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ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is a serious condition that affects almost 10% of the population. It also can be difficult to diagnose, as it often goes hand in hand with other challenges that can look very similar to ADHD. Individuals with ADHD can experience symptoms with inattention and/or hyperactivity and impulsivity that can negatively impact school, work, and social relationships.

At Triangle Psychology Associates, our professionals have extensive experience in supporting children, adolescents, and adults with ADHD. Our assessments can determine whether your experiences are truly the result of ADHD and, if so, provide you with recommendations specific to your unique patterns of strengths and weaknesses. Accurate diagnosis is essential for effective treatment.

When should you consider and ADHD Evaluation?

Attention difficulties can arise for a number of reasons. Sometimes, medical problems (or side effects from medications) can result in attention difficulties. Sometimes, other challenges, like learning disabilities, anxiety or depression, can result in behavior or characteristics that look similar to symptoms of ADHD. And sometimes ADHD can co-occur with other concerns. It is very important to get a correct diagnosis, so your challenges can be addressed effectively. Many professionals are not trained in depth enough to sort of all of the potential factors that could be at play when someone experiences challenges with attention. Our providers have in-depth training and experience in helping you answer these questions. 

In order to rule out a medical reason for your attention difficulties, it is helpful to have a recent medical exam (well child visit with a pediatrician for children, or a physical with your primary care doctor). This can rule out concerns such as hearing or vision problems, sleep disturbances, and other health issues that may be affecting your ability to be attentive.

Differential Diagnosis

Our goal is to help you find answers to your concerns and one important way to do this is to make sure you get an accurate diagnosis. This is essential in helping you get the right treatment and interventions going forward. Many conditions can mimic the symptoms of ADHD, including depression, anxiety, slow processing speed, dyslexia and working memory deficits. Our professionals will assess for other conditions as a part of your comprehensive evaluation to help tease apart what is causing your difficulties.

 Benefits of an ADHD Evaluation

Having an accurate diagnosis has a multitude of benefits. Individuals with ADHD that are properly diagnosed and treated may find they are seeing improved grades, improved access to educational accommodations and services, and improved learning and study habits. It also gives you a better understanding of how your brain works and allows you to work on developing coping strategies that specifically address your challenges and lead to great control and self-esteem in life.

 Accommodations for Individuals with ADHD

Many people are unaware that certain educational services and accommodations are available to individuals with ADHD in both school and college settings. Services and accommodations may include modified testing environments, additional time during exams, or preferential seating. Additionally, individuals whose condition is documented through a comprehensive psychological evaluation are often eligible for extended time on standardized tests, such as the SAT, ACT, and GRE. Gaining access to such services and accommodations can be critical to meeting students’ educational needs and preserving self-esteem and general academic success.

In North Carolina, the cutoff to start Kindergarten is that your student needs to be 5 by August 31. If your child’s birthday falls any later than this date, you have the option to submit a special application, which must include a Kindergarten Readiness assessment.

Your school district will require you to submit a portfolio of some of your child’s work, letters of recommendation, and testing scores from an IQ and achievement test. These tests are not offered through school districts and have to be obtained privately. Your child’s scores will need to be at the 98th percentile or higher in reading OR math on the achievement test. 

If Kindergarten Readiness is something you are considering, please reach out and schedule a 15 minute free consultation to see if this is the right step for you

If you are concerned about the possibility of dyslexia or another learning disorder, we can help. Learning disabilities, which include dyslexia, affect approximately 10% of people. Learning disabilities are specific areas of weakness that negatively affect a person’s academic skill development and functioning, despite the person having at least average intellectual abilities. A person can be quite bright and yet struggle in specific areas of their education. Many students who struggle in school have undiagnosed learning disabilities.

We have extensive expertise in helping children, adolescents and adults identify learning disabilities and are qualified to distinguish learning disabilities from the many other conditions that can affect academic performance (ADHD, depression and anxiety, to name a few). Again, an accurate diagnosis is crucial to effective intervention.

As with all of our evaluations, our assessment reports will provide you with recommendations specific to your or your child’s unique pattern of strength and weaknesses.

It is important to be aware that children and college students with dyslexia or another learning disability are likely eligible for educational services and accommodations through special education or Section 504. Gaining access to such services and accommodations can be critical to a student’s academic success and preserving their self-esteem, which is often deeply affected when a learning disability is present.

 We evaluate dyslexia based on the recommendations by the Internal Dyslexia Association and renowned dyslexia expert, Sally Shaywitz, MD. An evaluation for dyslexia can be conducted with anyone ages 4 and up (including adults) and (depending on age) includes:

• Review of developmental, medical, behavioral and family history
• Review of report cards, teacher feedback, and results from standardized testing.

Standardized measures used in these evaluations cover these areas:

• Cognitive abilities and processing (auditory and visual processing, and visual motor integration)
• Academic achievement in reading, writing and math
• Specific evaluation of reading and writing skills (including phonological processing)
• Rapid automatic naming abilities
• Single word decoding of both real and nonsense words
• Oral and silent reading in context to evaluate rate, fluency, comprehension and accuracy
• Reading comprehension
• Orthographic processing (e.g. spelling)
• Written expression
• Oral language skills

Giftedness evaluations allow us to determine if your bright child falls within the range of what is considered “gifted” and provides you with individualized recommendations for your needs. Having a gifted child can be as challenging as having a child with a learning disability. Finding an appropriately challenging educational environment is essential and understanding the different ways in which gifted children learn is also key in ensuring their success. We are here to get you started on this path.

Our assessments for giftedness include:

• Review of developmental, medical, behavioral and family history
• Review of educational reports, teacher feedback and, if available, results from any previous standardized testing
• Assessment of cognitive abilities using comprehensive, standardized measures (including verbal and nonverbal abilities working memory, and processing speed)
• Assessment of academic achievement in the areas of reading, writing and math.
• Review work samples that may be indicative of your child’s unique gifts and talents. This could include previous written work, artwork, audio or video recordings of musical or theatrical talents, etc.

Further evaluation in additional areas may also be indicated if we suspect learning, emotional, behavioral or attention problems from testing.

Anxiety can impact behavior, social and emotional functioning in many ways. It can also directly impact how well you or your child are able to function on the job and in school. Identifying anxiety is key in making sure you can get on a path to overcoming your challenges, so this is one area we always include in our assessments. 

Depression can often be a factor that impacts daily functioning and academic performance. At times things like difficulty with attention or academic achievement can be rooted in struggles with depression. When we conduct evaluations, we always screen for signs and symptoms of depression to make sure we give you an accurate diagnosis so your challenges can be addressed appropriately and effectively.