Validity Testing in Child and Adolescent Assessment Evaluating Exaggeration, Feigning, and Noncredible Effort

Thoroughly covering the "why" and "how" of validity testing with children and adolescents, this book is edited and written by leaders in the field. Feigning or noncredible effort during psychological and neuropsychological assessments can have considerable repercussions for diagnosis, treatment, and use of resources. Practical guidance is provided for detecting and managing noncredible responding, including vivid case material. The reasons that children may feign during testing are also explored. Along with information relevant to all assessment settings, the book features specific chapters on educational, medical, sport-related, forensic, and Social Security Disability contexts.

Michael W. Kirkwood, PhD, ABPP-CN, is Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is Director of the Psychology/Neuropsychology Program in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Children’s Hospital Colorado. He also founded and co-directs the hospital’s Concussion Program. Board certified in Clinical Neuropsychology and a board-certified subspecialist in Pediatric Neuropsychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology, he has served on multiple boards of directors and expert committees. Dr. Kirkwood has conducted extensive research on traumatic brain injury and pediatric validity testing in children and teens, lectures widely, and has published more than 50 journal articles and book chapters. He is coeditor of the book Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Children and Adolescents.

I. Introduction
1. A Rationale for Performance Validity Testing in Child and Adolescent Assessment, Michael W. Kirkwood
2. Terminology and Diagnostic Concepts, Elisabeth M. S. Sherman
3. Understanding Deception from a Developmental Perspective, Eric Peterson & Robin L. Peterson
4. Performance and Symptom Validity: A Perspective from the Adult Literature, Glenn J. Larrabee
II. Detection Methods and Other Validity Test Usage Matters
5. Review of Pediatric Performance and Symptom Validity Tests, Michael W. Kirkwood
6. Clinical Strategies to Assess the Credibility of Presentations in Children, Dominic A. Carone
7. Motivations Behind Noncredible Presentations: Why Children Feign and How to Make This Determination, David A. Baker & Michael W. Kirkwood
8. Managing Noncredible Performance in Pediatric Clinical Assessment, Amy K. Connery &Yana Suchy
9. Ethical Considerations in Pediatric Validity Testing, William S. MacAllister & Marsha Vasserman
III. Validity Testing across Evaluative Settings
10. Child and Adolescent Psychoeducational Evaluations, Allyson G. Harrison
11. Pediatric Clinical Neuropsychological Evaluations with Medical Populations, Brian L. Brooks
12. Pediatric Sports-Related Concussion Evaluations, Martin L. Rohling, Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling, & Melissa M. Womble
13. Pediatric Forensic Neuropsychological Evaluations, Jacobus Donders
14. Disability: Social Security Supplemental Security Income Exams for Children, Michael D. Chafetz