UP! is unique in many ways. Because we are a small specialty practice, we take pride in the relationships we form with families and can assure that you will see and interact with us every step of the way.

We have the flexibility to spend adequate time with families and to personalize our reports and feedback in unique and creative ways. We cut out the psychology jargon and help you understand what your child’s results mean and how to apply them to the real world.

Our experience in the field of neurodevelopment and connections with providers and programs across the state, region, and country help us to ensure that the recommendations and advice we provide are up to date and comprehensive.

We are passionate about innovation and creativity, so we tailor services to each individual patient and leverage our knowledge as parents and psychologists to make learning fun!

We consider assessment and therapy to be partnerships with parents and rely on your experiences and perceptions throughout the process.

Unfortunately, the cost of testing materials has increased significantly over time, and insurance companies have not adequately increased their reimbursement of these services. Insurance companies often require lengthy preauthorization processes for assessments that increase wait times, and many insurances do not cover testing for learning disability, ADHD, or giftedness evaluations.

We want to spend our time with our patients instead of on the phone with insurance companies, and we want to decrease the amount of time you spend waiting on things that are outside of your control.

We do provide Superbills to families who would like to submit a claim for reimbursement from their insurance company or use HSA/FSA funds to cover the fees. We encourage you to contact your insurance company to inquire if they would be willing to reimburse you after the evaluation is complete. You can ask about your out of network coverage for psychological evaluations. Families can also use Hope Scholarship funds for some of our services.

We are transparent in our pricing and guarantee that we will not administer more tests than are necessary to provide accurate diagnosis and appropriate recommendations.

We are happy to provide a free 15-minute consultation to better understand your assessment needs and provide a price estimation.

Nope! You can call and schedule any time. We will be transparent about the services that we think your child does or does not need based on our consultation.

Generally, you can expect the following steps:

1. Telephone/Virtual intake - We will learn more about your child and gather a lot of information about concerns. We will then create a plan for assessment with you and review specific pricing for the assessment.

2. In person assessment - You and your child will come to our office for an evaluation. We will discuss the estimated length of time during the phone intake, but most families see us for 2-3 hours. Oftentimes, at least a portion of the assessment will be done with the psychologist and child alone to decrease distractions.

3. Virtual feedback - We will schedule a time to review the results of your child’s assessment with you. During the feedback, we will talk about results/scores of measures that were given, any diagnoses that are appropriate, and recommendations for continued care and services. We will answer any questions you have and do our best to ensure your understanding of the findings.

That is a great question!

Generally, we recommend that you avoid using the word “test” and let your child know that they will be doing “activities” with us and the only thing that matters is that they try their best.

We will provide snacks, water, stickers, and prizes. If you think that other items will be helpful or reinforcing for your child, please feel free to bring them. For example, stickers of their favorite cartoon characters might make them more excited.

Your child can bring a stuffed animal or favorite item with them to the assessment, but we ask that you leave electronic devices in the car or at home. During the assessment, we want to focus on making your child comfortable so that we can get a good picture of their abilities. We do not want to upset them by taking their favorite things away when we first meet.

We all have bad days, and we are prepared for kids to have challenging behaviors or to feel nervous during our assessments.

You can prepare for the visit by encouraging your child that nothing will hurt during our visit. Some of the assessments we do look a lot like play, so we can try to redirect your child or do things to make them more comfortable.

If we (parent and psychologist) feel that the child will not be able to recover or continue with testing, we may decide to reschedule for another day, but rest assured that we are comfortable waiting for a child to warm up!

Psychological and neurodevelopmental assessment can be beneficial for a variety of reasons. It can help to compare a child’s development to what is typically expected for their age, to provide accurate diagnosis, and to explain challenging or exceptional aspects of the child’s mood, intellect, and/or behavior.

No two children are exactly alike! Our primary focus is ensuring that children and teens get the help that they need and receive services that are specifically tailored to their strengths and bolster their growth edges.

Our goal is to provide accurate assessments that are based on the most up-to-date research in the field of psychology and neurodevelopment. We want to highlight the things that a child does well and use our expertise to open doors that families can walk through to access the services their child needs.

While an assessment will help us understand your child’s unique strengths and growth edges, we cannot guarantee that a diagnosis will be given at the end of an evaluation.

However, we will provide personalized recommendations and resources to help your child unlock their full potential that are based on our findings and the collateral information we gather from you and others involved in your child’s care and education.

First and foremost, we are committed to what works. We understand that the foundation for improvements in therapy is a good relationship between the provider and patient. We feel strongly that trust is the most important part of helping your child accomplish their goals.

We are focused on specific goals and using evidence based interventions to achieve them. This often requires homework for child and parent to complete outside of our clinic. Our treatments are based in behavioral and cognitive behavioral strategies that are proven to help.

We cannot answer that in broad terms. It would be best to set up a consultation to talk about your goals and needs.

No, we are psychologists and do not prescribe medication. If your child needs medication, we have connections with a variety of medical providers (e.g., psychiatrists, neurologists, pediatricians) in Morgantown and across the state and can help you get to the right provider.

No problem! Drs. Wallace and Baniak are credentialed through PSYPACT, which is legislation that allows psychologists to provide telehealth services across state lines. 40 states participate in PSYPACT. We are able to conduct your intake and feedback sessions virtually, so you will only need to travel to our clinic for your in-person assessment visit. We are located in an area that has multiple hotels nearby and are happy to provide further information about the area.

Since we do not bill insurance, there are no additional hoops to jump through and we can treat you the same as if you lived in West Virginia.

However, we do not provide virtual therapy options at this time, with the exception of targeted behavior consultations with parent/caregiver only.

At UP! we aim to spend our time meeting the needs of as many patients as we are able to care for. For this reason, we have to enforce an attendance policy. If you cancel within 24 hours or no show 3 appointments with us (including virtual visits), you will be discharged from our services and provided with local referral options. If you elect, we will place you back on the waitlist for a future visit to restart services.

We understand that children get sick, weather turns poor, and life happens. If you know you are going to miss your scheduled appointment, please contact us 24 hours in advance to reschedule.

If an assessment appointment is canceled in under 24 hours or you do not show for your appointment, a $100 No Show Fee will be billed to the credit card on file. This includes virtual/telephone calls that are part of your assessment.

If a therapy appointment is canceled in under 24 hours or you do not show for your appointment, a $50 No Show Fee will be billed to the credit card on file. This includes virtual/telephone calls that are part of your therapy plan.

That’s ok! Let’s schedule a free 15-minute phone call to discuss what brought you to UP! and see if we can be helpful.