Carole J. Symer, Ph.D.
20 + years of experience as a psychologist, teacher, and consultant
Specializing in Neuropsychology, Psychotherapy, and Psychoanalysis
December, 2012
In fact, before you do anything, take time to read the report in detail. Get in touch with the evaluator, if needed, as you may have more questions (e.g., about your child’s specific test scores, overall impressions, as well as specific recommendations). You may want to ask the evaluator for recommendations of books, websites or organizations that you could refer to for more information about your child’s specific areas of weaknesses, if these were not provided. Learn more before embarking on any major changes in your child’s educational plan.
Perceptional and executive deficits of chronic schizophrenic patients in attentional and intentional tasks
May, 2004
The present study investigated whether schizophrenic patients could develop appropriate visual orientation and motor set under precuing conditions which contrasted attentional (input selective) and intentional (output selective) information. The aim was to evaluate perceptual performance in processing visuospatial information, and executive performance in response preparation. Stimuli and/or elicited responses were controlled for selective hemispheric engagement. Age, sex and handedness matched groups of 33 chronic schizophrenic patients and 33 normal subjects were tested on choice reaction time (RT) tasks in which warning signals were manipulated regarding either where a target stimulus would occur (selective attention) or which hand to use for responding (response preparation). All subjects benefited from precued information regarding subsequent responses. However, schizophrenic patients were not able to use intentional cues as effectively as control subjects did. Interhemispheric asymmetry of spatial attention was found in patients with schizophrenia, with slowing of responses to uncued targets presented in the right visual field. There was also a decreased advantage of within-hemisphere stimulus-response conditions in the schizophrenic group. Our results support the notion that a dysfunction involving parietal and premotor areas has potential importance in the schizophrenic illness. We replicated findings which indicate that deficits of information processing in schizophrenia may affect left hemispheric mechanisms to a larger extent. The results also point toward a possible abnormal connectivity between frontal and parietal circuits in schizophrenia.
Selective Attention and Intention in Schizophrenia
December, 1994
Behavioral studies in humans have suggested that each hemisphere is important for mediating selective attention and response preparation (intention) in contralateral hemispace. In addition, there is evidence that the medial frontal lobe has a major role in response preparation. The aims of this study were to provide an experimental neuropsychological assessment of response preparation and selective attention in schizophrenia and to evaluate the hypotheses of medial frontal lobe dysfunction and/or hemispheric asymmetry in this disorder. Age and sex matched group of 21 chronic schizophrenic patients and 21 normal subjects were tested on a choice reaction time task in which they were given preliminary information about where a target stimulus would occur (selective attention) and which hand to use for responding (response preparation). Schizophrenic patients provided longer reaction times than normal controls (F=64.3; df=1,40; p<0.0001), which effect was more prominent when the target stimuli was presented in the right hemispace (F=4.1; df=1,40; p<0.05). All subjects, controls and patients, benefited from preparatory information regarding subsequent responses. The results of the attentional paradigm indicate, that the deficit of information processing in schizophrenia may affect left hemispheric mechanisms to a larger extent. According to the response preparation model, there was no evidence of medial frontal lobe impairment.
Writings
Carole Symer has authored hundreds of neuropsychological evaluations to help struggling learners get their educational rights fulfilled, discover life's pleasures, and affirm their human experiences. She has published across a wide range of genres, from neuroscience research to clinical essays, op-eds, and poetry. Here is a sampling of her work you may find of interest.
Literacy and Liberty for All:
Why Detroit's Kids Need More Than Access to a School or a Lap
Michigan Chronicle
October, 2018
In June, U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy III, in effect, told seven Detroit children that literacy is not a legal right. He dismissed their class action lawsuit against the State of Michigan. That same month, 47 miles west of Detroit and 35 miles south of Flint—a town also in debate about literacy—a sign on the lawn of a public school in White suburban Brighton declares “Kids Become Readers on the Laps
of Parents.”. . .
Selfie-Interest
Across the Margin
December, 2017
An attempt to slow down the conversation, to contemplate the emotional shadows flickering in the room in the real-time space between us. An examination of the enigmatic ways of the intellectually precocious, ambitious and globally aware Trailing Millennials…
Now that your child (or teen) has had a psychoeducational evaluation...now what?