ADHD is a neurobehavioral disorder that manifests itself as a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity. These symptoms must be displayed in more than one setting and directly impact the functioning level compared to others at similar levels of development.
Those with ADHD have trouble focusing, are easily distracted, and easily overwhelmed by stimulus in the environment and often have issues with impulsive behaviors.
ADHD is NOT about intelligence or motivation.
ADHD is about the neurobiological makeup of a person.
Having ADHD is not personal or reflective of a person’s “will power.” It is about how a person is wired to respond given different levels or types of stimulus. Understanding more specifically how this wiring works for an individual is key to understanding how one can best compensate and deal most effectively with their ADHD. It is our mission to find these specifics of one’s ADHD through our testing process.
Making a determination about the presence of ADHD is a complex process including medical, developmental, educational and psychosocial history, a clinical mental health evaluation and both subjective and objective testing. The subjective testing will be given to caretakers for themselves or educational representatives to evaluate the persons observed behavior in several environments. Adults will be given a self-evaluation as part of this process. The last step of our testing is the computer assisted objective testing. This test is an objective, neurophysiological measure of attention, not a rating of behavior.
It is a 21.6 minute very simple test that measures your responses to either visual or auditory stimuli. This testing measures performance data specifically to assist in the identification of ADHD symptomatology. No one part of our evaluation can determine the presence of ADHD. It is a combination of all components and the evaluator’s assessments from the clinical interview and background data. Only after all components are weighted can a determination or diagnosis be made.
This is a complicated process and questions are expected. Insurance does not cover the computer based testing but we do attempt to minimize fees. We include the interview time into any insurance based coverage and provide a completed report at a cost far below similar providers that can cost up to a thousand dollars. Please let us know how we can help understand the process or whether this kind of evaluation is appropriate for your situation.
