Clinical services, which encompass Evaluation/Consultation, Treatment, Training and Outreach, are provided at the Child Study Center in New York City and at our Long Island Campus.

NYC CSC: The ADHD clinical service, under the direction of Steven Kurtz, Ph.D., ABPP focuses on the evaluation and treatment of children and adolescents with ADHD and other disruptive behavior disorders. Assessment consists of structured psychiatric interviews, historical and behavioral rating scale information supplied by parents and adolescents, and rating scales and telephone interviews completed by teachers. Treatment services include combinations of psychosocial and pharmacotherapy treatments, with an emphasis on behavioral approaches, and organizational skills training at home and at school. The Service provides behavioral parent training, school consultation, and other research-informed treatments. We work closely with parents and teachers to monitor children’s progress toward agreed upon treatment goals.

LI Campus: Karen Fleiss, Psy.D. is the Clinical Coordinator for this companion site in Lake Success. As a branch of the Child Study Center, the service addresses the needs of parents and children by offering school consultation, diagnostic evaluations, testing, medication management, and research-driven clinical services. The LI site also oversees our unique ADHD Summer Program for Kids (SPK), and carries out several NIMH funded treatment studies, including the Follow-up of the Multimodal Treatment study of Children with ADHD (MTA).

Evaluation and Consultation: A member of our specialty team meets with the family to perform an assessment, which includes an interview and completion of questionnaires. Our goal is to help parents understand their child’s behavior and specific difficulties, and to provide them with treatment recommendations. Each family participates in an informing session, where we review our findings and discuss an individualized treatment plan.

Treatment: Our clinical treatments are evidence-based and individualized to maximize benefits for each patient. We work with parents to design the specific combination of treatments that we think is most appropriate for their child. As problems occur in the home, school, and community, we work to assure that the treatment addresses concerns wherever they happen. The treatments we provide include:

• Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). PCIT is an evidence-based treatment designed primarily for children, ages 2-7, who have significant problems with oppositionality, compliance, and who exhibit high rates of disruptive behavior. These children are typically diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) or Conduct Disorder (CD) and many have diagnoses of ADHD in addition. PCIT focuses on specific skills to increase warm and positive parent-child interactions, increase compliance, and reduce parenting stress. Among its unique features is that sessions are typically “coached” live, from behind a one-way mirror, with therapists coaching parents through a bug-in-the-ear earpiece, as they guide their children through a series of real life tasks in real time. This treatment is behaviorally oriented, with specific goals for parents to work on. Treatment typically takes between 14 – 20 weekly sessions. Importantly, treatment does not end until the children’s behavior ratings are within normal limits, parents demonstrate needed skill levels, and parents feel confident and competent in managing their child’s disruptive behaviors. Parents report this to be a very satisfying treatment and research has shown that the gains are maintained over time in different settings. Visit www.PCIT.org for further information, including links to the original research articles.
  
  
• Medication. When medication is needed, child and adolescent psychiatrists at the Child Study Center provide consultations and state-of the-art pharmacotherapy for ADHD and other co-existing mental health conditions. Psychologists and psychiatrists work closely together to integrate clinical care and maximize benefits for children receiving behavioral and medication treatments.
  
  
• Parent Management Training. We provide individualized, evidence-based parenting interventions for families with strong-willed, disruptive, and defiant children and adolescents. Children often attend sessions so that parents can practice skills with real-time coaching from our clinicians. Clinicians help adolescents and their parents collaborate regarding limits, privileges, and consequences.
  
  
• Negotiating Parent-Adolescent Conflict. Parenting teens can be particularly problematic, especially when they have ADHD as well. For families with high levels of conflict, with an adolescent with or without ADHD, we provide a treatment called Negotiating Parent-Adolescent Conflict, an evidence-informed, time-limited and behaviorally focused treatment to reduce parent-teen conflict and increase problem solving skills for the family, thereby reducing the extreme levels of distress.
  
  
• Behavioral School Consultation. We conduct school observations and collaborate with educators to design and implement behavior management programs in school settings. When needed and whenever possible, our clinicians work directly with schools to facilitate positive teacher-student interactions. Our approach to doing school-based observations, which has been published in research journals, is structured to maximize the value of the time spent observing children at school.
  
  
• Summer Program for Kids (SPK). The NYU Summer Program for Kids is the first summer program in the New York metropolitan area designed to make summer a fun, productive and successful experience for children with ADHD. It is an evidence-based eight-week, all-day therapeutic clinical program. The daily schedule includes a full variety of sports, academic and computer activities, and arts and crafts, and social skills training designed to improve social behavior. Learn more....
  
  
• In addition to the interventions provided at our ADHD Clinical Service, free treatments are often available through Institute research studies. (Current studies providing no-cost treatment for eligible participants include the Parenting Program for Inattentive, Impulsive and Overactive Preschool Children and the Research Study for Children with ADHD and Organizational Skills Difficulties, described below).

Training: The Institute has comprehensive training programs for graduate student externs, pre-doctoral interns, post-doctoral fellows, and professional staff (Click here to learn more). We also provide tailored in-service training to professional groups for skills development in managing disruptive behavior, tailoring teaching to the needs of ADHD learners, and other topics.

Outreach: Our faculty is available for community public education presentations for parents, school personnel, health care providers, and community organizations. Each presentation is tailored to the needs of the group and is intended to provide the most current, evidence-based information possible. Please call (212) 404-3924 for more information or to schedule a speaker.