Getting a diagnosis for a teen?

[Clue3]

Anyone have experience getting a diagnosis for a teenager? I have lots of experience getting diagnosis for younger kids but not with a teen.

[Birdwatcher19]

The process should be the same. Your pediatrician can diagnose, but I always recommend going to a psychologist or psychiatrist for a more thorough assessment. I’ve gone through the diagnostic process for both my teen and tween daughters in the last six months. For my older daughter, we did full neuropsych testing. For my younger one, I just did an ADHD assessment, because it was very clear to me that that was what was going on. Both yielded written reports with formal diagnoses and recommendations for accommodations at school, etc., that I can use to request a 504 plan (already done for my older one). Neuropsych testing is the gold standard, but it’s expensive and there can be long waiting lists. You can also request testing through the school. This requires that you make a formal request for an evaluation for special education services. However, this will not yield a medical diagnosis, so you would still need to go to your doctor or psychiatrist for that if you wanted to include medication as part of treatment. Hope that helps. If you have more questions, let me know and I’ll do my best to answer.