First appointment for ADHD assement, What to expect

[Buffy81]

HI

We have our first appointment coming up next month for out 7yr old DS and I was wondering if anyone can tell us what to expect and how to prepare him and us for it

I know that from the appointment they will go though quite a bit and that it will last 1hr

Thanks in advance

I always advise that you should think now, what is it about your ds, that has got you to this point ? Why have you asked for this assessment ?

Write down in bullet points what it is about your ds that makes you think he falls outside what is typical for 7 yr old boys.
Try and be as "numeric" as you can. So rather than "He never sits still" try and observe a whole day, tomorrow say, and note how long he sits / lies / stands, hops / rolls / etc at a time. Rather than "doesn't sleep".....what does a typical evening look like and what happens during the night and when does he get up in the morning. In what ways is he different from his sibling or his cousin or his school friends or your friends' dc.

You don't want to come away from the appointment kicking yourself that you forgot to mention x, y, or z.

IME, they will go through a standard list of questions, but it is good to have a note in case they don't, and in case you have worries that aren't on their list.

We went down the private route so they had sent us a questionnaire to send to them before hand.
It was all about how and if he's finish off work he started or even a conversation but also how fidgety he is when sitting down
If you google Adhd questionnaire it gives you an idea what they're looking for so that you're prepared

Good luck x

@Kite22 we asked our GP for a referral back in December of last year as we know that there is something wrong but we just don't know what. He will have sudden urges of running up and down for no reason, gets very into what he is doing i.e. playing Lego city on the PlayStation, very knowledgeable which is trains and Thomas the tank. lack of concentration when it comes to doing things so it takes ages like daily spellings from school, Can be good with numbers not so much with hand writing.
He has poor motor skills so can find it hard to hold on to a pen or pencil and pay attention to what he needs to be writing

He has a restricted diet which fills up half a side of an a4 page

He has good ideas at school, but its very hard for him to get it onto paper so they have to transcribe it for him and uses a table quite often which he enjoys

He can get very emotional over things i.e. other kids not playing with a toy in the way that he wants them to the,

We are also looking to get him tested of dyslexia as the school have done the screening that they do and they have said he is very high risk and they are also applying for an EHCP

A lot of what we see at home, they also see at school. What I have put here is just some the things that we put in the questionnaires that we were asked to and I have printed them out so that we can take that with us a reminder.

This month leading up to the appointment, I am writing stuff down on what happens at home of from when we get told at pick up from after school club, what things happen on a daily basis

@LoveMyADHD I will do a google search for that and see what it brings up and make some notes.

I want to be prepared as much as possible so that we can get the help and support that we could end up needing

They did say in the letter that they may be able to give their opinion on if ADHD is indicated or no

I will make sure that we go with a list of questions as I don't want to miss this opportunity as it may not happen again.

Ds was diagnosed with ASD and ADHD over lockdown.

I’m trying to remember exactly what the first assessment consisted of. I think it was a lot of questions about how he reacted to different things and then they played some games with him.
They came back from the initial assessment and said no to ADHD but they thought he should be assessed for ASD.
He then did an assessment for ASD and they told me at the time he was on the border, but when they came back a couple of weeks later decided he had the diagnoses.
I thought that was it. Then they came back and asked to reassess for ADHD and he had exactly the same thing-on the border but just over it.
They do ask you to do a parenting course. I have to say I slightly rolled my eyes when they said that. He was 13yo, my third dc and I could manage him pretty well. Actually it was quite good. The biggest thing was actually as a group we gelled quite well and been able to support each other-we still have a WhatsApp group where we put things we’ve found helpful etc on it.
Good luck with the process. I found it easier than I expected in the end.

We did the video game too
It's called QB test and it counts quite a lot when it comes to confirming diagnosis !

We scored 96% on the Adhd scale! He just couldn't do it at all

Hopefully you ll get the results you're after x

@MargaretThursday A parenting course? Thats never been mentioned in any of the letters. Will wait and see if they bring that up but thanks for the heads up on that. I am hoping that due to the school seeing a lot of the same behaviours thats something that we would not have to go through

@LoveMyADHD will look at the QB test between now and then to see if something that we can do at home or is something that gets done at the assessment only?

I wonder as well if it depends on the company that do the assessment on if they all do the same things or different

I was a bit humph on the parenting course, because I thought it was trying to imply that the behaviours were parenting-or trying to look like it was doing something because the waiting list for assessment was so long.
However it was based on the assumption that your child had ASD or ADHD (they wanted me to do two different ones, but I ended up only doing one and most of the children were having assessments for both) and how to deal with some of those behaviours-and, as I said before, it became a good support group.
I would have refused if I hadn't felt I had to play ball to get through it, but actually it was useful.

Having had both diagnoses, I'm now on one for comorbidities. This so far is far less help as it's mostly about people talking so they're talking very generally (or for example we had a bit on girls with ASD/ADHD which obviously isn't relevant to ds!) and although they do ask for questions there aren't many. The personal examples and direct help in the last one was more help.
It's on zoom, but most of the time the screen is just their slide so I don't feel I've any chance of getting to know the others.
I'm hoping it's going to pick up soon.

I personally wouldn't research or prepare for QB test, ideally if they truly have ADHD you need them to fail it so that they get the help they need.

It's apparently an extremely boring video game that they literally cannot focus on (but depends on their severity)

We personally didn't do any parenting courses perhaps cause we went down the private route it wasn't really suggested ... but first time I took him for assessment last summer, we went to a private psychiatrist again who totally failed to see his ADHD and he actually proposed I take him for psychotherapy and I do some as well to help with parenting ... absolutely useless idiot

So hopefully you ll get the help you need x

Hi

Just though I would give a quick update after the helpful advise. We had the assessment yesterday and he dose have ADHD. From the main 3 types he has inattentive and distractible type.

All that happened was us talking about the different sections that they mentioned in the letter and him telling us some bits from the questionnaire that the school had completed and then asking us some questions from one of the other forms that we had completed before had.

There was no QB test to do, but was advised to do parent course that is ran by Barnardo's so I have looked into that and they are going to get back in contact with us in August as the next course starts in September.

There is medication that he can be put on, but we would rather try with out to start with as its a nightmare to even get capol in him if he has ever needed it in the past