Data analysis and report
Once the above tests are completed, a report is written incorporating all of the information identified in the assessment. The report is written for you to use to get the best treatment and programs to achieve success. When I started in practice, schools would sometimes call complaining that my recommendations were unrealistic. They would say that ADHD is a medical, not school, condition and therefore teachers and principals weren’t required to accommodate children or teens with the diagnosis.
In response to these calls, I wrote the Premier of Ontario and sometime later received a letter from the Minister of Education who said this among other things:
“You have also indicated that elementary and secondary schools are not providing support to students with a diagnosis of ADHD. School boards have obligations under the Ontario Human Rights Code to accommodate students with ADHD since the Ontario Human Rights Commission regards ADHD as a disability; therefore, such students have protections under the Code. In elementary and secondary schools, the duty to accommodate is met by the provision of special education programs and services.”
We posted the entire letter on our website www.drsvec.com so parents could print it and take it with them should they need to advocate at the school level.
As our testing procedures become more exact, it is more common to see a combination of factors impacting a persons learning and performance, as opposed to a single diagnosis of ADHD. This comprehensive testing is capable of pinpointing “flavors” of issues as I call them. The problem is that once identified, what does a school and parent do with someone with ADHD-Inattentive Type + Mild Disorder of Expressive Language + Gifted Profile in the Perceptual Visual domain?
We will get to that in later chapters, but the first challenge is to be comfortable with the assessment. As a parent, you want to do all that you can to help your child. If you suspect that your child has ADHD, there are no shortcuts. A comprehensive assessment is necessary.
As an adult with ADHD, you want to make sure the diagnosis is clear and understandable.
A diagnosis of depression, or anxiety disorder with ADHD, is often seen with adults assessed at our offices. Was depression part of a neurological pattern that was present with the ADHD, or did depression occur as a result of negative experiences and a reaction to untreated ADHD? This is an important distinction. If you believe that the depression was always there, then perhaps treating it with medication may make more sense than if the condition was brought about by secondary reactions to the ADHD condition.
The type of ADHD you have should also be linked to the type of treatment you choose. Prefrontal Involvement, Central Slowing, or Temporal Lobe ADHD as identified by the brain scan will each require a different approach and intervention. I will discuss this with treatment approaches in a later chapter, but the first step is to ensure that you have a proper diagnosis.
Key idea from this strategy
A *comprehensive assessment should include:
•complete review of possible medical factors that could be contributing to the symptoms;
•developmental and early learning history;
•test of focus and attention while completing a timed task in a lab setting (i.e., CPT);
•screening for Central Auditory Processing Disorder;
•Intelligence testing to identify potential gifted behavior and rule out some learning disabilities;
•Comprehensive achievement testing (i.e., WIAT);
•neuroimaging or brain scan reviewed by a neurologist and brain physiologist;
•comprehensive report with specific recommendations for home and school, or work and social for adults.
*You may be wondering if this is one big push to have you bring your child to our offices for assessment. Not so. I truly believe that, regardless of where you live, only a comprehensive assessment will do when the question of ADHD is at issue. Find a competent psychologist or clinic in your community that can do the tests I have outlined. Costs will vary. At our offices, at the writing of this book, we charge $2,750 for a child and $1,635 for an adult assessment with complete report, including the neurologist’s evaluation. It’s about the value of the service you receive. Parents tell me it’s less than the cost of putting their child in hockey camp for the summer, so you decide what is most important. Most clinics such as ours also assist with filling out insurance and government program forms that may pay for all or part of these types of assessments.
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