Megan Kaplan

Clinical Psychology Intern

Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine, Psychiatry Department

Supervisors: Danielle Halpern, PsyD; Ami Norris-Brilliant, PsyD; Robyn Sysko, PhD

• Conducts autism diagnostic assessments using Gold Standard Autism Evaluation, the ADOS, on individuals across the lifespan and related testing (IQ, achievement, neuropsychological, adaptive, social-emotional) in order to gain diagnostic clarity around an autism diagnosis
• Conducts comprehensive neuropsychological assessments to diagnose ADHD, learning disorders and related disorders for children of all ages
• Provides individual and group therapy for children with a diagnosis of Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder
• Conducts child eating disorder intakes
• Provides individual therapy for individuals on the autism spectrum, primarily using a cognitive behavioral therapy approach
• Responsible for coordinating and administering adaptive behavior measures to families with children with rare genetic disorder, CHAMP-1, for natural history study
• Participates in two didactics sessions each week, one focused on the treatment of eating disorders and the other on topics related to best clinical practices for children with autism, ADHD and learning disorders
• Participates in weekly autism case conference meeting as well as weekly eating disorders case conference meeting

Psychology Extern

Mount Sinai Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment

Supervisor: Danielle Halpern, PsyD

• Conducts autism diagnostic assessments through the Gold Standard Autism evaluation, the ADOS, on individuals across the lifespan
• Conducts comprehensive neuropsychological testing on individuals both with and without autism related concerns
• Partakes in weekly didactics focusing on designing neuropsychological testing batteries, enhancing assessment skills and knowledge for differential diagnosis, and understanding the psychologists role in collaborating with psychiatry
• Provides cognitive behavioral therapy to children with autism, ADHD, anxiety, and OCD
• Consults with and develops materials for thee Natural History Museum to ensure their programming is engaging for neurodiverse children
• Participates in weekly department meetings where research proposals are critically analyzed and complex cases are reviewed

Psychology Extern

The Cooke School, New York, NY

Supervisors: Kattia Poyau-Edwards, M.S. Ed, NCSP and Stefanie Reiss, PsyD

• Provides group and individual psychotherapy in special education setting incorporating cognitive-behavioral techniques and student-centered counseling to work on social, emotional and behavioral goals with students with a variety of diagnoses
• Conducts assessments to evaluate student intellectual, academic and adaptive functioning
• Consults with lead teacher to collaboratively develop and implement classroom wide behavior management intervention using the Classroom Check Up model
• Regularly observes students in classroom and reviews records to discuss and conceptualize cases with school psychologist, constantly evaluating students' needs and goals for optimal social, educational and behavioral outcomes

Lab Member, 09/2022 to 06/2025

Autism Laboratory- Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Bronx, NY

• Independently collected and analyzed parent report data on the need for sexual education for females on the autism spectrum
• Assisted in large-scale coding project searching for key-terms for literature review of childhood interventions for autism spectrum disorder
• Assisted in manuscript writing on multiple scholarly articles
• Mentored other students in lab, helping them develop their research questions and plans

Research Assistant, 06/2019 to 08/2020

Autism Center, Child Mind Institute- New York, NY

• Assisted in all aspects of research examining the neural correlates of autism and ADHD in school aged children
• Administered myriad of clinical measures to children and parents
• Collected and analyzed data from all study measures and created comprehensive presentations summarizing study progress and preliminary results
• Prepared Institutional Review Board materials
• Spearheaded study recruitment efforts to reach families, professionals in the psychology field and schools to inform them of our research

Research Assistant, 09/2017 to 05/2019

Translational and Developmental Neuroscience Lab- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

• Collaborated with graduate student and lab manager on manuscript examining neural connectivity between prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum
• Pre-processed fMRI data for subjects in Fragile Families Longitudinal Study using SPM in Matlab
• Recorded and analyzed data from a variety of sources included taped parent-child interactions, KSADs and SCIDs

Summer Research Assistant, 06/2018 to 08/2018

Developmental Neuroscience Lab- University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

• Assisted in research examining psychological and physiological factors that may lead to insufficient sleep in adolescents
• Administered cognitive assessments, survey measures and behavioral tasks to participants
• Coded all data from participant visits including photos of participant home/sleep settings, daily diary entries, and actigraphy data
• Assisted in MRI scanning and created three-dimensional brain videos from participant MRI images using Cyberduck and AFNI

• Guttentag, S., Bishop, S., Doggett, R., Shalev, R., Kaplan, M., Dyson, M., ... & Di Martino, A. (2022). The utility of parent-report screening tools in differentiating autism versus attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in school-age children. Autism, 26(2), 473-487.
• Calabrese, J. R., Goetschius, L. G., Murray, L., Kaplan, M. R., Lopez-Duran, N., Mitchell, C., ... & Monk, C. S. (2022). Mapping frontostriatal white matter tracts and their association with reward-related ventral striatum activation in adolescence. Brain Research, 1780, 147803.
• De Rubeis, S., Kaplan, M., Sancimino, C. [Mount Sinai Health System]. (2024, August 7). Most Searched: Autism Questions [Video] Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=006PDAX959U
• Zhong, N., Isufi, K., Kaplan, M., Printz S., Feldman J., (2025, March 6-9) Autism Spectrum Disorder Needs Assessment during the Covid-19 Pandemic [Conference Presentation] Eastern Psychological Association, New York, NY, United States.
  
  

Manuscripts in Progress:

• Autism Spectrum Disorder Needs Assessment during the Covid-19 Pandemic
• Systematic Review: Behavioral Interventions

Practicum in Child Therapy I-II: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, August 2024-Present

Supervisor: Scott Greisberg

• Provides weekly cognitive behavioral therapy for a child referred to the Parnes Clinic with prior diagnosis of ADHD and significant symptoms related to OCD
• Administers standardized baseline, weekly and quarterly measures to inform treatment and monitor clients' progress
• Presents and conceptualizes clinic case fro a CBT perspective
• Participates in weekly individual supervision and attend weekly small group supervision and didactic training

Practicum in  Child Therapy I-II: Psychodynamic, August 2023-July 2024

Supervisor: Dr. Jill Lebowitz

• Provided weekly psychodynamic psychotherapy to a child referred to the Parnes Clinic for behavioral and social-emotional challenges
• Administered standardized baseline, weekly and quarterly measures to inform treatment and monitor clients' progress
• Presented and conceptualized treatments from a psychodynamic perspective
• Received weekly individual supervision and attend weekly small group didactic training

Child Assessment with Practicum, Fall 2022 and Spring 2023

Instructors: Drs. Karen Hazel and Nicole Zhong

• Administered and scored a full psychoeducational assessment battery for a child referred to the Parnes Clinic
• Conducted clinical interviews with parents to obtain a comprehensive background history and understanding of the reason for referral
• Observed student in a school classroom setting and collect formal and informal data
• Interpreteed and integrated data obtained from observational, behavioral, and assessment sources into a psychoeducational report
• Provided an explanation of results to parents in feedback sessions

Appraisal of Personality, Spring 2022

Instructor: Dr. Benjamin Rubin

• Administered and scored 3 Rorschach tests to children, adolescents and adults and wrote 3 interpretative summaries based on Rorschach results with an emphasis on Exner's scoring system.

Psychoeducational Assessment, Spring 2022

Instructors: Drs. Esther Stavrou and Angelina Nortey

• Designed and administered three comprehensive test batteries to three individuals (one adult, two children). These batteries included a measure of cognitive functioning, academic achievement, visual-motor ability and adaptive behavior with a comprehensive interview. An integrative report was written for each of the batteries administered.

Cognitive Assessment, Fall 2021

Instructors: Drs. Melanie Wadkins, Esther Stavrou and Angelina Nortey

• Learned the administration, scoring and interpretation procedures of the WISC-V, WAIS-IV, and WJ-IV. Acquired basic skills in interviewing and observing behavior. Combined data from observations, interviews and intelligence tests to write integrative reports.

• Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule 2nd Edition (ADOS-2) Modules 1, 2, 3 and 4: Clinical Training at Center for Autism and the Developing Brain
• Registered Behavior Technician 40 Hour Training
• MRI Secondary Operator Training
• R Studio Course

Cognitive:

CTONI-2

DAS-II

Mullen

Stanford Binet 5

UNIT-2

WAIS-IV

WISC-V

WJ-IV Academic

WJ-IV Cognitive

WPPSI-IV

WRAT-IV

Academic:

CTOPP-II

GORT-5

GSRT

KTEA-3

Key Math

NDRT

TOWRE-2

TOWL-4

WIAT-4

Language:

CASL-2

CELF-V

EVT-3

PPVT-4

Executive Functioning:

CPT-III

DKEFS

NEPSY-II

Quotient ADHD Systems

Memory:

CMS

CVLT-3

WMS-IV

WRAML-3

Visual Motor:

Bender II

Development Test of Visual Motor Integration (VMI)

Purdue Pegboard Test

Rey Complex Figure Test

Autism Specific:

ADOS-2 (All modules)

BOSCC (Brief Observation of Social Communicative Change)

Projectives:

Human Figure Drawings

Roberts

Rorschach

Sentence Completion

Interviews/Questionnaires:

BASC III

Becks CDI

Brief-2

CBCL

CCC-2

Conners

CYBOCS

KSADS

MASC-2

RBS-R

SCARED (Child and Parent)

SCQ (Lifetime Version)

Semi-Structured Interview

SNAP-IV

SRS-2

SWAN

Vineland Adaptive Behavioral Scales (VABS-III)

Crisis Hotline Volunteer, Crisis Hotline (Summer 2022)

Neuroscience Liaison, ALS Awareness Club: A Lot Stronger Together (2017-2019)

Volunteer in Surgical Family Waiting Room, University of Michigan Hospital (2016-2017)