Loading practices
Loading practices
Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Getting assessed and diagnosed
Brevity is not a convenience you are allowing yourself. It is what keeps the data honest, and it keeps the child willing for whatever you ask next. Pay particular attention to the first minute, because that is where you are seeing ability rather than endurance.
'God does not burden any soul with more than He has given it' (Quran 65:7). Fitting the demand to what the person actually has is the principle, and a shorter task is a small instance of it.
الطلاق
لِيُنفِقۡ ذُو سَعَةࣲ مِّن سَعَتِهِۦۖ وَمَن قُدِرَ عَلَيۡهِ رِزۡقُهُۥ فَلۡيُنفِقۡ مِمَّآ ءَاتَىٰهُ ٱللَّهُۚ لَا يُكَلِّفُ ٱللَّهُ نَفۡسًا إِلَّا مَآ ءَاتَىٰهَاۚ سَيَجۡعَلُ ٱللَّهُ بَعۡدَ عُسۡرࣲ يُسۡرࣰ ا
and let the wealthy man spend according to his wealth. But let him whose provision is restricted spend according to what God has given him: God does not burden any soul with more than He has given it- after hardship, God will bring ease
Qur’an 65:7read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Short instruments can carry real signal. In an international clinical sample, a brief adult self report screener flagged possible ADHD reasonably well, though the authors were clear that it is a screening step and not a diagnosis. That was a questionnaire rather than a cognitive task, so it supports brief measures being worth having rather than settling anything on their own.
van de Glind G, van den Brink W, Koeter MW, Carpentier PJ, van Emmerik-van Oortmerssen K, Kaye S, Skutle A, Bu ET, Franck J, Konstenius M, Moggi F, Dom G, Verspreet S, Demetrovics Z, Kapitány-Fövény M, Fatséas M, Auriacombe M, Schillinger A, Seitz A, Johnson B, Faraone SV, Ramos-Quiroga JA, Casas M, Allsop S, Carruthers S, Barta C, Schoevers RA, IASP Research Group, Levin FR. (2013). Validity of the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) as a screener for adult ADHD in treatment seeking substance use disorder patients.. Drug and alcohol dependence doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Once a task outlasts a child's attention it stops measuring the skill and starts measuring stamina.
Assessing a child's thinking used to mean a referral, a waiting list and a report some months later. Brief cognitive tools an ordinary clinician can run have changed that, and the gap between noticing something and having a plan can now be a session rather than a season.
Ask for a number first, then go hunting for exceptions. How is today on a scale of one to ten, and when was it last higher than that?
Before handing anyone a new system, make sure they can say back why it should work better than what they are doing now. A strategy with no reason attached gets dropped the first time it is inconvenient.