ADHD evaluation: What's involved?

i don't know, but when you figure it out, will you come back and tell me? my son's appt is in may :)

pediatrician will talk to you about how your son behaves, he will read the questionaire you filled out, and if son is in school I am assuming teacher also filled out a form? He will make his best determination (guess) as to whether your son is adhd or not, based on what you have said and filled out. Then, most likely he will prescribe a low dosage of one of the many adhd meds. You will fill the rx and give it to him the next day. If his behavior improves, then you have your diagnosis of adhd. If his behavior improves some, but still leaves some room for improvement, he will probably increase the dosage slowly till you and he feel you have the dosage right. The right dosage does not make all adhd symptoms go away. But they should be able to sit reasonably quiet during class, they should be able to complete most things any other child his age can, in roughly the same amount of time. He should be able to stop talking once in awhile too. If by chance you give him the adhd meds and he doesn't improve at all, then, most likely your son does not have adhd. Unfortunatley there is no blood test or any special tools for diagnosing adhd. It is a behavioral disorder, and behavior is subjective. Good luck

My sons' evaluations were pretty much exactly like the previous poster. One thing at a specialists office - my son and I went into a conference room with a ton of things (distracting things, rubicks cubes, snow globes, those thingy's with sand/marbles/whatever that you flip etc) and the Doc talked with me and just observed how my child played with them. It was really interesting to watch. My son HAD to touch everything, this was also part of our evaluation.

At what age should you ask for an evaluation? We are receiving Regional Center services for our 2-year-old, and the coordinator says it is likely she has ADHD, but it is too soon to make a diagnosis. Still, I have read up on ADHD and she has many of the behaviors...but then again she is only 2. Should we ask our peditrician for an evaluation anyway? Just so we know what could lie ahead?

MaryKath- I would listen to the coordinator in her advice that something is amiss. I would just consult your ped. dr. first. There are SO many other DX's that have similiar symptoms as ADHD. Fetal Alcohol is one that is often overlooked with an ADHD dx.

One thing they did with my son was he had to take a very simple written test while sitting at a table that had tons of toys and stuff on it. He was able to do it, that told her that he was ADHD, she said an ADD child would not have been able to concentrate on the paper with all those toys right there, they would have had to touch them. Ds had no problem. She also watched him play, alone and with his brother. Our diagnosis was Aspergers.

Our pedi sent us to a pediatric psychologist for the diagnosis. He had us fill out the paperwork and then at the appointment he talked to us but mostly sat and observed DD as she wandered around his office touching everything, asking about everything, and basically being her very "busy" self. He had no doubt she has ADHD :) Good luck at the appointment. We were also told the same thing about the meds, if she has ADHD the meds will help, if they don't help, it's not ADHD. We also just confirmed with our pedi our suspicions that DD also has some OCD. She said that unless the compulsions are truly disabling she wouldn't medicate though. She understood while the OCD might not be diabling to DD, it seems like it is for us :arrow:

I have two bio sons (yes, i have been blessed -lol) with ADHD. Thankfully, it skipped my middle son. When my 15 year old was diagnosed, both my dh and I filled out a questionnaire, along with his teacher. I then met with his ped. By this time he was 5 and she had seen him in her office enough to be confortable with her observations. She was the exception, though, as a one doc practice who spent lots of time with her patients. She gave me an rx but also wanted me to see a pediatric neurologist to confirm. We started him off at a very low dose and then continued increasing the dose gradually until we reached the best dosage for him to be successful but not "drugged". We told him formt eh start that the "medicine would help him behave but that we expected him to follwo the rules". Behavior modification with home-school daily communication via a sticker chart helped him immensely. As his ADHD affected his socila skills, he never had a "ritalin holiday" until he turned 14 and we stopped it on weekends/summer. He is now 15, weighs 210 lbs, is 6'2", and is on a lower dose than when he was 5. Fast forward--my 4 year old. He was evaluated at 3 1/2 by early intervention for ADHD. Preschool wanted an itienrant, refused to do behavior mod(sticker card). Class was overcrowed, teacher very rigid.. I put 504 on hold until September. Transferred to preK in Spetember where my other boys had/are attending. Reopened his plan in October when we decided he was not adjusting. Also began a behavior card (stickers) with 3-4 key areas we want him to focus on. He will be recieving an itinerant soon, will begin trying meds in June when he turns 5 (my ped's magic number --she is a developmental ped) but have noticed a dramatic improvement in behavior since we started behavior mod. Have also noticed Mondays are definitely rough for him..

Can I jump in here and ask a question?Kimb1005 you said Mondays are rough and I was wondering why?I have a 4yo foster son who has been with me for 2 months. I've been having a lot of difficulties with him but found the sticker chart seemed to work well for awhile.However, I did not think of ADHD for him until my mom came to visit and mentioned it. Both my brothers had ADHD and I think I may have a mild form of ADD, but was never diagnosed or anything. Anyway, she has seen and dealt with it a lot more than I. I went today on the CDC site that had the list of things and he had every single one. He's already dealing with so much and I think some of his behaviors are definetly associated with his trauma and the issues with his parents, but ADHD may be a factor. For example, when I pick him up from preschool he has to touch everything between his cubby and the door. I'm constantly telling him to put things down, we're not playing with the toys right now since we're leaving and such. It takes a very long time to get out the door because of it.However, Monday's are really really bad. He starts out his Monday with an early morning visit with his Bparents and then goes to preschool, but I've noticed Monday is always our worst day.Anyway, I'm new to this line of thought and believe in many ways that behavior modification is more important than medication. Meds really helped my older brother and he has been off them and living successfully for some time, but my younger brother the meds never helped and I think there were other issues with him but were never discovered because they decided he had ADHD and ended there.I want to be open minded.Hopefully my DFS is going to start doing therapy soon for his other issues and maybe I will bring it up then.Heidi

I want to start off by saying all kids are different as are the ways to make a diagnosis. Pre and post holiday stuff is usually tough simply because not only do they have to deal with their ADHD but they have to deal with the normal level of excitement and a routine change. I call it "overload", my husband calls it "meltdown time". Mondays are tough because the routine is out of whack. They had two days home where the rules are one thing, then they have to readjust to the school rules. Transitions are always tough and this includes the weekend to school week... When my 15 year old was first diagnosed, I resisted meds. Now, I am glad that I did them IN COMBINATION WITH behavior modification. As we told him, the meds will help you learn to control your behavior--it won't control it for you. The meds gave him the ability to focus so that he could, in fact, learn self-control. I believe that the meds need to be used in combination not as a cure. I also believe different meds work for different people.

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