The first step to an ADHD assessment involves a phone consultation to hear more of your concerns and get a sense of what you’re hoping to gain from the assessment. This likely depends on your age and how ADHD has impacted your day to day life. For example, a middle school student might be struggling in school and relationships and would like to gain a better understanding of potential treatment recommendations, or suggestions for school. A young adult college student may seek an evaluation because they’re in need of accommodations at school and are finding the workload difficult to manage on their own. It’s also possible you’ve graduated school and have been working for several years but were never diagnosed with ADHD and you want to see if you meet criteria for a diagnosis in order to better understand yourself and get more help.
After the initial phone consultation, there is a scheduled clinical interview that is typically an hour long. This interview can be over video call or in person. The interview will ask questions about your background, including early child development, challenges in school, family history, relationship history and medical history. This is a thorough interview designed to gain a deeper understanding of your personal story and how symptoms of ADHD have impacted you throughout your life and now.
After the initial interview, you will be provided some questionnaires to complete on your own that assess ADHD symptoms, and other psychological disorders in order to rule out any other potential diagnoses. These questionnaires each take roughly 15-20 minutes to complete. Each person receives their own set of questionnaires depending on the information from their clinical interview. A family member or close person in your life may also complete a questionnaire, with your permission.
In addition to completing the self-report questionnaires on your own, scheduled assessment sessions will ask you to complete a series of tests that evaluate executive functioning skills. The tests administered at these meetings are interactive and will assess cognitive skills such as item discrimination, reaction time, short term memory recall, visual spatial skills, and processing speed. The number and length of scheduled assessment sessions depends on the individual person. A testing session could range from 1-3 hours at a time.
At the conclusion of the assessment, there will be a period of 2 weeks wait time for the assessment report. Once the report is written, it will be sent to you prior to a final feedback meeting for you to review and then will be discussed in great detail at the meeting. The report will determine whether or not you meet criteria for an ADHD diagnosis, another clinical disorder, or if further testing is needed. A diagnosis of ADHD is not a guarantee of the assessment, and the diagnosis must be backed by sufficient evidence from the testing. The report will also provide treatment recommendations, and work or academic accommodations if appropriate.