Did You Have ADHD as a Child? Answer These Questions to Find Out
To get diagnosed with adult ADHD you have to show that your symptoms originated in childhood, by the age of 7 (although there is talk of moving this cut-off up to the age of 12).
But how can you reach decades back into the memory banks to remember specific behaviors that would confirm or deny a diagnosis of childhood ADD or ADHD? It’s not always an easy task, but tests like the following make the process a little less abstract.
Adult Self Test – Did You Have ADHD as a Child?
This test is very closely based on the Wender Utah Rating Scale for ADHD
Answer the following questions honestly. Answer each question with a statement and when finished add up your responses to get a score and to find out if your score meets the cut-off score for ADHD.
For each question, choose one of the following statements as the response that best matches your childhood experience:
- Not at all – score 0
- Mildly – score 1
- Moderately – score 2
- Quite a lot – score 3
- Very much – score 4
When you were a child:
- Were you an angry kid?
- Were you moody?
- Did you have temper tantrums?
- Were you nervous and fidgety?
- Did you have trouble concentrating or were you easily distracted?
- Were you prone to daydreaming?
- Were you stubborn?
- Did you have trouble finishing things you started?
- Did you have a short temper?
- Were you depressed, unhappy or sad a lot?
- Did you have a low opinion of your self-worth?
- Were you irritable?
- Did you talk back to parents, were you rebellious?
- Were you anxious
- Did you act without thinking things through (impulsivity)
- Were you immature for your age?
- Did you often feel guilty or regretful about your actions
- Did you have trouble controlling yourself
- Did you often act irrationally
- Were you unpopular or did you have trouble keeping friends or getting along with other children?
- Did you have a hard time looking at things from another person’s perspective?
- Did you frequently get in trouble at school or with other authorities
- Were you a poor student or a slow learner?
- Did you have a hard time with math?
- Did people say you weren’t living up to your potential?
What’s You Score?
If you scored over 46 there is a good chance you had ADHD symptoms as a child.
When researchers tested the validity of the test they found that if they used a cut-off score of 46, then the test correctly identified 86% people with ADHD.1
References
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