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ADHD
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition commonly linked with symptoms like inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. Although it's ultimately a difficulty with self-regulation: regulation of emotions, behaviours, physical movement, and focus of attention.
About this assessment
If you’re noticing your child has big feelings and meltdowns, can’t get started on boring tasks, is constantly talking or often has trouble following directions, an ADHD assessment may be worth exploring. For younger children who are pre-school age, these characteristics may be developmentally appropriate, but as a child enters primary school these challenges may be more evident when compared with their same aged peers. Later in childhood, entering into adolescence, as the demands of high school increase, you may notice your teen struggling more with organisation and planning, which also may be related to ADHD.
Our team will work with you to find out whether ADHD is a part of the picture, and whether there are any other difficulties related to ADHD that your child might be navigating.
Designed for:
- Primary school aged (5-12 years), adolescents (13-18 years)
- Diagnoses: Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and other co-occurring conditions such as learning difficulties (e.g. dyslexia), anxiety, low self-esteem, friendship problems, oppositional behaviour
- An ADHD assessment involves understanding a child’s cognitive abilities (like how they are going with verbal comprehension and remembering things) and looking at their specific executive skill difficulties (such as impulsivity, working memory and regulating their emotions and behaviours in different contexts)
Help your child reach their full potential
Seeking out an ADHD assessment isn’t just about receiving an accurate diagnosis. In fact, one of the most valuable parts of this assessment is identifying their strengths and any co-occurring conditions that might need tailored support, too.
With a holistic ADHD assessment at the Kids Clinic, we can pinpoint the challenges your child is facing (and why) along with their areas of strength, allowing us to tailor a plan of recommendations to support your child’s wellbeing and development.
Most importantly, understanding ADHD and the way your child experiences it can help you to better understand your child, which can lead to better relationships and happier households.
A comprehensive approach leads to better outcomes
This assessment is also a valuable way to access the appropriate accommodations and services your child might need—such as what school exam provisions might be helpful, any allowances for the use of sensory tools and what therapy might be useful, from psychology to speech or even occupational therapy.
This assessment at a glance
Enquire
An intake coordinator will assess your concerns and walk you through the best assessment for your child’s needs. This may be a single clinical assessment (if there are only one or two areas of concern) or a multidisciplinary assessment (if your child is navigating multiple concerns, like communication difficulties, emotional outbursts and social differences).
Pre-assessment questionnaires
We’ll start off with standardised questionnaires to assess your child’s inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. Plus, we’ll assess their higher-order cognitive skills (like planning and organisation) using standardised assessment questionnaires. These questionnaires will be shared with you and a school teacher to get a snapshot of your child’s behaviour across different contexts.
Assessment day
The assessment day (typically around 3-4 hours) involves interviews with you and your child, cognitive assessments, activities and observations with your child.
Functional capacity assessment
We’ll ensure we understand your child’s abilities across several areas (such as communication, daily living skills, motor skills and social skills) to assess functioning holistically.
Multidisciplinary team results review
Our team will review the assessment results, and if your child meets certain criteria, a diagnosis will be made. Factors contributing to the presenting concern will be addressed.
Feedback session
Feedback will be provided on the day or another day following the assessment. Your final report (hard copy and digital copy versions) with be provided with a clear set of tailored recommendations.
Throughcare
We will do our best to support you to find the help that has been recommended. Sometimes we can provide this for you but other times we may need to refer you to another service. Either way, we will support you through your journey in any way we can.
Meet CHAMPS
We know that cookie-cutter, traditional assessment methods don’t offer the best outcomes for kids. That’s why we developed ChAMPS (Child & Adolescent Multidisciplinary Private Service), our multidisciplinary team for the assessment of complex childhood development needs.
In our experience, developmental differences show up across several areas and a comprehensive assessment is the best way to understand if a child is neurodivergent and/or has complex needs to support their development. We ensure multiple clinicians from different disciplines are in the one location on the same day to observe and assess your child, with our multidisciplinary team working together to create a holistic plan for ongoing support to ensure your child reaches their potential.
Plus, we explore your child’s ability to complete daily tasks (from communicating to self-care and learning) and we offer tailored interventions and supports to help them achieve independence. These recommendations are aligned with how the NDIS assesses the support needs and funding allocations of individuals with disabilities or neurodevelopmental conditions, such as Autism.
Book Now
Complete this brief Online Intake Questionnaire (2 mins) to speed up the process for booking your initial appointment at Marsden Health. We will contact you as soon as it’s complete.