Lurie Center for Autism

The Lurie Center at Massachusetts General Hospital provides comprehensive educational evaluations and services to children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and related neurodevelopmental disorders.

The Lurie Center provides comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations tailored to the needs of each child. Our goal is to help families and providers answer important questions about the child’s skills and functioning. These evaluations provide information about general intellectual abilities, language, attention, executive functioning, memory, and learning. In addition, the child’s social, emotional, and behavioral functioning is assessed with the goal of better understanding his or her specific strengths and challenges.

The evaluation begins with an initial visit during which the child and family meet the clinician and discuss their specific goals for the evaluation. After the assessment is complete, a detailed report is provided describing the neuropsychological assessment results and specific recommendations. The report is designed to be shared with the child’s school or other service providers. Our clinicians also meet with the child’s parents or guardians to review the findings and recommendations and to answer any questions pertaining to the evaluation.

Educational consulting and advocacy services are also provided with an emphasis on increasing understanding of the child as a “whole” person. As part of the educational consultation, the clinician typically reviews the student's medical and educational records. On-site school observations can also be provided as needed. Because each student has individual needs, the type and scope of educational services will vary. Services most commonly provided include educational consultation, advocacy, and educational evaluations for specific learning difficulties and general curriculum recommendations.

At this time, neuropsychological evaluations and educational consultations are provided at the Lurie Center only for patients being seen by other Lurie Center providers. Insurance companies do not cover the charges for educational consultation services.

Meet the Team

Kirstin Birtwell, PhD
Gillian Erhabor, PhD
Rebecca Doggett, PhD
Rachel Goldin, PhD
Renee Green, PhD
Lisa Nowinski, PhD
Ellen Roth, MSW, LICSW
Gretchen Timmel, MEd 
Alyssa Travers, PhD