ADHD Assessment

Our assessments are conducted by either a Clinical Psychologist or Clinical Psychologist and a Speech and Language Therapist team. Our assessments follow NICE guidelines. Our assessors have significant experiencing assessing within NHS settings however due to differing NHS CAMHS policies regarding private assessment, we are unable to guarantee acceptance of our diagnoses with individual NHS services/ Local Authorities )

Please note we are an assessment service and do not provide

medication. If a diagnosis is made we will explain recommendations

made in the NICE guidelines. If after discussing these

recommendations medication is something you would like to

further explore we can make a free refer you to our partners at

a prescribing service.

How do we assess for ADHD

Step 1: Screening

We will send you a number of questionnaires that will help us to

understand more about you and your child. These questions will

look at signs of both Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism well as mental health conditions that can ‘look’ like ADHD. Questionnaires will also be provided for your child’s

school/ college.

Step 2: Developmental History

An assessment will be completed with you as parents/ guardians. This will involve both a general developmental assessment and the use the Young DIVA. This tool helps us to gather a detailed developmental history.

This appointment will be online and typically takes 2 hours.

Step 3: Behavioural Observation

An assessment will be completed with your child in a face-to-face appointment. This will involve the

ADOS-2. This is a gold standard assessment tool used to provide a behavioural observation. This

assessment involves different elements including questions, play or puzzle tasks and most young people find the assessment quite interesting. The assessment will also involve meeting with your child to discuss their views on their strengths and difficulties and consider their general mental health.

This appointment will typically be 2 hours.

Step 4: Initial Feedback

Following the completion of the key assessment components the assessing clinicians will meet to discuss the assessment (solo clinicians will consult with other team specialists) and diagnostic decisions are made as a multidisciplinary team. We will then call you to provide initial feedback.

On some occasions we may feel we do not have enough information to reach a diagnostic conclusion. In these cases we may try to gather further information from other sources such as further discussion with your child’s school/ college, a school observation or getting further information from other sources such as clubs that your child attends. There will be an additional fee for school observations.

Step 5: Report

We will email you the full report. We aim for our reports to be balanced and consider your child’s strengths as well as highlighting areas in which they are struggling and may need support.

Step 6: Feedback session

We will meet you for a feedback session to discuss the results in more detail and discuss any recommendations we have made.

Following assessment

We recommend that you share our report with your GP along with any other health care professional who is supporting your child (e.g. GP, Paediatrician, etc). Our report can also be shared with your child’s school/ college and used towards an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP).