FAmily Visit

I was able to observe my first family visits on a Friday. So far, that was probably one of the highlights of my experience with the program. I watched as the entire family of four completed a series of behavioral and psychological tests as well as developmental histories to see if they could be diagnosed with ADHD. There are three rooms in the clinic area: a computer room, an interview room, and a blood room. One member of the family goes into the computer and interview room at a time. In the computer room, letters appear on the computer simultaneously at varying time intervals and every time a letter, other than “X”, appears, the participant has to push the space bar. This test takes place for exactly fourteen minutes. After a while, one of the young participants that I watched became bored of the test, so he continuously and randomly just began pushing the space bar, increasing his impulsitivity score. The interview room is where the psychologist assesses them and gives them an IQ test by asking several questions as well as by allowing them to complete spatial and hands-on tasks. Finally, after everyone in the family completes these tests, there blood is drawn and set to the DNA bank. Unfortunately, one of the children refused to get a blood draw. Overall, the entire family visit lasted for a period of three hours and thirty minutes.