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Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Getting assessed and diagnosed
A profile written for clinicians is no use in a classroom of thirty. Give three or four concrete actions instead: where this child sits, how instructions get given, what happens when written work is the barrier rather than the thinking. It also helps to run this after your own assessment and impressions are settled, so that the report you receive back is a check on your formulation rather than the source of it.
'Consult with them about matters, then, when you have decided on a course of action, put your trust in God' (Quran 3:159). Consulting the people who will carry the plan comes before the plan is handed over, not after.
آل عمران
فَبِمَا رَحۡمَةࣲ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ لِنتَ لَهُمۡۖ وَلَوۡ كُنتَ فَظًّا غَلِيظَ ٱلۡقَلۡبِ لَٱنفَضُّواْ مِنۡ حَوۡلِكَۖ فَٱعۡفُ عَنۡهُمۡ وَٱسۡتَغۡفِرۡ لَهُمۡ وَشَاوِرۡهُمۡ فِي ٱلۡأَمۡرِۖ فَإِذَا عَزَمۡتَ فَتَوَكَّلۡ عَلَى ٱللَّهِۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلۡمُتَوَكِّلِينَ
By an act of mercy from God, you [Prophet] were gentle in your dealings with them- had you been harsh, or hard-hearted, they would have dispersed and left you- so pardon them and ask forgiveness for them. Consult with them about matters, then, when you have decided on a course of action, put your trust in God: God loves those who put their trust in Him
Qur’an 3:159read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
This handover step is also where the evidence thins out. A review of controlled and naturalistic studies of adult ADHD treatment found short term benefits well documented while far less is known about how treatment shapes longer term outcomes. That review is about medication in adults rather than about school re-entry for children, and it names the gap honestly: what happens after the intensive phase has been studied much less than the intensive phase itself.
Fredriksen M, Halmøy A, Faraone SV, Haavik J. (2013). Long-term efficacy and safety of treatment with stimulants and atomoxetine in adult ADHD: a review of controlled and naturalistic studies.. European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Progress made in a clinic room only lasts if somebody in the ordinary week knows exactly what to keep doing.
Only share what the family has agreed to share, and in the words they would use themselves.
Hyperactivity and impulsiveness almost never turn up alone. When restlessness appears with no attention difficulty beside it, that is a reason to ask what else might be going on.
If someone was adopted, or simply does not know their family history, say early and plainly that this is not a problem. It helps to have and it is not needed.
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.