Like an ADHD or Autism evaluation, AuDHD testing involves a comprehensive review of your developmental and health/medical history. To the degree possible, your doctors will work to gather information about your cognition and behaviors from sources, including friends/family or teachers. This enables a more vivid representation of potential challenges and helps you understand how your behavior may affect others. Family members may also have a better understanding of your childhood behaviors, and teachers can speak to the impact of executive functioning on learning. Family or friends can provide valuable insights into how executive functioning difficulties affect relationships. Not only can this be beneficial in clarifying diagnoses, but it also allows your doctor to consider treatment approaches or recommendations that have the greatest impact on your mental health and overall functioning.

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Clearly, the challenges and strengths associated with autism and ADHD can vary depending on the situation in which you find yourself. Further, adults and children demonstrate the challenges in different ways. An ANNW evaluation includes a comprehensive interview to understand where you are today, as well as how you arrived at this point. Understanding your complex history is necessary to distinguish between developmental issues and challenges that arose from life events. Unfortunately, many neurodivergent individuals have traumatic experiences that limit clarity even further and need to be understood to help inform treatment planning and recommendations.

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What we use to make an accurate diagnosis

Developmental and health/medical history: As part of the comprehensive diagnosis intake process, we review various potential factors that may contribute to your challenges. This includes a review of your health history beginning during your mother’s pregnancy and continuing to the present day.  We may gather information through both intake forms and discussions that cover your developmental history, as well as your family's medical and psychiatric history. All of this information can help your doctors differentiate between the complex factors at play and help to determine the best treatment approach for you.

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Collateral Information: Your doctors will work to gather information about your cognition and behaviors from sources, including friends/family or teachers. This enables a more vivid representation of potential challenges and helps you understand how your behavior may affect others. Family members may also have a better understanding of your childhood behaviors, and teachers can speak to the impact of executive functioning on learning. Family or friends can provide valuable insights into how executive functioning difficulties affect relationships. Not only can this be beneficial in clarifying diagnoses, but it also allows your doctor to consider treatment approaches or recommendations that have the greatest impact on your mental health and overall functioning.

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Testing data: We gather testing data about intellectual functioning, language expression and reception, attention, working memory, processing speed, executive functioning (problem-solving, organization, cognitive flexibility, impulse control, analysis and reasoning for visual and auditory information), memory for both what you see and hear, social perception, and social communication, along with behavioral data about social perception and social communication gleaned from hours of face-to-face interactions. Formal assessment of mood and personality is included to better understand how mood may impact your functioning. All of this data, in combination, informs treatment recommendations or accommodations for work and school as needed and appropriate.

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How a Diagnosis is Made

How a diagnosis is made: The DSM-V diagnostic criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and ADHD serve as a basis for our understanding, although these criteria are just the starting point. They may tell us if you reflect a certain set of challenges, but you and your doctor will work together to understand whether the challenges reflect other factors, such as a sensory processing disorder, social anxiety, a social communication deficit that reflects a language disorder rather than ASD, etc. The diagnoses provided include the type of ADHD (which can inform medication treatment) as well as the identification of the level (severity) of ASD (necessary to receive some forms of support) and whether there is an accompanying intellectual or language impairment. Having both comprehensive data available from an evaluation, along with the clinical knowledge gained from years of working with patients, allows our doctors to identify challenges that may not be apparent from a simple rating scale. 

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If you are interested in AuDHD testing for yourself or your child, please contact us by phone or complete the contact form on the website. You will receive a call to schedule a time to get your answers and receive help. The costs and a detailed description of the evaluation are provided below.