Question

Tina's seven-year-old cousin is having trouble in school. his teachers complain of behavior problems and he has difficulty concentrating. list your differential diagnosis. what assessments would you perform?

Answer 1

Tina's cousin should have some proper diagnostic testing before any diagnosis is made. Behavior problems and difficulty concentrating can be caused by many different factors such as parenting issues, sleeping problems, dietary concerns, learning disabilities or developmental issues. I would start with age appropriate normative based scientific testing. I would use testing that covers all areas of development including cognition, communication, social skills, sensory abilities and adaptive skills. To get a good idea of what is really going on, the test results need to be compared to a sampling of other test scores of children of the same sex and age. Based on this students apparent symptoms that are seen in the classroom, I think it is possible that Tina's cousin may be diagnosed with ADD. ADHD, or possibly an autism spectrum disorder.

Answer 2

One of my initial diagnosis is either ADHD or the child simply is not fit in the teacher's current method of teaching.
First, i  would make sure whether it's aDHD or not by creating observation with different with the current teacher's. If the child still show lack of concentration after different styles of teachings, i would tell the parents about the ADHD.