Would an ADHD assessment be helpful for your child?

ADHD Assessment Hertfordshire. Our team provides multidisciplinary assessments for ADHD. All of our assessments follow best practice NICE guidelines and are conducted by clinicians with expertise in this area.

ADHD Assessment Hertfordshire – Initial contact and screening

We accept self-referrals for ADHD assessments. This means that families can contact us directly about ADHD assessments and there is no need for a GP referral. We talk to families to make sure that an ADHD assessment sounds appropriate. If deemed appropriate we begin the screening process.

This involves sending out some ‘screening’ questionnaires to the family and (usually) to the school. There is a growing awareness that some children may ‘mask’ ADHD symptoms in school. Rest assured, we always take this into account in our assessments. Please let us know if your child is not currently attending school and we will come up with a different plan.

ADHD – Initial assessment

When the screening process is complete, we will arrange an initial appointment with one of our Clinical Psychologists. This is a virtual appointment which takes place on MS Teams. It usually takes 1.5-2 hours. It is an interview-based assessment aimed at gathering a detailed overview of your child’s development and current functioning.  

We ask that at least one parent attends the appointment, and if possible, have the child present for the first 15 minutes. You will receive feedback at the end of the appointment. This feedback determines whether it would be advisable to proceed to the next stage of the assessment.Face-to-face QB Check and Clinic Observation

If a full ADHD assessment is indicated, we will book your child in to see one of our clinicians for a face-to-face appointment. We use the QB check, which is a computer-based task designed to measure symptoms of:

• inattention
• hyperactivity
• impulsivity

Additionally, we will conduct a clinic observation of your child. Depending on the child’s age, we might ask them some additional questions about their experiences. These appointments typically take around 45 minutes.

While completing this assessment, we normally ask parents to wait outside of the room.

Discussion and report

The clinicians involved in your child’s assessment (and sometimes additional clinicians too) will then meet as a multidisciplinary team. We discuss all of the assessment findings. Importantly, the diagnostic outcome is usually agreed at this stage (i.e. ADHD or not ADHD).

ADHD Assessment – Follow up

Your clinicians will then write a full comprehensive report, including an explanation of any diagnoses made.  Furthermore, recommendations and strategies tailored to your child’s individual needs will be provided.

The entire process from the first appointment to receiving the final report should take no more than 6-8 weeks. Occasionally we may need more information and we may need to recommend something like a school observation. This is indicated in a minority of cases and may incur an additional cost which will be discussed with you.

Finally, you will have the option to book a follow-up appointment with your lead clinician to discuss the outcome of the assessment.  These appointments last for around one hour.

Please note that we do not currently offer a medication follow up clinic. We may be able to signpost you to local private medication follow up clinics should this be required.

Please note, if ADHD is diagnosed, it is important to note that a referral can be made to the relevant local NHS service to request a medication follow-up. However, a private diagnosis will not lead to prioritisation for medication follow-up in the NHS.

If you would like an Assessment please start the process by completing our form and we’ll be in touch. Please feel free to connect with us on Facebook too.