At the Clinic on Dupont, our psychologists provide ADHD-specific psychological assessments for children, adolescents, and adults. During the initial consultation with the psychologist, you can discuss what you are hoping to accomplish with the assessment, your goals, and you will work together to come up with a plan for next steps and whether or not a comprehensive assessment is necessary.
A psychological assessment involves an in-depth interview with questions about current and past symptoms, academic and/or work functioning, social and developmental history, school history, mental health history, and medical history. Input from a parent or partner is also frequently obtained. The next step is standardized, cognitive testing, which are kind of like “brain games”. This testing involves testing different areas of one’s thinking abilities including attention, memory and executive functioning, which all can be negatively affected in someone with ADHD. Executive functioning includes the abilities involved in complex thinking such as problem solving, decision making, planning, organizing, and multi-tasking. All of which individuals with ADHD often have difficulty and require extra support. Testing can also identify an individual’s strengths and challenges.
The testing results are compared to others of similar age, education level, and in some cases gender to determine how one’s thinking abilities compare to others in the general population and how one’s different thinking abilities compare to their other abilities. This will provide a true test of whether attention is a problem. ADHD also very often co-occurs with learning disabilities.
At the end of the assessment, you will be provided with feedback about the results and a written report. The psychologist will tell you whether or not there is an ADHD diagnosis by integrating all sources of information – interviews, testing, questionnaires, and observations. Additionally, the psychologist may be able to provide information on whether other issues such as emotional or physical are further impacting one’s attention. Aside from diagnosis, the other main advantage of an assessment is that you will be provided with behavioural strategies that can help optimize your functioning at home, school, and work. With a diagnosis and report from the psychologist, you can have access to accommodations. Such accommodations might include:
- Alternative workspace
- Private room for working or writing exams
- Minimizing of background noise
- Quiet setting
- Reduction of audio/visual stimuli
- Strategic seating
