About Steve Tutty

Steve Tutty is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 25 years of direct practice across child, forensic, and neuropsychology. He has evaluated more than 2,300 children and adolescents with complex neuro-developmental conditions and assessed over 535 adults after traumatic brain injury. Few practitioners combine that kind of clinical volume with a peer-reviewed publication record spanning journals like JAMA and the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.

Steve's career took shape in the mid-1990s when he began assessing and treating children with ADHD and autism at a time when the field was still over-relying on stimulant medication and pulling kids on the spectrum out of mainstream classrooms. He pushed back with data. In 2003, he co-authored a peer-reviewed randomized controlled trial published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, showing that stimulant medication alone is not sufficient for treating childhood ADHD, particularly given that the prefrontal cortex does not fully develop until the mid-20s.

That research thread runs through his entire career. Steve co-led the telehealth movement as early as 2000, working alongside renowned principal investigator Greg Simon, MD, and contributing to published trials on depression across outlets including JAMA and Behavior Therapy. His work as a National Health Scholar reflects a commitment to scientific rigor that informs every evaluation he conducts, whether that's a neuropsychological assessment for a child with twice-exceptional learning needs or a cognitive evaluation for an adult recovering from a brain injury.

Over two decades of teaching and publishing have run parallel to his clinical work across multiple US states. He has held roles that required him to translate complex research into practical guidance for parents, educators, pediatricians, and courts. That dual track, scientific and applied, is what distinguishes Steve's career from practitioners who work primarily in one lane or the other.

Steve builds every evaluation around a developmental interview that traces a person's history from prenatal development forward through their current age. He believes the test battery should follow the story, not the other way around. When he assessed a middle schooler named Joey, for example, testing revealed a twice-exceptional profile: a learning disability in dysgraphia paired with a very superior IQ. Joey's parents and teachers had read him as defiant. The findings pointed instead to a mismatch between how he was being taught and how his brain actually processes information. Switching him to voice-to-text accommodations, pairing auditory lessons with visual cues, and moving him into an advanced learner track changed his trajectory.

His approach to evidence-based care means applying science at every stage, from the initial clinical interview through test selection, scoring, and recommendation writing. He's direct about what that requires: discipline, careful interpretation, and recommendations grounded in what the research actually supports. For neurodiverse individuals especially, where misconceptions are common, getting the interpretation right matters. He points out that ADHD children are often labeled as disobedient when the real issue is executive functioning. Adults on the spectrum are frequently placed into isolating roles when they're capable of contributing as active members of a team.

Steve is currently preparing a book, scheduled for release in early 2027, that will bring many of these clinical case examples into a format accessible to families, educators, and clinicians. His focus going forward is on broadening access to accurate, evidence-based neuropsychological evaluation and helping more individuals, whether children with complex developmental profiles or adults navigating life after a brain injury, get the clarity they need to build toward better outcomes.