There has been much concern within Division 40, INS, and NAN regarding the potential proliferation of certifying boards for neuropsychologists and potential for professional fragmentation. Many neuropsychologists believe that ABPP sufficiently serves the profession, while others believe that the ABPP incompletely or inaccurately exams neuropsychological skills for both adults and pediatric practitioners. The ABPdN does not offer an opinion as to whether the ABPP/CN or the ABPN boards adequately measure the skills necessary to assess competence for the practice of adult neuropsychology. However, it is the ABPdN board's opinion that neither of the above boards (ABCN or ABPN) provides board certification examination that is sufficient to the task of assessing the skills required by those who practice primarily pediatric neuropsychology. The ABPdN board, therefore, was established to assess those specific skills.

Clinical practitioners representing institutions hiring pediatric neuropsychologists formed a coalition in 1996 to advance their belief that a unique interplay exists between neuro-developmental issues and neuropsychological assessment that require special sets of expertise not readily assessed by existing boarding entities. Following discussions with colleagues, who are members of medical practice boards and ABPP boards, the coalition elected to establish an independent certifying authority. This authority developed an examination using a purely objective evaluation method, in order to create a credentialing format that could reliably evaluate for content validity.

In the April of 2002, the ABPdN board voted to become a separate, not-for-profit corporation from its original parent company. This new corporation, purchasing the trademark “ABPdN” from the parent corporation for a nominal fee, would serve the primary and only purpose of pediatric neuropsycholological board certification. It was determined that a new set of bylaws were needed for the corporation and that these would be promulgated and voted on at the October 2002 meeting in San Diego.

In October of 2002, the elected officers and leaders within ABPdN met at a conference in San Diego to discuss the current examination method, to endorse the new bylaws, and to review whether the goals of the organization were being met. At that meeting it was determined that the objective instrument being used by the board was insufficient to review the necessary skills of pediatric neuropsychology, and that several things were needed. These included a careful review of the current written examination, a revision of the current application, and the addition of both a written sample requirement and an oral exam. It was also reiterated that these examination procedures had to reflect the board’s intention to assess inclusively for competence and not to generate an examination that would produce an otherwise group of individuals with exclusively elite-level skills. With this a examination redevelopment committee was formed and the work on a revised examination method was begun.

Over the following calendar year the ABPdN ceased accepting new applications for membership. During that time, the board retained the services of a consultant who had published in the area of board examinations and ecological validity. Following the consultant’s recommendations, the board made several significant changed to the typical procedures for examination. These changes include shifting considerable focus of review on the background and training of the applicants for examination, offering the written and the oral examination to applicants on the same day, and changing the threshold for passage to meet that generally seen in medical boards.

The ABPdN requires those members who were certified before the addition of the oral and written sample exams to go through the new credentialing process, so those members certified prior to October 2002 must submit work samples for review and to sit for the oral examination to maintain their certification. The application process was reopened in October of 2003, although it was determined that the first written and oral exam would not take place until the meeting of the National Academy of Neuropsychology in 2004. The first set of oral and written sample examiners were established in April of 2004 using the criteria proposed by the examination committee in Dallas (October, 2003). As such, the first set of written sample and oral exams were held in April of 2004 and new examiners were enlisted for training in preparation for the NAN meeting in 2004.

If neuropsychology is to remain a viable and important clinical profession, then boards must acknowledge their responsibility to continue to adapt to the current clinical landscape. Political divisiveness is unproductive if the consumer is not protected and the boards cease to attend to the scientific necessity of assessing their members in an ecological valid manner. Whether there exists one board or many, the consumer of neuropsychological service is served most effectively when boards act responsibly to insure that their members are adequately prepared to provide clinical services. As of this writing the American Board of Pediatric Neuropsychology represents the only board in the United States with the sole and primary responsibility of assessing competence in pediatric neuropsychology.

Founders of The American Board of Pediatric Neuropsychology believe that pediatric neuropsychology is a defined specialty of psychology. Pediatric neuropsychologists need a knowledge base that differs in significant ways from practitioners of adult neuropsychology. Evidence for the recognition of this specialization is apparent from the growth of journals and texts devoted to pediatric neuropsychology, the presence of special interest groups within APA, INS, and NAN (Pediatric Neuropsychology Interest Group – PNIG), and an actively growing international pediatric neuropsychologists listserve. With the clear demarcation of pediatric neuropsychology as an independent specialty, we believe that continued maturation of an exclusive specialty board significantly enhances the stature and practice of pediatric neuropsychology, as well as serves to increase the protection of the consumer of those services