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Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Getting assessed and diagnosed
Push for the particulars: which task, which moment, what was happening just before, what they did instead. Where you can, ask someone who was there too, since the view from inside is not the whole of it. By the time the problem is described properly, the list of sensible things to try has usually shrunk to two or three.
'He taught Adam all the names' (Quran 2:31). Naming things precisely is where that story starts, and precision is most of what this step asks for.
البقرة
وَعَلَّمَ ءَادَمَ ٱلۡأَسۡمَآءَ كُلَّهَا ثُمَّ عَرَضَهُمۡ عَلَى ٱلۡمَلَٰٓئِكَةِ فَقَالَ أَنۢبِـُٔونِي بِأَسۡمَآءِ هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ إِن كُنتُمۡ صَٰدِقِينَ
He taught Adam all the names [of things], then He showed them to the angels and said, ‘Tell me the names of these if you truly [think you can].’
Qur’an 2:31read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
One account is often not enough. The long follow up of the multimodal treatment study of ADHD found symptoms persisting into young adulthood for many participants, and self report and informant report diverging. It was a follow up of a trial rather than a test of interview technique, so take it as a reason to gather the specifics from more than one angle.
Swanson JM, Arnold LE, Molina BSG, Sibley MH, Hechtman LT, Hinshaw SP, Abikoff HB, Stehli A, Owens EB, Mitchell JT, Nichols Q, Howard A, Greenhill LL, Hoza B, Newcorn JH, Jensen PS, Vitiello B, Wigal T, Epstein JN, Tamm L, Lakes KD, Waxmonsky J, Lerner M, Etcovitch J, Murray DW, Muenke M, Acosta MT, Arcos-Burgos M, Pelham WE, Kraemer HC, MTA Cooperative Group. (2017). Young adult outcomes in the follow-up of the multimodal treatment study of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: symptom persistence, source discrepancy, and height suppression.. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
A vague problem produces vague plans, and a specific one narrows the field for you.
Choose the subtests that answer the question you were actually asked, and read whatever reports the family already has before adding anything of your own. Children arrive with thick folders, and they also arrive with nothing at all.
Try not to ask why. If the person knew why, they would probably have sorted it out already, and the question tends to land like an accusation.
Ask for the most frightening moment of their life, then the next one down, then the next, until there is a scale running from one to a hundred. You get the ladder you needed, and they get something they did not expect: fear comes in sizes.