Family court ADHD assessment or Ed psy?

[mazzat85]

Hi,
Can anyone advise please… so as the post says I'm going through private family law proceedings.
I had tried to have an ADHD assessment done on my child but their dad keeps blocking it from going ahead.
I'm now at the point in wondering weather it would be better for me to seek an assessment through an Ed Psychologist who will do assessments for ADHD and say weather my child meets the criteria for a diagnosis of ADHD or not.
When I get to court I want to use the ADHD diagnosis or the Ed psy report to show that my ex has stopped me from being able to get our child help.
If I go with an Ed Psy they won't be able to diagnose ADHD but will be able to say weather my child meets the criteria for a diagnosis and say weather they would recommend an ADHD assessment happens etc.
Obviously court pages say that the judge needs to take into consideration when making a final order:
Child's physical, emotional and educational needs
And
Child's age, sex, background and any characteristics which the court considers necessary
If I was to get an Ed psy assessment/report of the report said child meets criteria for a diagnosis will the judge take that into consideration
Ie ' Ed psy has done assessment and said child meets criteria for a diagnosis of ADHD I have to take ADHD into consideration when making a final order'
Or will the judge just look at it as if the child has no SEND needs at all even if the report says child meets the criteria?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

Ed psychologist would do a conners 3 along with cognitive assessments, brief assessment, RIAS cognitive test and WRAT5 attainment test.

Has school expressed concerns about DS? I’d have thought that if they had, then they would have made a referral to their EP anyway.

As on your other thread.

EPs are not involved in the diagnosis of ADHD.

Just because their qualification level means they can use a particular assessment, doesn’t actually mean that doing so is within their professional remit.

@Soontobe60 child has been referred to CAHMs by school but CAHMs have said my child's behaviours could be anxiety due to family court so have closed the case down as that 🤦🏼‍♀️

@Soontobe60 they wouldn't be diagnosis but doing the assessment to see if my child scores high, medium or low on the conners questionnaire/assessment and if high will put in their report that child scores high on the conners rating scale which is a questionnaire/assessment used by psychologist, psychiatrist and CAHMs when they're screening for ADHD

"Diagnosing" your child by the back door by getting an unqualified person to do a questionnaire is highly unethical.

Camhs are right, behaviours shown could be explained as anxiety in the current situation so it would make sense to wait until things have settled.

An Ed psych can not diagnose, they can only say whether your child has traits of adhd and whether they recommend an assessment.
But given the current situation, camhs would still recommend a watch and wait outcome if an Ed psych report was submitted with the referral

Don’t put your child through all that assessment for your own benefit. It’s unkind & most Ed Psychs would have nothing to do with it.

I’ve never used an Ed Psych to diagnose ADHD or even state where they sit in the Conners scale. I’ve used them to advise on support strategies to benefit a child struggling with barriers to learning. Conners paperwork is usually sent to school by child development team.
Can family court rule on the right to obtain appropriate medical help based on the information provided by GP/ paeds?

@sharpsobjects

"Diagnosing" your child by the back door by getting an unqualified person to do a questionnaire is highly unethical.

EPs are qualified to doctoral level. They are certainly not unqualified!

But they do not diagnose ADHD or autism.

[quote mazzat85]@Soontobe60 child has been referred to CAHMs by school but CAHMs have said my child's behaviours could be anxiety due to family court so have closed the case down as that 🤦🏼‍♀️[/quote]
This illustrates exactly what I have written on your other thread. An EP will gather information through consultation and use their training and experience to explore a range of hypotheses as to what might be going on for the child.

@Saysage yeah I get that but child has been referred to CAHMs for anxiety 2-3 months prior to the schools referral for ADHD assessment and CAHMs said that they don't feel my child has anxiety 2-3 months ago... now an assessment for ADHD has gone in they're saying child's behaviour could be anxiety because of the family court case when 2-3 months prior they was saying child has no sign of anxiety... we've been in court proceedings for 17 months 🤷🏼‍♀️ It just doesn't make sense

@Saysage and I don't feel it makes further sense as a behavioural specialist has done group work with my child and said there is a need/concern there which needs to be investigated and from the work they do with SEND children that have ADHD they feel my child meets the levels for a diagnosis of ADHD but they're not qualified to diagnosis so told school to observe and refer to CAHMs for an assessment.

@QueenofLouisiana ADHD is a barrier to learning... I'm not asking/saying the EP can diagnose ADHD as I know they can't what I'm asking is if the EP puts in their report that they done a conners 3 which is a tool that psychologist, paeds, CAHMs use in their assessment for ADHD and my child scored high on that, if the judge would take that my child has scored high on that tool into consideration and look at it as the EP identifying a need? So if the EP put in their report child score high and I recommend a full ADHD assessment goes ahead so child is formally diagnosed in the months years to come is the judge going to take a potential ADHD diagnosis into consideration when making a final order when my ex has stopped the ADHD assessment from going ahead for over a year?

@FrownedUpon I'm not putting my child through all this assessment for my own benefit? How have you come up with that assumption?

@isquashedthedog yes I know behaviours could be anxiety however my child was referred to CAHMs for anxiety by our GP 2-3 months prior to the schools referral for an ADHD assessment and CAHMs said then (2-3pm the before) that they don't feel my child has anxiety. Now school have made a referral for an assessment for ADHD CAHMs are saying my child's behaviour could be anxiety because of the family court case when 2-3 months prior they was saying child has no sign of anxiety... I'd get then saying 2-3 months ago child has no anxiety etc but now they do if we weren't in proceedings back then but we've been in these proceedings for 17 months 🤷🏼‍♀️

It just reads a bit confusing, are you taking your ex to court to have the assessment, or do you want the assessment so you can have evidence against your ex in court?

@sharpsobjects no this is not what I am doing at all! I have clearly said the EP won't be able to diagnose but they would be able to do a conners questionnaire/assessment which is used by CAHMs, paeds and psychiatrist when assessing for ADHD. So if the EP done a conners and my child scored high on that, the EP recommended in their report for an ADHD assessment to happen to get a formal diagnosis for child would the judge take into consideration when making the final order that my child has scored high on testing/assessment and that it's been recommended that an assessment for ADHD goes ahead and that from the last hearing to me asking my ex if we can get an ED psych assessment done instead of an ADHD assessment to get our child help and support that my ex was the reason why the ADHD assessment didn't go ahead as he wouldn't agree to a clinician doing the assessment but agreed to an EP (if my ex doesn't come back in a 3 days to agree someone doing an ADHD assessment but then I ask him if we can get an ED psych assessment done and he comes back and says he's on the same day then that will show he doesn't want child to be assessed for ADHD but is holy for Ed psych assessment as that's more an educational support assessment rather than a diagnosis assessment) also pushing for time to get an ADHD assessment as if he doesn't agree in the next 3 days to someone doing an ADHD assessment I probably won't be able to find anyone to take on that assessment and have a report done by the time of the final hearing (I have submitted 6 people to him who have said they have availability after 20th June so they can do assessment and get report done by the hearing in July but if he doesn't agree in the next 3 days when he received the 6 people 7 days ago these people could be booked up and no longer able to get assessment and report done for the final hearing.

@MichelleScarn ex is taking me to court for residency claiming I'm abusing (emotionally and psychologically) our child by thinking they have an addition need of any sort. He has stopped me from being able to have our child assessed as he has 50/50 rights and he gets his solicitor to write to people (drs, clinicians etc) that have given me an appointment for our child (for an example CAHMs for anxiety his solicitor wrote to CAHMs and said that CAHMs couldn't see our child because he hadn't agreed to the appointment and he has 50/50'rights so if the appointment for anxiety goes ahead without his say so then he will be contacting their legal department to say they've ignored his parental rights etc)
I want the assessment done to highlight if there is indeed a need there and to show that I have been trying to get our child help and support and he has blocked me from being able to get any support for our child by not letting me get an assessment and having his solicitors write to people who have given our child an appointment without his go ahead

@MichelleScarn and having those appointments cancelled as he should be involved in these appointments but has not been able to attend due to work commitments so then child's appointment is rescheduled and it happens again we get an appointment he says he needs to attended as he has 50/50 rights gets to the day or a day before the appointment and he says he can't make the appointment because of work commitments or he says he's 'ill' so appointment gets rescheduled again

How's it going for you OP?