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The annual conference of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) is one of the most important events for professionals dedicated to psychological assessment and student support in educational settings. This year, NASP 2026 took place in the city of Chicago, bringing together school psychologists, researchers, and education professionals to share new tools and research aimed at improving students’ wellbeing and academic performance.
During this week, the Nesplora team had the opportunity to present, in a talk session, how virtual reality–based neuropsychological assessment can support the daily work of school psychologists. Through demonstrations and conversations with professionals from different school districts, we explored how technology can make the assessment of students’ attention and executive functions more efficient, while providing clear and useful information for both schools and families.
Technological innovation for assessment in school psychology
One of the challenges school psychologists face is the need for tools that allow them to evaluate students in a rigorous and efficient way, without compromising quality in the process.
Nesplora uses immersive environments that simulate real-life situations while automatically recording multiple performance variables. These assessments make it possible to obtain objective data on processes such as attention and executive functions, while also reducing the time devoted to interpreting results.
During the conference, we also highlighted another of the key advantages of Nesplora Attention Kids Aula: the automatic generation of three types of reports adapted to each context. In Aula, you will find:
- A report specifically designed for the professional
- A report tailored to the school context
- A report adapted for families
This structure facilitates communication between psychologists, teachers, and parents, and helps design clearer educational interventions and individualized education plans whenever needed.
Talk session: bridging science, technology, and practice
As part of the conference program, Nesplora also participated in a talk session titled “Advancing ADHD and executive function assessment with virtual reality: bridging science, technology and practice.”
The session was presented by Dr. Christopher Nicholls, clinical neuropsychologist, and Kylie Isaacs, collaborators with Nesplora in the United States.
During the presentation, they addressed current challenges in ADHD assessment and explained how emerging technologies such as virtual reality can contribute to more objective evaluations with greater ecological validity. Immersive environments make it possible to observe students’ attentional and executive functioning in situations that more closely resemble real contexts, providing complementary information to traditional assessment methods.
The session also showed how these tools can support the work of school psychologists when assessing attentional difficulties, offering more detailed data on cognitive performance in dynamic contexts with distractors.
Events like NASP reflect the importance of collaboration among researchers, clinical professionals, educators, and technology developers. As school psychology continues to evolve, innovative tools will play an increasingly important role in better understanding students’ cognitive and attentional needs.
We would also like to thank everyone who stopped by to meet us during these days in Chicago, tried our tools, and shared their perspectives with us. See you at NASP 2027! 🩵
