strengths your child can leverage, identify the executive function areas causing difficulty, and provide the diagnostic clarity you need, whether that's ADHD, anxiety affecting executive skills, or another neurodevelopmental profile. Most importantly, we include actionable, specific recommendations: exact classroom accommodations, teaching strategies that match your child's learning style, organizational systems that will actually work for them, and home strategies you can start using immediately.

Our evaluations are designed to open doors for your child. The documentation we provide is IEP-ready and 504-Plan-ready, giving you the evidence schools require to implement supports and accommodations. We can attend school meetings with you to help advocate for appropriate services, explain evaluation findings to educators, and ensure your child receives what they need. For families in San Francisco and Berkeley, we offer the unique advantage of deep familiarity with Bay Area schools, what accommodations work in local educational settings, and how to navigate the specific requirements of California's special education system. You're not just getting test results, you're getting a roadmap, a partner, and the clarity you need to help your child thrive.

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Key Benefits

  • When your child is struggling, every week matters. Traditional neuropsychological evaluations in the Bay Area often involve waiting lists of three to six months, followed by additional weeks for results. During this time, your child continues to fall further behind academically, their self-esteem takes more hits, and behaviors at home may escalate. The uncertainty is exhausting for the whole family.

    At Mind Matters, we understand that timely answers change outcomes. We've structured our practice specifically to provide comprehensive executive function assessments without the typical Bay Area wait times. From your initial consultation to receiving your complete written report with recommendations, the entire process takes approximately two weeks. This rapid timeline doesn't mean rushing, it means we've optimized our scheduling and reporting processes to deliver thorough, high-quality evaluations efficiently.

    Quick turnaround is especially critical for families facing time-sensitive situations: IEP meetings already scheduled, 504 Plan reviews coming up, private school applications with deadlines, or children in crisis who need immediate intervention planning. Bay Area schools move quickly, and having current evaluation data means you can advocate effectively when decisions are being made, not months after the opportunity has passed.

    The two-week timeline also benefits your child emotionally. They're aware something is happening, that there are concerns, that testing is happening. A lengthy process prolongs their uncertainty and anxiety. Getting clear answers and starting interventions quickly helps children feel supported rather than scrutinized, and allows the whole family to move forward with confidence and concrete strategies rather than remaining in a stressful holding pattern of not knowing what's wrong or how to help.

  • One of the most frustrating experiences for Bay Area parents is completing a private evaluation only to have schools dismiss the findings or claim the documentation doesn't meet their requirements. California schools can be particular about what they'll accept, and navigating IEP and 504 Plan eligibility often feels like learning a second language filled with acronyms, legal requirements, and bureaucratic obstacles. You need evaluation documentation that schools must recognize and respect.

    Mind Matters provides comprehensive reports that meet all California special education legal requirements and align with both state and federal guidelines (IDEA, Section 504). Our documentation includes specific diagnostic criteria, standardized test scores with technical details schools require, educationally-relevant findings that connect directly to classroom performance, and clearly articulated recommendations written in the language of educational accommodations and modifications. We know exactly what San Francisco Unified School District, Berkeley Unified School District, and other Bay Area districts look for in third-party evaluations.

    Beyond technical compliance, our reports are written to be persuasive advocacy tools. We explicitly connect test findings to your child's school struggles, explain why specific accommodations are necessary (not just "nice to have"), and provide the educational justification schools need to implement support. When you walk into an IEP meeting with a Mind Matters evaluation, you have documentation that demands attention and creates the foundation for meaningful educational change.

    We go further by offering school meeting advocacy as a follow-up service. Dr. Murray-Metzger can attend your child's IEP or 504 meeting to present findings, answer questions from the school team, and help ensure appropriate services are offered. This is especially valuable for Bay Area families navigating complex school systems or facing resistance from districts. Having the evaluating psychologist present transforms the conversation, provides immediate expert clarification of technical points, and significantly increases the likelihood of securing the accommodations your child needs.

  • Traditional psychological evaluations often focus heavily on deficits, problems, and what's "wrong" with your child. You leave with a long list of diagnoses and difficulties but little sense of your child's capabilities, potential, or the positive aspects of how their brain works. This deficit-focused approach can be demoralizing for families and especially damaging for children and teens who participate in feedback sessions and internalize the message that they're broken or deficient.

    Mind Matters takes a fundamentally different, neurodiversity-affirming approach. We recognize that differences in brain development and cognitive processing, including ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and other variations, aren't diseases to cure but natural variations in human neurology that come with distinct strengths as well as challenges. Your child isn't broken; they have a brain that works differently, and that difference includes valuable capabilities that deficit-focused evaluations often overlook entirely.

    Our comprehensive executive function assessments dedicate significant attention to identifying cognitive strengths, learning style advantages, areas of exceptional ability, and the positive aspects of your child's neurodivergent profile. For example, children with ADHD often demonstrate remarkable creativity, intense focus on preferred activities (hyperfocus), ability to think divergently and make unique connections, and exceptional responsiveness to novelty. Children with autism frequently show strong systemizing abilities, attention to detail, deep knowledge in interest areas, and logical thinking. We make these strengths explicit in our reports and show you how to leverage them in supporting your child's development.

    This strengths-based approach transforms how families understand their children. Parents tell us they finally see the full picture of their child rather than just the struggles. Children and teens who participate in feedback sessions leave with improved self-understanding and self-acceptance rather than damaged self-esteem. The Bay Area has a vibrant, progressive neurodiversity community, and our approach aligns with these values while providing the rigorous clinical assessment and documentation families need. You'll receive both honest clarity about challenges and genuine celebration of your child's unique capabilities, the complete picture that allows for truly effective support.

  • Not all psychological evaluations are created equal, and the expertise of the evaluator dramatically impacts the quality, accuracy, and usefulness of the results. Many Bay Area psychologists offer testing as one service among many, without specialized training in neurodevelopmental assessment or deep expertise in executive function evaluation. Some evaluations are conducted primarily by supervised trainees or use abbreviated test batteries that miss crucial information. When you're making important educational and treatment decisions based on evaluation results, you need genuine expertise.

    Dr. Rebecca Murray-Metzger brings over 20 years of specialized experience in neurodevelopmental and psychoeducational assessment. Her training includes a predoctoral internship at Franciscan Children's Hospital where she led a multidisciplinary assessment team, and a postdoctoral fellowship at North Shore Children's Hospital focused exclusively on neurodevelopmental evaluations, the highest level of specialized training in this field. She's conducted thousands of evaluations for children and adolescents with executive function challenges, ADHD, autism, learning differences, and complex neurodevelopmental profiles.

    This depth of expertise means Dr. Murray-Metzger recognizes subtle patterns other evaluators might miss, understands the nuances of how different conditions present in real children (not just textbook descriptions), knows which assessment measures provide the most useful information for your specific questions, and can disentangle complex presentations where multiple factors contribute to executive function challenges. She specializes in twice-exceptional children (gifted with learning differences), students whose anxiety affects their executive functioning, and children with co-occurring conditions that complicate diagnosis. These complex cases require sophisticated clinical judgment developed over years of specialized practice.

    Bay Area families benefit from Dr. Murray-Metzger's specific expertise with local schools and educational systems. She understands what San Francisco and Berkeley schools typically offer for executive function support, knows which accommodations are realistic in Bay Area classroom settings, and has established relationships with many local educators, specialists, and therapeutic providers. This regional expertise ensures recommendations are not only clinically appropriate but practically implementable in your child's specific educational context. You're receiving evaluation services from a true specialist whose entire professional focus is understanding how children's brains develop and function.

  • Many psychological evaluation reports are nearly impossible for parents to use. They're filled with technical jargon, test score tables without explanation, vague recommendations like "provide organizational support," and findings that don't clearly connect to your child's daily struggles. You're left with an expensive document that doesn't actually tell you what to do differently at home or what specific accommodations to request at school. The report sits on a shelf because it's not practically useful despite being clinically thorough.

    Mind Matters reports are written to be actionable roadmaps for helping your child. We translate technical findings into clear language that explains what the results actually mean for your child's daily life. We explicitly connect test performance to real-world difficulties: "This weakness in working memory is why Sarah forgets multi-step directions" or "This processing speed profile explains why homework takes three times longer than it should." You'll understand not just what the testing showed, but why it matters and how it affects your child.

    Our recommendations section is exceptionally specific and practical. Rather than "provide organizational support," we specify: "Use a physical assignment notebook with daily teacher verification rather than digital systems; create a homework routine with specific times for each subject written on a visual schedule; break long-term projects into weekly sub-goals with separate due dates." For school accommodations, we provide the exact language you can use in IEP/504 meetings. For home strategies, we explain step-by-step implementation including what supplies you need, how to introduce changes to your child, and troubleshooting common obstacles.

    We also prioritize recommendations, so you know what to implement first versus what can wait. Bay Area families are busy, and you can't do everything at once. We identify the highest-impact interventions that address your child's most significant challenges, suggest a logical sequence for introducing changes, and help you create a realistic implementation plan. We consider your family's specific context, your child's age and school setting, and resource availability in the Bay Area. The result is a practical guide you can actually use, not a theoretical document that gathers dust.

  • Your child's executive function challenges don't disappear after the evaluation is complete, and new questions inevitably arise as your child develops, changes schools, faces new academic demands, or as recommended strategies need adjustment. Many evaluation providers deliver a report and then the relationship ends, you're on your own to implement recommendations, navigate school meetings, and figure out what to do when circumstances change. This lack of ongoing support leaves families feeling abandoned precisely when they need continued guidance.

    Mind Matters offers comprehensive follow-up services that provide continued support long after your initial evaluation. Our school meeting advocacy means Dr. Murray-Metzger can attend IEP, 504, or Student Study Team meetings at any point to help explain evaluation findings, respond to school questions, advocate for appropriate accommodations, and ensure your child's needs are being met. For Bay Area families dealing with complex school negotiations or facing district resistance, having the evaluating psychologist present is often the difference between inadequate services and meaningful support.

    We also provide parent follow-up consultations specifically designed for families who completed evaluations with Mind Matters. As your child grows, their needs evolve. The middle schooler who needed executive function support for organization may need different strategies in high school when academic demands increase. The accommodations that worked in elementary school may need adjustment for a new teacher or school setting. Life changes, family stress, medical issues, developmental transitions, can affect executive functioning and require strategy modifications. Follow-up consultations allow you to check in, troubleshoot challenges, get guidance on new concerns, and adjust your support approach as needed.

    For children and teens, we offer specialized feedback sessions where Dr. Murray-Metzger meets with your child to explain evaluation results in age-appropriate, strengths-based language. These sessions help young people understand their own learning profile, recognize their strengths and challenges, develop self-advocacy skills, and build positive self-understanding. This is especially valuable for middle and high school students who benefit from insight into how their brains work and what strategies help them succeed. The Bay Area values self-awareness and empowerment, and these feedback sessions provide young people with the knowledge they need to understand and advocate for themselves.

Service Categories

Comprehensive Executive Function Evaluations

Our most thorough assessment provides a complete picture of your child's executive functioning, cognitive abilities, attention, emotional regulation, and learning profile. This evaluation includes extensive cognitive testing, executive function measures, attention and focus assessments, emotional and behavioral screening, learning strengths and challenges analysis, and parent/teacher input integration. You'll receive a detailed written report with specific diagnoses when appropriate, IEP-ready documentation, comprehensive school accommodation recommendations, and practical home strategies. Ideal for children with complex presentations, students struggling across multiple areas, families preparing for IEP or 504 Plan meetings, and situations requiring thorough diagnostic clarity. Timeline: 2 weeks from intake to report delivery.

Focused ADHD Assessment

When your primary question is whether your child has ADHD and what type, our focused evaluation provides targeted assessment of attention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity symptoms. This streamlined evaluation includes ADHD-specific rating scales and measures, attention and concentration testing, impulse control assessment, evaluation of executive functions most affected by ADHD, and differentiation from other conditions with similar symptoms. You'll receive diagnostic clarity regarding ADHD presentation (inattentive, hyperactive-impulsive, or combined type), school-specific recommendations for ADHD accommodations, and guidance on next steps for treatment and support. This focused assessment is efficient and cost-effective when ADHD is the specific concern, while still providing a thorough evaluation of attention-related executive functions.

Twice-Exceptional (2e) Evaluation

Gifted children with executive function challenges present unique assessment needs. High intelligence often masks executive function weaknesses, making struggles confusing for parents and teachers. Our 2e-specialized evaluation assesses both giftedness and executive function/learning challenges, revealing the complete profile. This evaluation includes cognitive abilities testing for gifted identification, specific assessment of executive function weaknesses that may be hidden by high intelligence, learning difference screening (dyslexia, dysgraphia, etc.), emotional and social-emotional factors assessment, and asynchronous development analysis. Bay Area families often need 2e evaluations for private school admissions that require evidence of giftedness plus documentation of support needs. We provide a comprehensive assessment that honors both your child's exceptional abilities and their genuine challenges.

IQ Testing for School Admissions

Many Bay Area private schools require IQ testing as part of their admissions process, and some gifted programs have specific score requirements. Our standalone IQ testing provides the cognitive assessment scores schools need, administered by a licensed psychologist with extensive testing expertise. This service includes comprehensive IQ testing using current Wechsler scales (WISC or WPPSI, depending on age), cognitive strengths and weaknesses profile, written score report formatted for school submissions, and interpretation of results to help you understand your child's cognitive profile. While more focused than our comprehensive evaluations, this testing provides the documented scores schools require while giving you valuable insight into how your child thinks and learns. Results are typically available within one week.

Parent Guidance Consultation

Not sure if your child needs a full evaluation? Wondering what type of assessment makes sense? Our parent guidance consultations provide professional advice to help you determine appropriate next steps. During this consultation, Dr. Murray-Metzger listens to your concerns, reviews any existing documentation, helps clarify your questions and goals, explains what different types of assessments can and cannot tell you, and recommends the most appropriate path forward, whether that's evaluation now, monitoring and reassessment later, or alternative resources. This consultation is valuable when you need expert guidance to make informed decisions about assessment, when you're navigating school recommendations for testing, or when you want to understand options before committing to comprehensive evaluation.

Our Process

Step 1: Schedule Your Initial Consultation

Your journey begins with a comprehensive intake consultation where we take time to truly understand your child and your concerns. This typically 60-90 minute conversation with Dr. Murray-Metzger covers your child's developmental history, current struggles at home and school, what you've tried already, specific behaviors that worry you, your questions about ADHD or other conditions, and your goals for the evaluation. We ask about family history, previous evaluations or therapies, medical factors, and the full context of your child's life. This isn't a rushed appointment, we create space for you to share everything that matters.

We also explain exactly what our evaluation process involves, what types of testing we'll use, how to prepare your child, timeline expectations, and what you'll receive at the end. We want you to understand the full process before committing. For Bay Area families, we accommodate busy schedules with flexible appointment times at both our San Francisco and Berkeley locations. After this consultation, we'll gather rating scales from parents and teachers, request relevant records, and schedule your child's testing sessions. Expected timeframe: Initial consultation scheduled within 1-2 weeks of contact, with testing typically scheduled shortly after.

Step 2: Comprehensive Testing Sessions

Your child will attend typically 1-2 testing sessions (3-4 hours total) at our San Francisco or Berkeley office, scheduled at times that work best for their energy and attention (often mid-morning). Dr. Murray-Metzger creates a comfortable, engaging assessment environment where children feel safe and motivated to do their best work. We explain tests in age-appropriate ways, take breaks as needed, offer encouragement, and adapt our approach to each child's personality, whether they're shy, silly, anxious, or skeptical.

Testing includes a carefully selected battery of evidence-based measures: cognitive testing (IQ), executive function assessments (working memory, cognitive flexibility, planning, inhibitory control), attention and concentration measures, processing speed evaluation, and emotional/behavioral screening. We're not just collecting scores, we're observing how your child approaches tasks, where they struggle, what helps them succeed, and how they respond to challenges. This qualitative observation, combined with quantitative test data, provides the rich, nuanced understanding that makes our evaluations so valuable.

Parents aren't present during testing (this ensures standardized administration and helps children focus), but you're welcome to wait at our office or explore the nearby San Francisco or Berkeley neighborhoods. After testing, we often have a brief check-in to address any questions and confirm next steps. Your child typically experiences testing as interesting activities with a friendly adult, not medical procedures. Our goal is for this to be a positive experience that builds their confidence rather than adding stress.

Step 3: Comprehensive Analysis and Report Preparation

After testing, Dr. Murray-Metzger conducts thorough analysis of all assessment data: test scores, behavioral observations, parent and teacher input, developmental history, and previous records. This analysis phase involves scoring and interpreting all measures, identifying patterns across different tests, integrating findings with developmental context, determining appropriate diagnoses when applicable, and formulating specific, actionable recommendations tailored to your child's unique profile.

This behind-the-scenes work is where expertise truly matters. Dr. Murray-Metzger's 20+ years of experience mean she recognizes subtle patterns, understands how different factors interact, can distinguish between similar presentations (e.g., ADHD versus anxiety affecting attention), and knows what recommendations will realistically work in Bay Area schools. She's not simply generating a template report; she's creating a customized assessment of your individual child with recommendations designed specifically for their needs and your family's context.

The result is a comprehensive written report (typically 15-25 pages) that includes: a clear explanation of why the evaluation was conducted, a summary of your child's history and current functioning, detailed test results explained in understandable language, diagnostic impressions and conclusions, and most importantly, a thorough recommendations section with specific strategies for home and school. This report becomes your roadmap for helping your child and the documentation you need for school meetings. Timeframe: Report completed within 1-2 weeks of testing completion.

Step 4: Results Feedback Session

Approximately 1-2 weeks after testing, you'll meet with Dr. Murray-Metzger for a detailed feedback session (typically 90 minutes) where she explains all evaluation findings, answers your questions, and ensures you fully understand your child's profile and the recommendations. This isn't a rushed review; it's an in-depth conversation where we take time to connect the dots between test results and your child's real-world behaviors, explain what diagnoses mean and don't mean, discuss each recommendation and how to implement it, address your concerns and questions, and create a concrete action plan.

You'll receive your complete written report during this session, along with any helpful supplementary materials (articles, resource lists, accommodation template language for school meetings, etc.). We explain how to use the report effectively with schools, what to prioritize in implementation, and how to access our follow-up services when needed. Many parents find that this feedback session provides enormous relief, finally understanding why their child struggles and having a clear path forward replaces months or years of confusion and worry.

For families preparing for school meetings, we can schedule your feedback session strategically to allow time for report review before IEP/504 meetings, or we can attend upcoming school meetings with you as part of our advocacy services. We ensure you leave the feedback session feeling informed, empowered, and ready to move forward with confidence. Bay Area families appreciate our thorough, unhurried approach to feedback, this isn't a brief appointment where you're handed a report and left to figure things out alone.

Step 5: Ongoing Support and Implementation

Your relationship with Mind Matters doesn't end when you receive your report. We provide comprehensive ongoing support as you implement recommendations and navigate your child's educational and developmental journey. Our follow-up services include school meeting advocacy (Dr. Murray-Metzger can attend IEP, 504, or SST meetings to present findings and advocate for appropriate accommodations), parent follow-up consultations (check-ins to troubleshoot challenges, adjust strategies, address new concerns, or provide guidance during transitions), and child/teen feedback sessions (age-appropriate meetings where we help your child understand their learning profile in strengths-based language).

These follow-up services are especially valuable as your child develops and circumstances change. The elementary schooler's needs differ from the middle schooler's needs; a transition to a new school may require accommodation adjustments; strategies that worked initially may need modification; new academic demands may surface different challenges. Our ongoing availability means you have expert guidance throughout your child's development, not just at the single point of initial evaluation.

Bay Area families particularly value this continuity of care. Rather than seeking a new provider every time questions arise or needing to schedule another full evaluation to get updated recommendations, you have an established relationship with a psychologist who knows your child's profile and can provide targeted guidance. This ongoing support maximizes the value of your initial evaluation investment and ensures your child receives appropriate support not just this year, but throughout their educational journey.

Our Approach

At Mind Matters, our approach to executive function assessment is guided by three core principles: comprehensive understanding, neurodiversity affirmation, and practical utility.

We believe that truly helpful evaluations must see the whole child, not just their deficits, not just test scores, but their complete developmental profile including strengths, challenges, personality, family context, and educational environment. Executive function doesn't exist in isolation; it's intertwined with cognitive abilities, emotional regulation, learning style, motivation, and life circumstances. Our assessments examine all these factors to provide the nuanced, complete picture families need.

Our neurodiversity-affirming stance means we approach differences in executive functioning not as pathology to eliminate, but as variations in brain development that require understanding and support. Children with ADHD, autism, or other neurodevelopmental profiles aren't broken versions of neurotypical children, they have brains that work differently, with distinct strengths alongside genuine challenges. This perspective fundamentally changes how we conduct assessments and write reports. We dedicate significant attention to identifying cognitive strengths, learning style advantages, and positive aspects of each child's profile. We help families understand and celebrate what their child does well while addressing real difficulties that require support. This balanced approach builds self-esteem rather than damaging it, empowers families rather than demoralizing them, and aligns with the Bay Area's progressive values around neurodiversity.

Most importantly, our evaluations are designed for practical utility. Beautiful, comprehensive reports that families can't actually use don't serve anyone. Every assessment we conduct is guided by specific questions families need answered, and every report we write provides actionable guidance families and schools can implement. We translate technical findings into clear explanations of what results mean for daily life. We provide specific, detailed recommendations with implementation guidance, not vague suggestions. We consider the realities of Bay Area schools, the resources actually available to families, and what's realistically implementable given your specific circumstances.

This practical focus extends to our local expertise. Dr. Murray-Metzger's years of experience working with San Francisco and Berkeley schools mean she understands what accommodations these districts typically provide, how to phrase recommendations in language that resonates with Bay Area educators, what private resources exist in the region, and how to navigate California's special education system effectively. When we recommend an accommodation, it's not theoretically ideal but practically impossible; it's something we know can actually be implemented in your child's school. When we suggest therapeutic services, we can often provide referrals to specific Bay Area providers we trust. This combination of clinical expertise and local knowledge ensures our evaluations provide maximum practical value for Bay Area families.

Frequently Asked Questions

Mind Matters is a San Francisco Bay Area psychology practice specializing in psychoeducational evaluations and neurodevelopmental assessment for children and adolescents. Founded by Dr. Rebecca Murray-Metzger, a licensed psychologist with over 20 years of experience in child development and learning, we serve families throughout San Francisco and Berkeley with comprehensive executive function testing, ADHD evaluations, learning disability assessments, and ongoing support to help neurodivergent children develop the cognitive skills they need to thrive. Our neurodiversity-affirming approach recognizes that different brains work in different ways, and our goal is always to build on strengths while providing targeted support for areas of challenge.

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  • While ADHD and executive function challenges often overlap, they're not the same thing. ADHD is a specific neurodevelopmental condition that affects attention, impulse control, and activity regulation, whereas executive function encompasses a broader set of cognitive skills including planning, organization, time management, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and emotional regulation. Some children have significant executive function challenges without meeting criteria for ADHD, while others have ADHD that primarily manifests through executive dysfunction. Our comprehensive executive function testing assesses all these cognitive control systems to understand your child's specific profile, whether or not ADHD is present. This detailed understanding allows us to provide recommendations precisely targeted to the skills your child needs to develop, rather than generic strategies that may not address their actual challenges.

  • Executive function skills develop throughout childhood and adolescence, with different components emerging at different ages. We can begin assessing early executive function skills around age 5 or 6, looking at working memory, basic planning, and impulse control. However, executive function testing becomes particularly valuable during transitions to middle school and high school in San Francisco and Berkeley, when increased demands for independence, multi-step planning, and self-management often reveal challenges that weren't apparent in earlier grades. Many Bay Area families seek executive function evaluation when their bright child enters middle school and suddenly struggles to manage multiple teachers, longer-term assignments, and more complex organizational demands. The testing is equally valuable for high school students preparing for college, where executive function skills become critical for success without the external structure many teens rely on at home and school.

  • Yes, comprehensive executive function assessment provides essential documentation for college accommodations through disability services offices. Many colleges require current psychological testing, typically completed within the past three years, to establish eligibility for accommodations like extended time, reduced course loads, or organizational support. Our executive function evaluations include all the components colleges need: standardized testing of executive function domains, clear diagnostic conclusions, and specific recommendations for accommodations that address your student's particular challenges. For Bay Area students planning to attend college, we recommend completing or updating executive function testing during junior or senior year of high school, ensuring documentation is recent when they begin the college accommodations process. We're familiar with requirements at California universities as well as private colleges throughout the country and can guide you on timing and documentation needs.

  • Our executive function evaluation reports include detailed, practical recommendations across multiple domains. For school, you'll find specific accommodation suggestions like extended time for multi-step assignments, access to organizational support, graphic organizers for planning, or reduced homework load when appropriate. For home, we provide strategies for building executive function skills through scaffolding: breaking down complex tasks, using visual schedules and checklists, establishing predictable routines, and gradually transferring responsibility as skills develop. We often recommend specific apps, tools, or organizational systems that match your child's age and challenge areas. If executive function coaching, occupational therapy, or other interventions would be beneficial, we explain why and help you find appropriate providers in the San Francisco and Berkeley area. Our goal is always to provide recommendations you can actually implement, not generic advice that sounds good but doesn't translate to real life.

  • This pattern of high cognitive ability alongside significant struggles with organization, planning, and follow-through is exactly what brings many Bay Area families to seek executive function testing. Bright children can often compensate for executive function challenges in elementary school through intelligence, parent support, and teacher structure, but these strategies break down as demands increase. Your child may understand concepts quickly but struggle to show what they know because executive function challenges affect their ability to organize thoughts, manage time, or complete multi-step assignments. They might start homework but get sidetracked, lose materials despite repeated reminders, or simply feel overwhelmed by the planning required for longer-term projects. Executive function testing helps clarify whether these struggles reflect underdeveloped organizational skills that will mature with time and practice, or whether your child has specific executive function weaknesses that require targeted intervention and accommodation. Understanding the difference shapes everything from your expectations to the support strategies you implement at home and school.

Understand Your Child's Executive Function Profile

Schedule your free consultation to discuss executive function testing options in San Francisco or Berkeley and get answers about your child's planning, organization, and self-management skills.

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