Week 9 - FINAL Flashcards
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder under what category in the DSM
Neurodevelopment Disorders
Subtypes of ADHD
- Predominantly Inattentive type
- Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive type
- Combined type
Plus an “Other” and an “Unspecified”
Need multiple deficits in different areas (aka not just as home)
might add emotional dysregulation subtype
Inattentive Type of ADHD
6 or more inattention symptoms persisting at least 6 months to a maladaptive degree
Hyperactive-impulsive type of ADHD
6 or more hyperactivity-impulsivity sx persisting at least 6 months to a maladaptive degree
Prevalence of ADHD
One of the most common chronic disorders of childhood
Prevalence of ADHD across cultures/SES/etc
Found across social classes, racial and ethnic groups, and countries but with different prevalence rates
ADHD onset
Onset often around 3 to 4 years old (but indications earlier)
Adult ADHD
Disrupts sustained effort, planning, and organization important for effective functioning
Diagnosis in adults relies on establishing sx at the age of 12 and earlier
Comorbidity of ADHD
More than half of children who qualify for ADHD have a comorbid diagnosis
Comorbid/confused with lots of disorders –> vulnerable to misdiagnosis
Anxiety
Depression
Dyslexia
Family dysfunction
Conduct disorder
Tourette’s syndrome
Language impairment
Bipolar disorder
Brain Injury
Even intellectual giftedness (boredom)
Developmental course of ADHD
Sx are often present in infancy–high activity, emotional lability, irregular sleep patterns, reduced need for sleep
Preschool years–add short attention span, proneness to tantrums, difficulties with groups
Often remains into adulthood
Theoretical models of the development of ADHD
Our theoretical models of the development of ADHD are less adequate than are our theoretical models of some of the other learning disorders…”
Diagnosing ADHD – best method
HOT model
relies more on converging evidence arising from observations and developmental/school histories than testing alone
Diagnosing ADHD in adults
Relies heavily on childhood symptoms (history central to dx)
– have parents/teacher rate them on child form as if they were 67/12 y.o
look for converging evidence
Assessment of ADHD
assessment needs to be thorough. It can include:
- Interview, history, school records
- School visit
- Tests WAIS/WISC, WJA/WIAT
- Continuous performance test (CPT)
- MMPI/PIY (personality test)
- Collateral information
Latest research on Assessing for ADHD
latest research suggests cognitive assessment may not be necessary for ADHD diagnosis, rather behavioral assessment through rating scales (self and vicarious observation) along with thorough consideration of history may be sufficient (Peterson, 2021)
AKA history and behavioral assessment, not cognitive
Continuous Performance Tests
measures a person’s sustained and selective attention
Can be done while assessing for ADHD, but not enough (can do badly because of other reasons than ADHD, can do well on test with ADHD)
Collateral Information when assessing for ADHD
There are a number of behavioral rating scales that can be useful in assessment, can be either
- Multi-dimensional or broad band
- Unidimensional or focal
*Useful BUT use intelligently.
Behavior rating scales for Collateral Information
MULTI-BEHAVIOR RATING SCALES
- Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)
- Behavior assessment system for children (BASC)
ADHD RATING SCALES FOR CHILDREN
- Conners 3 - parent
- Conners 3 - teacher
- Conners-wells adolescent self report form
ADHD RATING SCALES FOR ADULTS:
- child forms but rates as if 12 y.o.
- Conners’ Adult ADHD Rating Scales (CAARS)
Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)
Type of multi-behavior rating scales
Includes:
- parent forms
- teacher forms
- self-report forms
- **select for for correct age range
Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC)
Type of multi-behavior rating scales
Includes:
- parent forms
- teacher forms
Conners’ Adult ADHD Rating Scales (CAARS)
Type of ADHD rating scale for adults
Includes:
- self report form
- observer form
Treatment for ADHD
- Educate the client (and those close to them)
- Medicate (see later slide)
- Accommodations (modify the environment where problems occur)
- Therapy (Address the effects on self)
Medication and ADHD Treatment
enhances the inhibition mechanism which:
- increases resistance to the urge to act
- increases ability to stop in midstream if course is ineffective
- increases resistance to distraction
BUT: Medication is generally not enough by itself
- “pills don’t give skills” (Dobson)
- meds make you able to learn, but there is often a deficit of skills
Educational Intervention for ADHD
- Often have missed some aspect of normal educational development
- Modify the environment where problems occur
- Less able to use internal cues, so increase external cues (Clocks, Tokens)
- Minimize distractions
Ways to modify environment for people with ADHD
- Shorten delay between response and outcome
- Structure the task, make smaller steps, more immediate reinforcement
- Bridge time by breaking task down into manageable intervals
Creativity
Plays a role in problem solving, innovation, artistic expression, and overall advancement across fields
Sternberg considered it a fundamental aspect of intelligence—but this has not panned out
Current research on creativity
Emphasis has shifted from seeing it as an inherent ability to how to improve an individual’s creativity:
- evidence that if you pretend to be more creative you can be more creative
- effort to remove constraints of creativity that are self-imposed or socially-imposed
Tasks of Divergent Thinking (aka creative thinking)
Fluency
- number of ideas one can generate—BUT this only reflects quantity and not originality
Novelty
- efforts to get at creative quality have led to better measures of creativity involving semantic distance (loosely to mean the knowledge gap) using Latent Semantic Analysis
Research on Fluency and Novelty
Studies show both can be improved (meditation, diet, walking, music, mood, travel, new experiences)
So divergent thinking seems to have plasticity rather than being a stable trait
Research on learning and creativity
Network neuroscience [Saunders, 2017, Science News) Flex time: The brain’s ability to shift connections might ease learning
Neuroimaging techniques show the ability to switch connections seems integral to learning, reconfiguring of networks
Focusing on individual synapse action might be looking too closely
AKA ability to shift connections between neurons important for learning:
- Brains that are most flexible (in terms of switching connections) learn the best (although too much flexibility might be bad aka schizophrenia)
