Sunday, May 20, 2012

Our Journey With What We Thought Was ADHD (Part 2)



Source
(You can read Part1 here.)

Okay, so lets talk a little more about this questionnaire that I had to fill out for my oldest daughter, the one that was used to initially diagnose her with ADHD.

The Attention Deficit Disorders Evaluation Scale (ADDES-3) is used by private psychologists, pediatricians, and other medical personnel to evaluate and diagnose Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder based on input provided by primary observers of the student’s behavior (in our case, me and her teacher). As pointed out by the developmental pediatrician, the questionnaire used is subjective and doesn’t look into what is causing the behaviors.

What I translate this into is that, even though this form is widely used to diagnose ADHD, it can easily be misconstrued. It is a subjective test who takes into account the opinions of those around the child, not an independent medical/behavioral observation and interaction with the child.

The ADDES-3 was developed from research in behavior disorders, learning disabilities, and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and literature in psychology, neurology, and education (when it was published in 1995). 1995 to 2012...that is 17 years ago and a lot has been discovered, researched, and improved upon in that time.

I am not saying that this form is not adequate to diagnose ADHD (which I am guessing you have assumed by now based on the tone of my post), I am just saying that none of this was provided or pointed out to me ahead of time.

This may be a form that has been tested and proved in typically diagnosing ADHD, but if I had known/realized just how subjective and realistically unreliable it is, I may have sought further testing to properly diagnose my daughter and not wasted the last 3 years assuming that she is ADHD.
Our youngest is now being tested, using this same form and I am having her referred to a developmental pediatrician for an actual, independent diagnosis.

You can read Post 3 here.

No comments:

Post a Comment