Over the years general practitioners have worked hard to bring some science into the diagnosis of ADHD…You know that diagnosing Attention Deficit Disorder - (Add) is as much an art as it is a science but look what they came up with.

Questionnaires!

Questionnaires have been created which allow educators and mothers to rate the behaviours of the young child. Guess who came up with the questionnaires? If you guessed The American Psychiatric Association APA you are spot on!

They decided (just as they decided that Attention Deficit Disorder should be a dis-ease via a show of hands) that a questionnaire with a list of diagnostic measure should clarify the situation. So working together with psychologist, a ‘all inclusive’ listing of questions were put to paper.

Recently more methodical assessments have been devised to measure attention and persistence. Can you imagine for a second if they could investigate for procrastination? We would all be Homo Procrastinapiens! (Instead of Homo Sapiens, the scientific name of the human race) But that is besides the point.

Out of all the jumble, there remains no one analysis that is 100% accurate…why is that? You know the answer, because of the elusiveness of the signs, add to that mix variability, inconsistency and you have on your hands an formeless mass of criteria’s that can fit most any body.

Having said that, the current measurement tools do shed some light on the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - (Adhd) situation. Although they don’t always give a successful diagnosis you often find that the investigations uncover some other related problem which may be contributing to the young adolescent’s ADD behaviour.

Let’s get stuck into Questionnaires.

Parents and mentors can complete questionnaires which score specific Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (Adhd) behaviours – the higher the score the worst the prognosis. It is totally the opposite from our education system. If you score high, that is bad and it means you are more likely to have Attention Deficit Disorder (Add)D.

Among the most commonly used questionnaires are the Conners Teachers and Parent Rating Scale, the Achenbach Child Behaviour Checklist, the Edelbrock Child Attention Problem Rating Scale and the Barkley and DuPaul Attention Deficit Disorder Rating Scale.

I won’t bother with the APA’s Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder definition, we have been through them before. If you really would like to review them (which I doubt you would) here is a short list.

ADD with hyperactivity.

Attention deficit disorder with inattention

ADHD combined

A word of caution. Please don’t get caught up in the diagnosis. As you can probably tell, the guidelines are unclear and the main reason we are going through this exercise is to gain an understanding about what to look for.

Next on the list of ‘unbiased tool’, psychometric tests and profiles.

This is an interesting area. It is believed that each Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (Adhd) adolescent should be subjected to a barrage of analyses. The sequence goes like this, first we test out their intelligence by giving them a standard IQ test. This is followed by more specialized investigations like reading, writing, spelling, maths and language.

It becomes apparent that trying to administer so many tests becomes a ridiculous burden for the family and young adolescent. During the tests, the psychologist will comment that the young adolescent is restless, inattentive and hard to keep working at the task.

Hmm…perhaps if the psychologist was subjected to the same treatment he/she might have a change of heart. Would you like to sit down for hours on end answering questions that have no relevance to you? I didn’t think so.

The situation becomes more complex when you take into account that some Attention Deficit Disorder - (Add) young children have absolutely no problem concentrating one on one but become jelly when put in a group situation.

One good thing has come out of all these different testing protocol and that is the intelligence of an ADHD kid is often in the normal range if not higher and therefore the medical establishment declares that it is not the cause of the poor behaviour.

Let us cast our minds back to the time of Albert Einstein. He was actually made to leave school because his trainers thought he was incompetent! Perhaps there should be a change in educational system rather than singling out the healthy, vibrant young minds.

Get ready for part 3 where we dissect and tests.