Every year, courts, schools, physicians, and families rely on psychological evaluations to make decisions that can affect a child’s education, the outcome of a legal case, or an injured adult’s recovery.
For those evaluations to be valuable, they must do more than provide a diagnosis. They need to explain what is happening, why it matters, and what steps may make the most sense moving forward.
Steve Tutty approaches every evaluation with that goal in mind. A licensed clinical psychologist specializing in child, forensic, and neuropsychology, he has more than 25 years of clinical and forensic experience.
With over two decades of teaching, research, and publishing across multiple U.S. states, Tutty helps families, courts, and medical professionals use assessment results in real-world decisions.
Offering Objective Evaluations in Complex Cases
As a National Health Scholar and scientific-practitioner, he has evaluated and treated more than 2,300 children and adolescents with complex neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism, ADHD, and twice-exceptional profiles. He has also evaluated more than 535 adults involved in personal injury cases, often in cases tied to traumatic brain injury.
Across clinical, forensic, and research settings, Tutty focuses on understanding what is happening beneath the surface.
For children and adolescents, that often means identifying how learning, attention, behavior, mood, or development is affecting day-to-day functioning at home and school. In forensic and injury-related cases, it means clarifying documented findings amid stress, uncertainty, or conflicting reports.
“When the court orders a mental health evaluation, our client is actually the judge and/or commissioner, and the balance between objectivity and client compassion can be difficult,” he said.
His role is not to advocate for one parent, one attorney, or one side, but to provide the court with clear, objective information.
“One way to get the balance right is to spend time reviewing the client’s developmental history, starting at birth, prior to the crisis in question, as this information can provide an opportunity for the provider to better understand the person from a holistic lens,” Tutty explained.
A child may be highly capable in one area while struggling in another. Likewise, an adult recovering from a traumatic brain injury may experience changes in memory, attention, mood, or daily functioning that are not obvious to others.
In those cases, an evaluation can organize complicated information into practical next steps based on evidence rather than assumption.
Looking Beneath the Behavior
In many child and adolescent cases, the first step is figuring out the root cause of a child’s behavior as well as what that behavior may be communicating.
A child with ADHD, for example, may appear defiant, bored, angry, or disengaged in class. At first, those reactions may look like discipline or motivation problems.
Steve Tutty says that they may actually be the result of executive functioning deficits, which can affect attention, planning, organization, follow-through, and the ability to stay engaged with certain tasks.
“Many children with ADHD can hyperfocus and tend to excel in hands-on projects (e.g., Legos, Robotics, etc.) and motion-heavy activities (e.g., Sports), but find it excruciating to sit in a classroom chair for 50 minutes and listen to a teacher lecture in a monotone voice or show their work when they already figured it out in their minds,” he explained.
In many cases, the issue may not be effort, but fit. Similar misunderstandings can occur when a child is struggling with anxiety.
“Parents often focus on the social avoidance, habits, rituals, and screen addiction in their child, rather than asking how these behaviors allow for a temporary escape from the fear and dread that can be all-consuming when triggered,” Tutty said.
Still, understanding the reason behind a behavior does not make it harmless or something to overlook. Instead, it helps explain why the child keeps returning to that behavior and gives the adults around them a chance to address it.
By middle school and high school, these concerns can become even more complex. Mental health can affect academic performance, friendships, athletics, decision-making, and self-confidence. Adolescents are also managing hormonal changes while the prefrontal cortex, which supports planning, judgment, and impulse control, is still developing.
Social media can make things even more complicated, especially for teens already dealing with ADHD, anxiety, or mood-related concerns. Online interactions can add pressure around friendships, reputation, comparison, and identity, making it harder for adults to distinguish typical teen stress from signs that a child may need additional support.
An evaluation can give families, schools, and clinicians a fuller understanding of the teen’s needs, helping guide treatment plans, school support, and how parents respond at home.
Turning Insight Into Support
Assessment results are only useful if families understand how to use them. Tutty describes parenting as “both a big sacrifice and a once in a lifetime opportunity,” and his work with parents reflects both sides of that reality.
When a child needs mental health support, he helps parents understand the child’s experience before trying to correct the behavior.
“Once that happens, I teach parents skill sets for bolstering the esteem and confidence in their children at home,” he explained.
From there, parents can begin helping their children manage their mood, choices, relationships, and overall outlook on life both in and outside of the home.
For Tutty, helping children reach their full potential is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the job.
“I enjoy identifying the opportunities for lifespan change, and that typically begins with comprehensive neuropsychological testing,” he said. “Most of the time, their true talent and gifts remain untapped, and once launched it’s the changes that unfold that hold the most value.”
Trust is essential to that process. Without it, children may not feel safe enough to share what they are experiencing.
“Trust is the foundation of every relationship, and without it, there is no depth, connection, respect, or understanding, which hinders growth,” he said. “In therapy, trust is critical for the client to obtain the necessary insight for change, and without it, may be drifting in the sea without an oar, compass, or destination.”
Tutty saw the importance of trust early in his career during a master’s-level internship at a sexual abuse clinic. After watching him work with children, a supervisor pulled him aside and told him she had never observed children at that clinic feel so comfortable with a clinician before.
Tutty took that moment as a sign that he had a natural ability to build trust, especially with child victims. It also helped shape the direction of his career, including his later work with children caught in high-conflict and traumatic situations.
“The main motivation that launched my interest in the court system is helping children chart their best developmental pathway who are often stuck in the middle of trauma, whether that be high conflict divorce, domestic violence, peer bullying, school suspension/expulsion, drug use, and so on,” he said.
Evolving Practice, Enduring Purpose
Since Steve Tutty began practicing, the field of psychology has changed significantly. Neuropsychological testing has become more sophisticated, giving clinicians stronger tools to identify the cognitive, emotional, and developmental challenges affecting children and adults.
Treatment has become more flexible as well. Rather than relying on one approach, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, psychodynamic therapy, or interpersonal therapy, many providers now draw from a combination of methods to better fit each individual’s needs.
Attitudes toward mental health have shifted, too. Stigma has decreased, particularly among young adults, and therapy is now more widely accepted as a normal part of health care.
Digital and video-based services have also made mental health support more flexible, allowing people to access care outside of traditional in-person settings.
Together, those changes have given families and clinicians more options, making accurate evaluations even more imperative. With more possible paths forward, people need clear information about which one would be most beneficial.
That is particularly true for families navigating custody or co-parenting conflicts. For those parents, Tutty suggests avoiding trial whenever possible.
“Choose attorneys that are collaborative in nature, rather than ones that focus on winning at all odds,” he said. “Try to place your differences and conflict with one another aside for the sake of maximizing your child’s success.”
Child and family therapists can offer emotional support and guidance during that process, while parents can try to preserve the parts of the child’s life that were working well before the relationship fell apart.
Looking ahead, Tutty is expanding his work through a book he is currently writing, scheduled to be published in January 2027. While the project extends his reach beyond individual evaluations, he says the most meaningful impact continues to come from his direct work with children and families.
“The real impact has been with the child clients I have had the opportunity to provide therapeutic discovery and guidance they can use across their lifespan,” he reflected.
