Neuropsychological Assessment with African American Clients

Abstract

In spite of the challenges discussed above, there is a great deal of information available, specifically appropriate normative data that would allow a reliable and valid assessment for African American clients that has been summarized in this chapter. Common to many measures used to assess neuropsychological functioning in African Americans is the influence of age as well as education as variables that influence prediction and classification of impairment or sparing, when assessing African American clients. Each of the domains discussed was able to identify appropriate tests, with corresponding normative data. In some instances the research created new norms to use in assessing performance with African Americans. The most challenging domain, and not an unimportant one, was that of premorbid intellectual functioning and reading abilities. For this domain, it was suggested that collateral information be used in conjunction with obtained scores to best assess changes in level of performance. Further, while not specifically discussed in this chapter, there are efforts to collect demographically corrected norms for specific areas of neuropsychological insult, such as Alzheimer's dementia, which continue to refine the clinician's diagnostic and thus prognostic abilities. There is no doubt that endeavors such as this will continue, and clinicians should keep abreast of emerging findings as they relate to neuropsychological assessment of the African American client. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)