Overview
The NEPSY-II (Korkman, Kirk, & Kemp, 2007) is an individually-administered, norm-referenced comprehensive instrument designed to assess neuropsychological development in preschool and school-aged children ages 3 years to 16 years, 11 months. It is used for general, diagnostic and selective, or full assessments—from a basic overview of a child’s neurological status to a full comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. It has a strong theoretical foundation that emphasizes the interrelatedness of brain operations. The full assessment evaluates six domains, including Executive Function and Attention, Language, Memory and Learning, Sensorimotor, Visual-Spatial Processing, and Social Perception. Compared to its predecessor, the Social Perception domain is new, which includes Affect Recognition and Theory of Mind. Performance is reported in scaled scores, percentile ranks, and process scores. Quantifiable behavioral observations analysis during assessment are presented as cumulative percentages or base rates.
Summary
Age: 3 years 0 months to 6 years 11 months
Time to Administer: 45–90 minutes: preschool; 60–120 minutes: school ages, depending on subtests selected
Method of Administration: Individually administered (by clinician), norm- referenced measure of neurological status; 32
subtests across 6 domains; can select general assessment (brief), diagnostic and selective assessment (in-depth), or comprehensive (all subtests)
Yields scaled scores (M = 10, SD = 3), percentile ranks, process scores, and behavioral observations (cumulative percentages, base rates).
Subscales: Executive Function, Language (includes Phonological Processing and Speeded Naming); Memory and Learning, Sensorimotor Functioning; Social Perception (including Affect Recognition and Theory of Mind); Visuospatial Processing
Autism Related Research
Barron-Linnankoski et al. (2015)
Age Range: 6-11 years
Sample Size: 90 (30 with ASD, 60 typically developing [TD])
Topics Addressed:
Comparison of NEPSY-II performance between children with high-functioning ASD and TD children
Outcome:Barron-Linnankoski et al. (2015)
Those with HFASD had higher verbal reasoning skills but performed significantly worse than TD children in set-shifting, verbal fluency, and narrative memory. Trends (though not statistically significant) included that the HFASD group showed poorer performance in terms of facial recognition, as well. No differences found in terms of social perception, including both the Theory of Mind and Affect Recognition subtests. No correlation between FSIQ and impaired neurocognitive functioning on the NEPSY-II in the HFASD group, which “supports the usefulness of the NEPSY-II for different clinical groups” (p. 68).