Neurodisability psychology

The neurodisability psychology team based at the Ryegate Children’s Centre provides psychological input to children and young people who have some form of neurodevelopmental condition such as autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and their families.  Referrals are accepted from a range of sources, but only for children under the care of consultants in neurodisability at Ryegate. With our colleagues in neuropsychology, we are part of the wider Ryegate psychology team.

What we do

We offer a range of services:

Psychology intervention 

Helping children and young people and their families understand their emotions and behaviour related to their neurodisability and also using psychological techniques to help children and young people and their families with emotional wellbeing. This may include input for anxiety, low mood, behaviour or emotional regulation. Sometimes we will see a child or young person or their parent or carer once, sometimes we will work with them for a specific number of weeks or months.

Autism assessments

The team are a key part of the multi–disciplinary autism assessment clinic at Ryegate. We will work with you to help work out whether autism is a useful description of how your child or young person sees the world and identify their related strengths and challenges. If we meet your child for an assessment, we will usually only see them once, but will help make a plan for any further support they may need.

Cognitive assessments 

This involves a range of standardised tasks to assess the ways in which a young person processes information, giving useful feedback on their strengths and difficulties in relation to their learning style and other aspects of their development. Cognitive assessments may also be administered as part of an autism or learning disability assessment.

Multi–disciplinary assessments

We work with our colleagues in medicine, speech and language, occupational therapy, speech therapy and orthoptics to contribute to focused assessments for children who were born extremely prematurely or have other complex presentations.

Parent and young person workshops

We provide workshops online and in person. Recent workshops have included ‘managing difficult feelings in autism’, social stories and post–diagnostic autism parent workshops.

Professional consultation and supervision

We work closely with our multidisciplinary colleagues across the neurodisability team to support children and young people under our care. We also link with colleagues in CAMHS to process referrals and make joint decisions about patient care.

Supervision and training

We teach and provide training placements for trainee clinical psychologists from the University of Sheffield.

Resource development

We produce and contribute to online and paper resources aimed at helping parents and carers learn more about autism/ADHD and related conditions, and how to support areas such as anxiety, low mood, challenging behaviour and emotional regulation difficulties.

Where we are

We are based in the Ryegate children’s centre, but may see young people and their families at other bases (e.g. Fairlawns, Centenary House), occasionally at home or school, or over telephone or video.

Who we are 

We are a large team, and here are just some of the faces that you might see, with a full list below:

Useful information

Please follow the links below for a selection of the resources that the psychology team have developed or contributed to:

• Autism resources (including online parent workshops)
• Preparing your child for an autism assessment
• What is autism?
• Learning disability guide

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