ADHD Assessment and Diagnosis Across Settings

For families, educators and clinicians trying to understand attention difficulties across settings, Ronald T. Brown and Arthur Channer discuss how ADHD assessment draws on interviews, observations, rating scales and history. The recording examines functional impairment at home, school, work and in relationships, alongside alternative explanations and co-occurring conditions.

Presenter biographies: Ronald T. Brown, Arthur Channer.

Brown describes an assessment workflow that brings together caregiver and teacher reports, observations and academic history. The panel compares parent and teacher rating scales with measures of adaptive functioning, intelligence and achievement, and discusses why a quiet evaluation may differ from a classroom.

Channer adds a behavioral perspective through observable definitions, replacement behaviors and self-monitoring. The discussion also separates changes in attention or disruptive behavior from academic and social outcomes, and closes with questions about professional scope and collaboration.

What does this recording cover?

• The assessment overview combines interviews, observation, rating scales, academic history and consideration of other conditions.
• The diagnostic discussion examines impairment across home, school, work and relationships.
• The tool comparison distinguishes parent and teacher ratings from measures of adaptive functioning, intelligence and achievement.
• The behavioral discussion addresses operational definitions, behavioral function, replacement behaviors and self-monitoring.
• The lifespan discussion examines whether changes in on-task behavior accompany changes in peer relationships, grades, work and independence.

Recording context: The recording date is unavailable, and its diagnostic and treatment discussions have not been checked for present-day accuracy.

Three selected learner comments

The six-item evaluation mean was 3.80/5 across 22 complete responses, from 188 recorded rating responses. This mean includes only complete six-score responses. Source: Special Learning's course evaluation records, snapshot October 11, 2026.

Three selected anonymous responses appear below, with the wording and spelling retained. They describe learners' experiences and requests; they are not a guarantee of results or a claim that these comments represent every learner.

I really enjoyed the training very informational.

Course evaluation response, 2023

More information on how gender may effect ADHD symptom presentation

Course evaluation response, 2023

This training was difficult to following along. THere were sometimes long pauses between questions/discussion points.

Course evaluation response, 2023

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