Adults and Children

ADHD is officially diagnosed when an individual displays a certain number of symptoms.  The diagnosis also states that the symptoms must not be due to some other disorder, such as a neurological problem, psychopathology, or other medical problems.  Neuropsychological/psychological testing is a more accurate way of determining whether an individual has ADHD and to rule out other possible disorders.  Testing helps clarify the diagnostic presentation.

A neuropsychological/psychological evaluation emphasizes cognitive abilities related to neurological disorders such as visual and verbal memory, fine motor coordination, shifting of sets, and novel abstract reasoning.  A comprehensive evaluation includes:

a full intelligence test:

• measures of verbal and visual memory
• measures of executive functioning
• measures academic abilities
• a performance and attention battery
• a personality assessment