According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), formerly the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, ADHD-specific rating scales are more accurate in distinguishing between children with and without the diagnosis of ADHD, than global, nonspecific questionnaires and rating scales that assess a variety of behavioral conditions.
Free Conners Parent Rating Scale Pdf Plans
Clinicians evaluating a child for ADHD use a variety of assessment tools to gather information. They will ask parents and educators to complete various forms, including checklists, behavior questionnaires, or rating scales. These tools are an essential component of a comprehensive evaluation for ADHD.
Results: The vast majority of studies assessing ADHD treatments have measured treatment response using ADHD symptom measures. Additional domains relevant for assessing treatment response among children and adults with ADHD include functional impairment, quality of life, adaptive life skills, and executive function. Validated rating scales exist for assessing these additional domains, but there has been minimal research evaluating the sensitivity of these instruments for detecting treatment response in pediatric and adult samples.
Compared with these broadband functional impairment rating scales, narrowband rating scales are relatively brief, because they focus only on areas of impairment noted to be most problematic in patients with ADHD. The Impairment Rating Scale (IRS)73 is a brief multidimensional instrument for children with ADHD. Both the parent version, assessing 7 domains (relationship with peers, relationship with siblings, relationship with parents, academic progress, self-esteem, influence on family functioning, and overall impairment), and the teacher version, assessing 6 domains (relationship with peers, relationship with teacher, academic progress, self-esteem, influence on classroom functioning, and overall impairment), have acceptable to excellent stability, evidence of validity, and reliability.73 The Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Teacher Rating Scale (VADTRS)30 and Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Parent Rating Scale (VADPRS)29 are primarily ADHD symptom scales but also include performance subscales to assess multidimensional impairment in areas such as reading, writing, mathematics, and relationships. The Vanderbilt scales have established concurrent validity and internal consistency.21
Data from Weiss et al101 suggest that ADHD-specific QOL measures may be more sensitive than multidimensional measures. ADHD-specific rating scales include the ADHD Impact Module (AIM), which is available in a child version completed by the parent (AIM-C)102,103 and an adult self-report version (AIM-A).104,105 The AIM-C includes subscales evaluating QOL at home and the impact of ADHD, as well as 9 items assessing treatment status, history, and demographic information. The AIM-A has 4 global QOL items, 5 economic impact items, and 5 subscales (living with ADHD; general well-being; work, home, and school performance and daily functioning; relationships and communication; and impact of symptoms). Psychometric data from limited clinical samples indicate acceptable internal consistency, validity, reliability, and sensitivity.103,105
During initial titration, as well as during maintenance of treatment, it is critical that ratings be collected from multiple raters (eg, parent and teacher for a child; self and spouse for an adult), because the level of agreement among raters may be low. For example, in a report by Lavigne and colleagues,160 it was noted that agreement between parent and teacher ratings for ADHD symptoms was too low for clinicians to rely only on parent reports. This may be especially important when assessing multiple domains of functioning (eg, academic impairment), for which input from other raters (eg, teachers) provides a broader and often more objective perspective regarding improvement and degree of impairment than is typically found in parent ratings or in adult self-ratings. Ratings indicating residual deficits in functionality, QOL, adaptive life skills, or executive functioning suggest the need for escalation of current treatment or, more likely, for additional treatment modalities to remediate the full breadth of ADHD-related impairment.
We have demonstrated that there are now psychometrically sound measures of adaptive skills, executive function, functioning, and QOL in ADHD. Thus, we believe that it is currently feasible to broaden outcome assessments beyond symptom rating scales. In an attempt to provide guidance to mental health professionals treating patients with ADHD, we have derived a sample battery of measures that could be used to assess the full range of outcomes discussed in this article (Table 2). We have selected assessment batteries for children and adults using measures that are readily accessible, economical, comprehensive, and sensitive to treatment effects. Moreover, to be parsimonious, we have preferentially selected measures that assess multiple domains in a single instrument as opposed to selecting different instruments for individual domains. We also have included time estimates (55 minutes for the child test-battery; 40 minutes for the adult battery) to demonstrate that the suggested battery should not place an undue burden on patients or their families, especially because such assessment of treatment response need only occur 2 to 4 times per year.
Over 7,000 assessments were collected in the development of the Conners CBRS and Conners CI, including ratings of children and youth for the normative sample, clinical cases, and for the validity studies. In the normative study, 3,400 Conners CBRS assessments were collected. The large normative data sample is representative of the general U.S. population in terms of ethnicity/race, gender, and parental education level (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000). The normative sample is also diverse in terms of parental education level and geographic region.
For almost 50 years, ADHD rating scales have been used to help screen, evaluate, and monitor the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adults. Rating scales are considered essential for ADHD diagnosis in children. Many different types of scales are available. Ideally, you or one of the following people will complete the forms:
A typical rating scale will have 18 to 90 questions about the frequency of ADHD-related behaviors. Questions are based on the definition of ADHD provided by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Some examples of these behaviors include:
ADHD rating scales are available for children, teenagers, and adults. Questionnaires can take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes to complete. You can find them online for free or sold for up to $140. While anyone can fill out a rating scale, only your doctor can provide an accurate diagnosis of ADHD.
A question may probe the extent of excessive talking or fidgeting to gauge hyperactivity. Questions regarding impulsivity may ask about interrupting. Rating these behaviors can help measure inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness. Some rating scales like the SNAP-IV will also ask about classroom performance. Overall, the tests are designed to look for strong evidence of ADHD behaviors.
Many healthcare professionals use the NICHQ Vanderbilt Assessment Scale Diagnostic Rating Scale to help diagnose ADHD. The scale is meant for children ages 6 to 12, but people in other age groups can use it, if applicable. Different forms are available for parents and teachers. Both forms screen for symptoms of ADHD and inattention. The parent assessment scale has a separate section for conduct disorder, or antisocial behavior while the teacher assessment scale has an extra section on learning disabilities.
The SNAP-IV rating scale contains nine questions regarding inattention and nine regarding hyperactivity and impulsivity. For each item, or behavior, you note the frequency from not at all to very much. These responses are ranked on a scale of 0 to 3. Once you add up the scores for each section, you divide the number by 9 to determine an average.
On the Snap-IV scale, teachers can rate a child who scores above 2.56 as inattentive. For parents, the figure is 1.78. A score on the hyperactive and impulsive questions of 1.78 for teachers and 1.44 for parents indicates a need for further investigation for ADHD.
Listed below are the rating scales and questionnaires reviewed at the Patient-Centered Mental Health in Pediatric Primary Care Program. These tools are organized by condition and available as free downloads.
Flow diagram showing the four stages of the Dundee ADHD Clinical Care Pathway. ADHD attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, ADHD-RS-IV attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder rating scale IV, ADOS Austistic Diagnostic Observation Schedule, ECG electrocardiogram, K-SADS-PL Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime version, NFPP New Forest Parenting Programme, SKAMP Swanson, Kotkin, Agler, M-Flynn and Pelham scale, SNAP-IV Swanson, Nolan and Pelham-IV questionnaire
The focus at this stage is to collect the information required to make a diagnosis and to plan treatment. Clinical information is primarily gathered from parents/carers using a standardized procedure that, in addition to ADHD, also considers potential differential diagnoses and comorbid mental and physical health problems. An interview with the child, focusing on impairment and functioning, is also conducted. Structured narrative school reports and teacher-rating scales, most frequently the Swanson, Kotkin, Agler, M-Flynn and Pelham (SKAMP) scale [38] (Additional file 1), are requested prior to the first assessment visit.
Our clinic documentation and the SKAMP teachers rating scale are available as online Additional files. Alternative documentation is available from the Canadian ADHD Resource Alliance [59]. Their assessment toolkit has many similarities to our own and may be preferred by some clinicians [60]. 2ff7e9595c
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