For the parents that have had their kid (s) evaluated: what kinds of tests did the psychologists use/do ? What can we expect ? How long does the testing take ? Did you have more than one psychologist test your child (ren) ?
We will be going through this soon, so I'd like some ideas on what to expect. We did the intially meeting to discuss our concerns and issues, and the initial response from the shrink was that we are dealing with a bipolar issues in our family.
Thanks for your help.
It probably depends on the professional and what exactly they are testing for (multiple things, etc.). We had our son tested for ADHD and it started with the pediatrician and advanced to a psychologist who specializes in the disorder. We filled out evaluations on his behavior both at home and other places. The Connors evals are the most common, I believe (you might want to websearch that just to be familiar). Additionally, his pre-school caregivers filled out evaluations about behaviors they observed.... The psychologist also took a pretty in-depth family history from us and, of course, spent some time with our son and some time talking with us as well.
Later, when we began working with a Naturopathic Doctor, we had his neurotransmitters tested and that gave us a "picture" of what was going on in his brain. In our case, our son's excitatory neurotransmitters were 3 times the level of the "normal functioning range" of others. We had a pretty good idea after seeing the results of the test what we were dealing with.....
MegMaguire38922.4478125Our son's first exam consisted of several kinds of tests, all denoted with letters that I can't remember. It took about three+ hours. All portions of the IQ test showed him in the highly advanced range, except for the math, which put him solidly at 100. The other tests ranges were all normal, although the psych felt that one test (again, what's with all the letters?!) should have been higher because of his IQ. His score was normal, but because his IQ was high he felt that the score for that test should have been proportionally higher, also. My son spent much of the time during the test reading posters and manual titles (he was is first grade at the time), got up and walked away from one test, and still scored just fine. Despite doing well on the tests, the psych felt that from observing my son's behavior that he was ADHD. It makes me very nervous that there is no "this is it" test. But, we persevere.This largely depends on the doctor. We are on our 3rd evaluation and each one has been significantly different.
My sons first evaluation was through his pediatrician. We did an AD/HD screener, and two years of teachers filled one out as well. He looked it over, and a psychiatrist looked it over, then we had a 2 hour appointment to discuss things. He was diagnosed with AD/HD, possible mild anxiety, possible mild depression, possible mood disorder. When treatment failed we were sent to a psychiatrist.
Psychiatrist asked about 10 questions, maybe spent 15 minutes with us, ruled out Bipolar, and added in ODD. I did not think this was an evaluation, but was still charged the 0 dollars for one
3rd, and current evaluation. We initially had to fill out a huge packet, with screeners for AD/HD, anxiety, mood regulation, and depression. We sent that in about a week before our appointment. I also sent in, with that, a "parent report" that had a list of all previous treatments, evaluations, and all of my concerns. Our first appointment was about 2 hours long with developmental pediatrician. During this the doctor talked just to my son, then just with me. They also had my son do a computer test that measures attention, focus and hyperactivity. They also had him fill out a depression screener.
The doctor did a thorough physical exam too. He went through all the "possible" disorders that may present with similar symptoms, and gave me his thoughts on what fit and what didn't. AD/HD fits, but of course we know there is more going on. Aspergers seems to fit as well. He had me fill out another screener for Aspergers before we left, which I just got the results from, and he scored as having a high probability for Aspergers.
We are not done yet though. The next appointment we have is this week, and that is with a different doctor in the team, a child psychologist that will just speak with us (parents). Then they will set up more testing for my son. They will be testing IQ, testing for learning disabilities, testing his speech, and anything else they feel is necessary. That could be more medical, tests from an occupational therapist, tests from a physical therapist, or anything else they feel is necessary after speaking with us.
At a minimum there will be 4 testing assessments, each lasting for 2-3 hours. There will probably be more then that, as I know we will need an occupational therapist evaluation as well, and probably a physical therapist one too.
After that, all the teams that evaluated him will get together and they will collectively make their diagnosis. We will then meet with them to get the results.
Our current evaluation process is, in my opinion, the way all evaluations should be with children. They are testing a wide range of things, with a multi-disciplinary team, leaving practically no stone unturned. I just don't think it's wise to get an evaluation for one specific thing, because it leaves to much room for misdiagnosis. Just like with my son, he was evaluated for AD/HD and he certainly fits the criteria, but that left all the other issues in the dark that didn't fit in with AD/HD. It looked at one set of symptoms instead of the whole child.
Anyway, it's just my opinion.
My sons been seen by quite a few people in his short life of 5 yrs.
Weve been thru a multidisciplanary team that included a developmental doc, speech therapist and child psych MD. First filled out the literally close to 1000 question packet. School had to do the same. Developmental doc asked me a bunch more questions and spent about an hour with him. Speech therapy took her own hour or so as did child psych.
Neuropsych eval was series of 4 two hour appts over a month.
I will list some of the tests the multi team did but most were not looking for adhd specifically.
Preschool Performance Scale (pps). Differential Ability Scale (das). Preschool Language Scale . Fisher Logemann test of Articulation Competence. Mullen Scales of Early Learning. K-BIT. General Conceptual Ability (gac). Scales of Independant Behavior-Revised (SIB-R). Batelle Developmental Inventory (BDI). Peabody Developmental Motor Scales (PDMS).
Heres the list from the neuropsychologist..
Differential Ability Scales. Purdue Pegboard. NEPSY Sensorimotor Domain. Gordon Diagnostic System. NEPSY Attention/Executive Scale. Luria's Tapping Test. Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals. Kaufman Assessment Batter for Children. Developmental Test of Visual Perception. Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised.
With each eval we had to do the parent version of the Child Behavior checklist which pulls out cues/problems with whether the child is emotionally reactive, anxious, depressed, somatic complaints, withdrawn, sleep problems, attention problems and aggressive problems.
Thanks for sharing guys.
So far, SS was tested by his ped (years ago), who had us fill out a questionaire and had SS's teacher fill one out as well. SS tested positive for ADHD and was labelled ADHD. He's been treated for ADHD, we've tried various ADHD meds with no improvement at home or at school. Infact his behavior is increasingly getting worse the older he becomes.
After years of trying different meds & different discipline techinques, the ped doc now thinks SS has more than just ADHD. We have moved on to a child psychologist that specilizes in diagnosing ADHD/bipolar/ODD, etc.etc...hopefully this doc will be more helpful.