Vanderbilt Assessment For Adhd

Read In This Guide About Vanderbilt Assessment Summary Scoring And Examples

Vanderbilt Assessment Test and Summary

Psychological assessment of ADHD in children aged 6 to 12 years old can be done using VADRS, the Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Rating Scale. Sometimes it is used for preschool children and teens up to 18 years old. Trained healthcare professionals can ask the childs parents and teachers to fill out VADRS.

The Vanderbilt test assesses how severely the symptoms of ADHD affect a childs behavior and academic performance.

Read in this guide:

• Vanderbilt ADHD test for adults?
• Vanderbilt ADHD test for child?
• Vanderbilt ADHD assessment for adults?

VADRS consists of 55 questions that review ADHD symptoms. The test also helps screen for three comorbidities anxiety/depression oppositional-defiant disorder and conduct disorder. The test can be used to determine which type of ADHD a child has predominantly inattentive predominantly hyperactive/impulsive or a combination of both.

The NICHQ Vanderbilt Assessment Scale is not enough on its own to merit a diagnosis of ADHD. For a clinical diagnosis further assessment is required by a healthcare provider.

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Vanderbilt ADHD age range?

VADRS was specifically designed for children aged 6-12 years however it is sometimes used to assess preschool children and teens up to 18 years old.

Vanderbilt scoring example?

Vanderbilt ADHD test for adults?

How Is Adhd Related To Cognition In Children

Cognitive function assessments, like those included in CBS Health, are important tools to assist in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of childhood ADHD. As a diagnostic aid, cognition scores can complement ADHD tools like the VADRS, verifying self-reported symptoms with objective data, providing additional details on the specific cognitive domains affected, or ruling out broader cognitive impairment. As treatment progresses, many providers will administer cognitive assessments alongside self-report ADHD questionnaires and other specialized ADHD assessment tools in order to verify that treatments are not only moving patients away from the thresholds on the VADRS, but also showing up in objective cognitive measures.

Cognition has been linked with ADHD in children. For example, both the inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity scores on the VADRS are correlated with parent-reported measures of executive function , and other DSM-based ADHD scales have been linked with intellectual function . Cognitive domains like inhibitory control , working memory , and short-term attention itself may be of particular interest to clinicians treating ADHD, and have been shown to be impaired in children diagnosed with ADHD .

Nichq Vanderbilt Assessment Scales

The NICHQ Vanderbilt Assessment Scales are used by health care professionals to help diagnose ADHD in children between the ages of 6- and 12-years. NICHQ is proud to have published the first edition in 2002 and has been at the forefront of supporting children and families affected by ADHD.

Since the first edition, there have been two subsequent editions: the 2nd Edition and 3rd Edition . If the first edition is still valuable to your work, you are welcome to download it for free here. If you choose to reference the first edition in any publications, please include a reference to NICHQ.

NOTE: NICHQ is not able to receive or process any completed Vanderbilt assessments. Please consult with your pediatrician for an assessment.

Below are some helpful links for accessing and learning about the latest version of the scales.

• The 3rd edition of the Vanderbilt Assessment Scales can be purchasedfrom the American Academy of Pediatrics Bookstore
• The most recent ADHD guidelines from the AAP can be found here.

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How To Administer A Computerized Version Of The Vanderbilt Adhd Diagnostic Rating Scale In Cbs Health

It is easy for clinicians using CBS Health to include the VADRS in an assessment protocol. The scale can be sent on its own, or alongside a series of cognitive tasks. When creating a protocol within CBS Health, click the Questionnaires section, then check off the VADRS. You can check off tasks from the Cognitive Assessments section for an integrated flow. Remember, the VADRS is designed for a parent to complete, so it may require a heads-up to the parent to pass the device to the child when it is time to complete the cognitive assessment portion of the protocol.

Clinical Tools Quick Links

Rating Scales and Checklists

Scales and checklists help clinicians to obtain information from parents, teachers, and others about symptoms and functioning in various settings, which is necessary for an appropriate assessment for ADHD and treatment monitoring. Symptoms must be present in more than one setting to meet DSM-IV criteria for the condition. Such instruments are only one component of a comprehensive evaluation, which includes a medical examination and interviews.

• Barkley Home Situations Questionnaire
• Barkley School Situations Questionnaire

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality , 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.

For adults, these scales may be helpful:

• The 18-question Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale can provide a quick score and suggest whether further testing by a professional may or may not be indicated.
• The 6-question screener, the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale Screener, is a subset of the 18-question scale, designed to screen for adult ADHD in community samples.
• An updated version of the 6-question screener which is validated for DSM-5, the Adult ADHD Self-Report Screening Scale for DSM-5 , is also available.

Evaluation and Assessment Tools

Evaluating Your Child

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Vanderbilt Adhd Diagnostic Rating Scale

The Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Rating Scale is a psychological assessment tool for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms and their effects on behavior and academic performance in children ages 612. This measure was developed by Mark L Wolraich at the Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and includes items related to oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, anxiety, and depression, disorders often comorbid with ADHD.

There are two versions available: a parent form that contains 55 questions, and a teacher form that contains 43 questions. Shorter follow-up versions of the VADRS are also available for parents and teachers and consists of 26 questions with an additional 12 side effect measures. Comparing scores from the different versions of the VADRS with other psychological measures have suggested the scores have good but limited reliability and validity across multiple samples. The VADRS has only been recently developed, however, so clinical application of the measure is limited.

What Are The Vadrs And Vadprs

The VADRS is a relatively new instrument, created in 2003 by Mark L. Wolraich, MD, and colleagues. They noted that other behaviour rating scales, like Conners and the Child Behavior Checklist, deviated from the DSM-IVs diagnostic criteria for ADHD in key ways. As a response, the authors developed the VADRS as a simple instrument for teachers and parents to identify core symptoms of ADHD aligned with standard diagnostic criteria. The version of the VADRS included in CBS Health is designed for parents, and also known as the Vanderbilt ADHD Parent Rating Scale .

The scale includes 55 items covering the DSM-IV criteria for ADHD, criteria for oppositional defiant disorder , criteria for conduct disorder , and criteria from the Pediatric Behavior Scale for anxiety and depression. Additional items cover performance in school and relationships with others. It takes about 10 minutes to complete. Parents rate the severity of each behaviour over the past 6 months on a 4-point scale from never to very often, then scores are tallied to provide guidance on whether or not the criteria for inattentive, hyperactive/impulsive, and combined types of ADHD have been met. Issues with oppositional-defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and anxiety/depression are also highlighted if cutoff scores are reached .

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Rates Of Functional Impairment Across Diagnostic Groups

Next, participants were placed into three groups in order to examine impairment and academic achievement as a function of comorbidity. Only two participants without ADHD had a psychiatric diagnosis and were removed from these preliminary analyses. Analyses of covariance and subsequent post-hoc comparisons were used to determine if participants with No Diagnosis , ADHD Only , or Comorbid ADHD differed on the VADPRS performance items and WIAT academic achievement scales while controlling for participant IQ. As shown in Table 2, significant group differences emerged indicating that, as expected, the No Diagnosis group had lower parent-reported functional impairment than either ADHD Only or Comorbid ADHD groups across items. In addition, children in the Comorbid ADHD group had higher social impairment than children in the ADHD Only group.

Limitations Of The First Edition

At the time of publication, the VADRS was a fairly new instrument. Test standardization procedures had been completed on a limited range of populations, normative data were only developed for the teacher version, and the comorbidity subscales were not based on the DSM-IV. The current incarnation of the VADRS, now in its third edition, has been adapted for DSM-5 criteria.

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Longitudinal Data Collection Procedures

The data collection for the current study included an initial time-zero screen and three follow-up data collection waves. Information during the teacher screening process was collected anonymously, and parental consent was obtained from all the participants through procedures approved by the university institutional review board. The time-zero screen was conducted during the 19981999 school year. The communication study was presented to 61 out of 67 eligible elementary schools. The school system had an overall total K-12 enrollment of 69,400 students . Average K-3 class size was 20 students. Of the 975 teachers, 317 chose to participate in the study by completing behaviorrating scales on all the students in their classrooms. According to chi-squared tests, participating teachers were more likely than nonparticipating to have an education at the master’s level and above, but did not differ by sex , race , or type of teacher . According to t tests, average age and years experience were not significantly different for participating teachers.

The first wave of the follow-up included multiple attempts made by the school staff to contact the parents of the 1,536 eligible students by letters and/or phone calls. The parents who participated completed a fully structured Computerized Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children interview in person by researchers. In April-November 1999, the VADTRS was sent to the teachers of the 288 participants 89.9% of the surveys were returned .

Which Healthcare Providers Will Gain Value From Measuring Adhd With The Vadrs

Any healthcare provider who works with children may benefit from measuring ADHD, whether or not ADHD is the primary focus. Especially in children, the underlying reason for everyday difficulties that lead a parent to seek treatment may not be clear. ADHD and the comorbid disorders identified in the VADRS can be a key determinant of visible problems, such as poor academic achievement and concerning behaviour in school. Where that is the case, measuring, acknowledging, and treating ADHD can lead to significant improvements .

The VADRS can also highlight issues related to oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and anxiety / depression, making it ideal for quickly addressing multiple areas of concern for children where scales designed for adults are not appropriate.

Nearly any psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, or neurologist with young patients may find value in administering the VADRS alongside CBS Health cognitive assessments to gain a fuller picture of a childs mental and cognitive health in order to inform diagnoses and guide treatments. If parent-reported scales like the VADRS and objective cognitive measures of attention like the CBS Health cognitive tasks are both improving, they can provide strong evidence that treatments are having effects that will improve a childs quality of life.

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Clinical Utility Of Alternative Cutoff Strategies

Next, cutoff values for ruling in/out the presence of a DISC-IV diagnosis based on the alternative cutoff strategies were examined. Table 3 displays the results of the alternative cutoff approach analyses that provided acceptable cNPP or cPPP . For the total sum score and symptom threshold approaches, multiple total sum score or symptom threshold cutoffs had acceptable cNPP or cPPP, and so only the threshold with the highest balance of both sensitivity and specificity is displayed in Table 3 for the individual scale item approach, psychometric properties of all items with acceptable cNPP or cPPP are displayed in Table 3.

Although several individual ODD, CD, and depression items had acceptable cNPP, none had greater overall clinical utility than the overall sum scores. However, two ODD items and one CD item had acceptable cPPP for ruling in a diagnosis of ODD and CD, respectively . For practical purposes, Table 3 also displays the percentage of DISC-IV cases positively identified with each VADPRS cutoff approach, although it is important to note that the purpose of this study was to identify the cutoff approach with the highest overall clinical utility, and as such, our decision-making was based on the full range of cNPP/cPPP and sensitivity/specificity statistics as described above.

Measure Childhood Adhd With The Vanderbilt Adhd Diagnostic Rating Scale

According to the CDC, almost 1 in 10 children will be diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and ADHD is associated with many of the mental, cognitive, and behavioural disorders that can affect quality of life children and their families. Healthcare providers who work with children often encounter ADHD, whether it is the main focus of treatment or not, so there is a strong need for a simple way to measure symptoms associated with attentional problems.

The Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Rating Scale was designed to assess ADHD in children ages 6 to 12. It is now available within CBS Health to administer alongside measures of cognitive function, allowing practitioners to efficiently measure ADHD, cognition, and comorbid disorders in one integrated protocol.

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