Assessments for attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity (ADD, ADHD)

A series of tests are performed to determine the child's attentional profile: concentration, mental flexibility, organizational skills, and possible impulsiveness or hyperactivity. Questionnaires also help to understand the difficulties observed at home and at school.

The dimensions assessed during the attention assessment are detailed below. Children with ADD or ADHD may not have difficulties in all of these areas: some children may, for example, have significant attention difficulties, but without problems managing emotions, without hyperactivity, impulsiveness or organizational difficulties. Conversely, other children may, from a neurological perspective, have a good ability to concentrate but significant difficulties in the other areas, each profile being unique across the different dimensions.

Attention - concentration

Children with attention deficit disorder have difficulties that may affect one or more aspects of attention - concentration, such as selective attention (the ability to pay close attention to what is important for the current task or activity, without being too strongly distracted by other thoughts or the environment), divided attention (performing two tasks at the same time), and sustained attention (maintaining attention for a long time). These different forms of attention are tested for different situations, along with the difference between auditory and visual attention.

Impulsiveness

Impulsivity is a difficulty stopping an impulse, as well as thinking before acting. It is frequently observed in children with attention deficit disorder and also concerns non-emotional situations, such as doing work quickly but sloppily, not taking the time to read the instructions before answering a question, or frequently interrupting others.

Hyperactivity

The child has difficulty staying still, fidgets a lot, talks excessively, and is very impatient.

Mental flexibility

Mental flexibility is the ability to adapt to changing circumstances or situations. This can apply to intellectual activities (changing instructions, learning a new way to perform calculations, etc.) but also to everyday situations (adapting to unforeseen events, changing plans).

Emotional control

Difficulties in this area may include overreacting to small things and frequent mood swings. The child struggles to control their emotions. Another aspect is the child's awareness and understanding of the impact their emotional reactions have on other people.

Taking initiatives

This is the ability to initiate an activity independently and develop one's own ideas for solving problems. Children with weaknesses in this area, for example, have difficulty getting down to work, even though they would like to be able to, and are more dependent on their environment (parents, teachers), who often have to remind them of their actions.

Organizational skills

Organization is the ability to set goals, anticipate what might happen, and plan the steps to achieve a goal. It also includes the ability to perceive the essential elements in a speech or text, to be able to differentiate them from less important ideas, as well as the ability to organize one's own thoughts to explain something in a structured way, orally or in writing. The organization and order of one's belongings and materials is also an aspect.

Working memory

This concerns the ability of a child to keep several pieces of information in mind, while remaining able to think and reflect at the same time. Working memory is required in a number of daily activities, for example, when the child is asked to brush their teeth after putting away a toy, in the sense that they must not forget to also brush their teeth after putting the toy away. Some children forget, for example, what they were supposed to do while they are working. Working memory is also very required in school exercises, especially in mathematics.

Intellectual or cognitive assessment

Intellectual efficiency tests allow us to situate a child's abilities in different areas such as language, logic, long and short-term memory, attention, spatial awareness, work speed and other dimensions. Some of these tests allow us to calculate an intelligence quotient (IQ), but it must always be interpreted taking into account the child's entire profile, particularly with an impulsive child or one who has blockages, or with a child whose results in different areas are not homogeneous.

Intellectual profile

Some children have difficulty adapting to classroom learning. Determining the intellectual profile allows for better targeting of necessary adjustments in the classroom. The assessment also allows us to see if the difficulties at school are linked, for example, to intellectual weaknesses, intellectual over-efficiency, or if the child, on the contrary, has intellectual abilities that are fully within the expectations for their age, but other specific difficulties that hinder their learning. These may be, for example, neurological difficulties (dys disorders, attention, memory, etc.) or emotional difficulties (anxiety, sadness, blockages).

Giftedness

Children with high intellectual potential often have specific needs, particularly at school. A number of programs and adjustments can be made for them, and a psychological assessment of giftedness is then required. The assessment not only determines whether the child has high potential, but also highlights their intellectual profile, including the areas where they differ most from children their age, their way of thinking and reasoning, and their work style. It is recommended to combine intellectual tests with emotional tests to obtain a complete profile and better guide the school and parents on the support they need.

Training for attention, flexibility and self-control (5-7 yo)

With this training, children ages 5 to 7 learn to be more attentive, flexible, and self-controlled. Activities are structured around the theme of discovering the jungle and its wild animals. Children take on the role of explorers during the various exercises, discovering jungle animals, helping the veterinarian, walking in the jungle, and even capturing wild animals in action.

Memory training

Memory plays an important role in learning. Children with memory weaknesses, whether short-term or long-term memory, often struggle in school. This can result in difficultires in integrating new knowledge (the child needs more repetitions than other children, keeps information in memory with more difficulty), but often also difficulties in various tasks such as problem solving, mental calculation, spelling and text comprehension. These children then are in difficulty in various schools subjects.

In this memory training, children learn memory strategies to compensate for their memory weaknesses. They follow the story of an animal who, like them, has difficulties remembering things easily. He will be supported by his friends, who pass on to him various very useful strategies. The sessions follow the rhythm of the adventures of this animal, gone on a trip to the other side of the world and which he wishes to achieve despite his memory difficulties.

Training for the development of attention and concentration (8-14 yo)

In this training, children and adolescents learn how their attention and concentration work, and develop strategies to be more attentive in everyday life and at school. The themes of organization, autonomy, impulsiveness, and behavioral regulation are also addressed. Children and adolescents acquire better learning strategies and gain self-confidence. They become aware of their strengths and weaknesses and develop strategies to compensate for them.

During the sessions, different inner characters are presented, each representing a facet of how our attentional system works. This allows children and adolescents to represent their own functioning in a concrete, pictorial, and meaningful way. Through these characters, engaging in tasks and exercises requiring attention and good self-control becomes fun, clear, and motivating. The training is largely based on the PiFAM method, developed in Canada by neuropsychologist Francine Lussier, but also incorporates other elements.