Making the decision to seek evaluation and possible treatment for your child’s ADHD-related issues can be a very difficult decision. No parent wants their child to be labeled as “different”, but leaving ADHD undiagnosed and untreated can have very harmful effects on your child’s life in terms of behavior, mental health, and even physical health.
There is lots of evidence that appropriate evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment with carefully chosen and optimized medication brings many benefits to a child’s life. Some of the many benefits documented by research with adequate treatment of ADHD include:
- Improved academic performance and higher academic test scores
- Better self-esteem
- Improved cooperation
- Less anxiety in late adolescence and early adulthood
- Less depression in late adolescence and early adulthood
- Less substance abuse/addiction in late adolescence and early adulthood
- Improved relationships and functioning in the home
We want to help rewrite the narrative and change the stereotypes often assigned to patients with ADHD. If your child is experiencing ADHD-like symptoms, be encouraged that they can live a happy, healthy life.
What Parents Have to Say
What to Expect
When You Bring Your Child to Greenville ADHD Specialists
First, we evaluate your child’s history through pre-appointment paperwork.
Before your first appointment, we try to gather as much information as possible about your child. Having this information ahead of time helps us focus our questions and spend more time speaking with you during your initial appointment about the specific issues your child or adolescent is experiencing in everyday life.
We will provide you with paperwork to fill out regarding your child’s:
- Past medical and surgical history
- Birth history
- Developmental history
- Mental health history
- Sleep problems
- Social history
- School history
- Family medical history
In addition, part of the initial paperwork is a social skills checklist and a patient question list. We ask that your child or adolescent answers directly, or that you record his or her answers verbatim.
We also ask you to provide any previous reports from psycho-educational testing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, previous medical records, and school IEP or 504 records (if applicable) and report card records (if available). If there are disciplinary records, please provide these as well.
Finally, with your permission, we will send the NICHQ Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Teacher Rating Scale to your child or adolescent’s teacher(s).
Second, you and your child come to an initial appointment.
Once you’ve completed and returned all requested paperwork, you and your child will come to our office for your first appointment. The first appointment takes approximately two hours, to allow time for appropriate testing, rating scales, and reviewing your child’s results.
Appointment Phase 1: Testing
When you arrive, your child will be given the QbTest. While your child is completing the test, you will be asked to fill out some checklists and rating scales about their behavior.
The QbTest takes between 15 to 20 minutes, depending on your child’s age. The test is performed in front of a computer screen. The test equipment consists of an infrared camera, a headband with an infrared marker attached, and a response button. During the test, a number of symbols are shown on the computer screen. The task is to push the responder button when a certain symbol appears on the screen.
Our practice is the only provider in the Upstate that administers the QbTest. The test is FDA-cleared, well documented, and offers objective measures of activity, attention, and impulsivity: the three hallmark symptoms of ADHD.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE QBTEST
Appointment Phase 2: Results
After your child finishes the QbTest and you finish the various rating scales, we take you to a small waiting area as your clinician reviews the results.
QbTest results are printed and your child’s results are automatically compared to results of a group of the same gender and age who does not have ADHD. The clinician will then escort you to their office and explain the test results and discuss a treatment plan that works well for your family.
If medication is necessary, your clinician will send you home with a prescription and instructions to return for a follow up appointment.
DIAGNOSIS & TREATMENT FAQ
Third, you and your child return for a follow up appointment.
We like to see our patients back within 2 to 4 weeks after beginning a treatment plan. If medication was started, we also like to repeat the QbTest. Having these results on medication help us to optimize dosage or find the dosage that works the absolute best for the patient.
Often, parents are impressed by the improvements on the QbTest results in such a short period of time. If improvements are still lacking in some areas on the QbTest or in the patient’s day-to-day life, then additional dosage adjustments may be needed.
Every 3 months, you and your child return for maintenance visits.
It is important that we see patients every 3 months for multiple reasons. First, it allows us to monitor your child’s progress and make adjustments to their treatment plan as needed.
Second, if your child or adolescent is taking a stimulant medication, our clinicians can only write for 3 months of prescriptions at a time due to South Carolina law. A stimulant prescription is NOT refillable, but we are allowed to print 3 months of prescriptions at a time and each prescription expires after 90 days. In addition, it is important to follow weight, height, blood pressure, and heart rate in patients who take any medications.
The questionnaires and rating scales used in the initial visit will be repeated to monitor growth and progress.
PRESCRIPTION FAQ
- 1. Pre-appointment
-
First, we evaluate your child’s history through pre-appointment paperwork.
Before your first appointment, we try to gather as much information as possible about your child. Having this information ahead of time helps us focus our questions and spend more time speaking with you during your initial appointment about the specific issues your child or adolescent is experiencing in everyday life.
We will provide you with paperwork to fill out regarding your child’s:
- Past medical and surgical history
- Birth history
- Developmental history
- Mental health history
- Sleep problems
- Social history
- School history
- Family medical history
In addition, part of the initial paperwork is a social skills checklist and a patient question list. We ask that your child or adolescent answers directly, or that you record his or her answers verbatim.
We also ask you to provide any previous reports from psycho-educational testing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, previous medical records, and school IEP or 504 records (if applicable) and report card records (if available). If there are disciplinary records, please provide these as well.
Finally, with your permission, we will send the NICHQ Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Teacher Rating Scale to your child or adolescent’s teacher(s).
- 2. Initial Appointment
-
Second, you and your child come to an initial appointment.
Once you’ve completed and returned all requested paperwork, you and your child will come to our office for your first appointment. The first appointment takes approximately two hours, to allow time for appropriate testing, rating scales, and reviewing your child’s results.
Appointment Phase 1: Testing
When you arrive, your child will be given the QbTest. While your child is completing the test, you will be asked to fill out some checklists and rating scales about their behavior.
The QbTest takes between 15 to 20 minutes, depending on your child’s age. The test is performed in front of a computer screen. The test equipment consists of an infrared camera, a headband with an infrared marker attached, and a response button. During the test, a number of symbols are shown on the computer screen. The task is to push the responder button when a certain symbol appears on the screen.
Our practice is the only provider in the Upstate that administers the QbTest. The test is FDA-cleared, well documented, and offers objective measures of activity, attention, and impulsivity: the three hallmark symptoms of ADHD.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE QBTESTAppointment Phase 2: Results
After your child finishes the QbTest and you finish the various rating scales, we take you to a small waiting area as your clinician reviews the results.
QbTest results are printed and your child’s results are automatically compared to results of a group of the same gender and age who does not have ADHD. The clinician will then escort you to their office and explain the test results and discuss a treatment plan that works well for your family.
If medication is necessary, your clinician will send you home with a prescription and instructions to return for a follow up appointment.
DIAGNOSIS & TREATMENT FAQ - 3. Follow-Up Appointment
-
Third, you and your child return for a follow up appointment.
We like to see our patients back within 2 to 4 weeks after beginning a treatment plan. If medication was started, we also like to repeat the QbTest. Having these results on medication help us to optimize dosage or find the dosage that works the absolute best for the patient.
Often, parents are impressed by the improvements on the QbTest results in such a short period of time. If improvements are still lacking in some areas on the QbTest or in the patient’s day-to-day life, then additional dosage adjustments may be needed.
- 4. Maintenance
-
Every 3 months, you and your child return for maintenance visits.
It is important that we see patients every 3 months for multiple reasons. First, it allows us to monitor your child’s progress and make adjustments to their treatment plan as needed.
Second, if your child or adolescent is taking a stimulant medication, our clinicians can only write for 3 months of prescriptions at a time due to South Carolina law. A stimulant prescription is NOT refillable, but we are allowed to print 3 months of prescriptions at a time and each prescription expires after 90 days. In addition, it is important to follow weight, height, blood pressure, and heart rate in patients who take any medications.
The questionnaires and rating scales used in the initial visit will be repeated to monitor growth and progress.
PRESCRIPTION FAQ
Take the Next Step.
If you think your child or adolescent might be dealing with ADHD, please reach out to us to schedule an appointment. We would love to help you.