Assessment for ADD/ADHD

I think the diagnosis needs to be made by a medical professional such as a neurologist, psychologist, or psychiatrist.

Those with ADHD - ADD often displays symptoms such as involuntary auditory distractibility, inattention (short attention span often measured in seconds), hyperactivity (excessive motor activity/hyperkinesis; lack of fine motor control/coordination involving boths sides of the body), and impulsivity.

Not all of those with ADHD have all three symptoms: inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

Symptoms can be mild, moderate, or severe.

In a small number of cases, there can be dramatic, temporary (measured in hours), noticeable improvements in the ability to pay attention, concentrate, and focus due to using the right ADHD medicine (a central nervous system stimulant/alerting agent) although the ADHD meds do not work for everyone.

Over the years in the field of medicine, ADHD is slotted as being within the specialty of psychiatry say vs epilepsy which is seen as being within the specialty of neurology. Many pediatricians are now given guidelines for assessing ADHD - ADD.

A medical doctor with experience with known neurological challenges such as ADHD, epilepsy, and Tourette’s (tics) often has the background needed to help a client with ADHD to understand and deal with it a little better. In the real world, it is possible to obtain a correct diagnosis sooner or later; finding an easy answer to all of ADHD today, year 2001, is not yet possible: in some cases there are no easy answers.

That’s my opinion.

There are tests of attention done on computer (person is given instructions to follow and the ability to attend to the instructions is measured by the number of times the person successfully executes the directions).

NOne of these are perfect. For instance, a person with very fast processing speed can be very distracted in the above computer test, but come back around and answer in the same time as a slower but less distracted person. And due to the novelty of the task, attention is increased when a similar task would be a challenge to the person with ADHD in a living situation. I’m sure there are reasons for a false positive, too.

What is the youngest age ADD/ADHD can be diagnosed?

>

>
>

The assessment and diagnosis must by done by a medical doctor, but a tool that parents are often given to help in the assessment is something called the Connors Scale. It lists different behaviors and helps the doctor to see the degree of problems. If the child is school age, his/her teacher should fill one out as well.

ADHD is a medical condition and should be diagnosed by a medical doctor, not by a teacher. Scales such as the Connors are given to the parents and teachers to fill out. A high rating may indicate attention problems, but is only one component of the picture.
A Pediatric-Neurologist/psychologist is typically the best and the most skilled physician to make a diagnosis.
The computer test is called the TOVA. It costs about $150 for a session and is done at the doctor’s office. It is a simple computer task where auditory-processing should not be an issue. The patient watches a box move from the bottom of the screen to the top of the screen and clicks on the mouse when the box is in the target area. It is a 30 minute test with variable speeds changing about every 6 minutes. It has an 80% reliability, with a 20% false-positive rate. The scores give a range of attention ability and further break it down into whether the subject’s attention fails after a period of time, during a boring activity, during a fast-paced exciting activity, etc.
A combination of a pediatric-neurologist/psycholgist’s exam, the Connors surveys results, the TOVA, and definitely a complete case study done by the school district, which includes auditory processing components from the Woodcock-Johnson standardized test, the WISC or WRAT, along with a complete speech/language evaluation, and a complete audiologist’s test are necessary. A SCAN-C test for auditory processing problems which mimic ADHD symptoms is strongly advised.
When all of the results are compiled, the doctor can then make a diagnosis.