Why is Testing Recommended?

For many conditions in the field of mental health, the diagnosis is determined by whether the patient reports enough symptoms from a long list of possible symptoms. While this is true for Attention Deficit Disorder, the diagnosis also requires that other conditions are playing a part in the reported symptoms. Therefore, assessment needs to be done regarding possible relevant comorbid disorders.

Psychological and/or neuropsychological tests can help define the diagnosis in a more precise way. Thus, the reason for doing testing is to find out what the truth is for the patient.

More specifically, psychological and neuropsychological testing can help to discern what cognitive strengths and weaknesses exist in a person. In a learning disabled person, the overall level of intelligence is determined, and the subtests within this battery help reveal the strengths and weaknesses in the person's cognitive processes, helping to explain the learning disability. With other mild brain problems, different patterns emerge. This can tell the neuropsychologist what kind of disorder the person has, but, more importantly, the testing can identify the strengths and weaknesses in a person so that guidance for career, remediation or treatment can be made with some degree of precision.

In an attention deficit disorder (ADD) person, testing takes a slightly different role. Since learning disabilities overlap with ADD about 40 percent of the time, this should be ruled out as a strong contributing factor. Additionally, verbal and visual memory should be assessed so that mild degrees of brain dysfunction can be discerned.

There are various options in testing, which can be found on the Assessment Options page of this site. As the testing becomes more extensive, more definition can be brought to the diagnosis, and thus it is recommended to test as much as you can afford.

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