This rating scale is both offered and endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality (NICHQ). It is a fairly basic rating scale, but does a nice job of covering the diagnostic criteria for ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and some conduct problems. This is a good document to print out and bring with you to your next pediatricians appointment (if you suspect a behavior problem) or to your first psychological testing appointment. If there is more than one adult who is familiar with the child's behavior, it is genrally recommended that they each fill out a form (e.g., each parent, a grandparent who provides a great deal of childcare, etc.). We use much more sophisticated rating scales in our assessments, but this tool is an extremely useful "first step" in the assessment process.
Vanderbilt Rating Scale- Teacher
This rating scale is also a product of both the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality (NICHQ). It is a fairly basic rating scale, but does a nice job of covering the diagnostic criteria for ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and some conduct problems. This is a good document to give to each of your child's primary teachers. That is, their math and English teachers (if older). The more teachers who fill out the form (one per teacher), the better since children often behave differently in different settings.
Additional Resources:
Does My Child Have ADHD?
This form, also from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality (NICHQ) gives you a format to organize your thoughts and questions related to whether or not your child has ADHD. After reading/completing this form and completing the above rating scales, you should have enough information to determine if a more thorough evaluation is needed or not.
Daily Report Card
One really useful tool for determining what is going on with your child, is a Daily Report Card. This document is designed to efficiently and effectively gather information. It explains what a daily report card is, helps come up with goals, gives sample forms, helps with the trouble shooting process, suggests rewards, and even gives samples. This may be a fairly long document (6 pages), but it does a really nice job of giving you all of the tools that you need to establish this extremely useful tool.
ADHD Online Resources
There are a lot of resources available on the web. Most of them are inaccurate, misleading, or just plain wrong. Only trust websites that are from reputable sources. This attached list is generated by a very reputable source and offers some very solid places to start when looking for ADHD information that is accurate. If you are looking for books or other "stuff" on ADHD, then the
ADD Warehouse is a good place to look around.
Working With Your Child's School
Here are some things to think about that might help when trying to work with your child's school.
ADHD and Sleep
Sleep is often a problem for children with ADHD. This form offers some initial/basic tips to consider if your child is having sleep problems. If your child is taking a stimulant medication, consider changing the time that the medication is taken. Discuss this with your prescribing physician. There are often fairly straightforward changes that can be made if medication, poor bedtime routine, or certain habits are the cause of the sleep problems.
Some Things To Think About:
-ADHD is "a disorder of rule-outs". That means that other things that look like ADHD must be ruled-out first before the diagnosis can be accurately made. The list of things that "look like" ADHD is enormous (e.g., Learning Disabilites, MR, giftedness, depression, lead poisoning, etc.). If efforts are not made to rule-out these common "look alikes", then it is impossible to have any confidence in the diagnosis.
-Many professionals can make the diagnosis of ADHD, that does not mean they should. The person making the diagnosis should have gathered data before making a diagnosis. Good quality data and some experience go a long way when assessing for ADHD.
-A child cannot be accuarately diagnosed by sitting in an office and observing their behavior, attention, or level of activity for a few minutes. In fact, the research shows that the child's behavior in the office is basically irrelevant and not even an accurate predictor of diagnosis. This is because it is a new/novel situation, the person they are meeting with is an authority figure (in a white coat, or Dr. So-and-So), the situation is one-on-one, etc. Diagnoses should only be made after a thorough evaluation.
-What is a thorough evaluation? In a nutshell, a thorough evaluation gathers information from many different people (multiple informants), from a variety of settings (across domains), and rules-out other things that look-like ADHD (comorbidities or alternate diagnoses).
-There is a ton of research out there on everything from ADHD and driving, what treatments are the most effective, if stimulant medications are addicitive, if red dyes cause ADHD, what classroom accomodations are helpful, if television watching causes ADHD, etc.. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Knowledge is power. Be an advocate for your child and learn as much as you can about how to assess for ADHD, how to treat ADHD, and anything else that might help along the way.
ADHD & Adults:
ADHD diagnosis in adults is very different than with children. The criteria is different, the tools are different, the impairments are different, etc. If you are an adult and suspect you might have ADHD, be sure to see someone who understands how to establish "a paper trail of impairment" and what the criteria are for adults. One size does not fit all when it comes to ADHD assessment.