Monday, July 27, 2009

The Basic Facts Of ADHD Test

By Anne Durrell

Indentifying ADHD is generally done with an ADHD test. It has nothing to do with any blood test since ADHD is a mental disease, so it is not diagnosable through basic medical tests.

American Psychiatric Association

The American Psychiatric Association or APA has created a list of 14 behavioral checkpoints to test for ADHD. According to the APA checklist, a child must exhibit at least 8 of the checkpoints to be diagnosed with ADHD.

Observation Test for Problems with ADHD Behavioral

So many children are misdiagnosed as having ADHD. One of the major reasons that ADHD is misdiagnosed is that testing is purely observational and so biased.

A psychiatric giving the test may be less able to abide certain behavior than any other psychiatric would be and may be say it as a problem when another psychiatric would consider it alright. For this reason, ADHD testing is pretty much done as a collaborative attempt where doctors, parents and teachers all give their views about a child's behavior.

It is not uncommon for parents to judge that their kid has ADHD just because they are with them more often, and regular ADHD behaviors can be difficult to deal with. A child can only be judged to have a trouble when they are showing a sign frequently on everyday life.

Example of ADHD Test

Below are the examples of checklist items that would be found on a special ADHD test:

* Is not diligent at school

* Substance abuse, learning troubles or family history of ADD or ADHD

* Easily sidetracked

* Does not pay attention to detail.

* Clear writing

* Bad listening skills

* Forgetfulness

* Problems with learning new things

* Appears restless

* Nervous or anxious behavior

* Cannot communicate well

* Trouble controlling impulses

* Easily getting bored

* Speaks without thinking

* Impatient

* Makes careless mistakes

* Disorganized - 16890

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