Home › Guides › What to Expect at an ADHD Assessment

What to Expect at an ADHD Assessment

An ADHD assessment centres on a two to three hour clinical interview, standardised rating scales, and information gathered from family, school or work. Here is what actually happens in each part of the process.

An ADHD assessment in Australia centres on a clinical interview of two to three hours, standardised rating scales, and information gathered from people who know you well, such as family, a school or a workplace. Here is what actually happens, in the room and outside it.

The interview itself

Expect a structured clinical interview lasting two to three hours in total, according to the Australian ADHD clinical practice guideline. Many clinicians split that across two or more appointments rather than doing it in one sitting, particularly if there's a lot of history to cover. Two to three hours in one go is a long time to hold a conversation, and splitting it is common practice, not a sign that anything about your case is unusual. The clinician conducting it is expected to have experience with developmental and mental health disorders specifically, whether that's a psychologist, psychiatrist or paediatrician.

Rating scales: narrow-band and broad-band

Alongside the interview, you'll work through standardised rating scales. Narrow-band scales ask specifically about ADHD symptoms: attention, impulsivity, activity level. Broad-band scales step back and look at your overall psychosocial functioning, work, relationships, daily routines, so the clinician can see the bigger picture around the ADHD-specific answers. Both come from the same guideline and both are a normal, expected part of the process.

Collateral information: family, school or work

A clinician will usually ask for input from people who know you outside the assessment room: a parent or partner, a school, or an employer. This matters because ADHD needs to show up in more than one setting to meet the diagnostic threshold, rather than just how you present in a single interview. For an adult, this step often means tracking down old school reports or asking a parent what you were like as a child, since establishing that symptoms were present that early is part of an adult assessment.

What isn't required

Neuropsychological testing was not required for the diagnosis of ADHD, per the guideline, though a clinician might still suggest it if something in your presentation points to a co-occurring condition worth a closer look. A medical assessment is also part of the process, aimed at ruling out conditions that can look like ADHD from the outside. Fewer surprises than most people expect. The pieces are set, and the clinician works through them in order.

After the assessment

Once the interview, rating scales and collateral information are all in, the clinician pulls it together into a written report with the diagnosis, if one is reached, and next steps. If medication ends up being part of your plan, that report is what gets passed to a psychiatrist or paediatrician, since a psychologist cannot prescribe it directly.

Common questions

Sources

• AADPA: Australian ADHD clinical practice guideline, diagnosis
• healthdirect Australia: Attention deficit disorder (ADD) or ADHD

Related reading

• How ADHD is diagnosed in Australia
• Adult ADHD assessment: a complete guide
• The psychologist pathway to ADHD assessment