Before a child can qualify for special education services and an IEP, they must fall under one of the following categories: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Deaf-Blindness, Deafness, Emotional Disturbance, Hearing Impairment, Intellectual Disability, Multiple Disabilities, Orthopedic Impairment, Other Health Impairment, Specific Learning Disability, Speech or Language Impairment, Traumatic Brain Injury, Visual Impairment- including Blindness. Presentations of ADHD (alone) do not usually fit a prescribed categorization, and there aren’t any guidelines for integrating this diagnosis into the child’s life, which often leaves schools in the dark. "In fact, there remain persistent barriers to effective collaboration among professionals from the education and health care systems, including (a) administrative and fiscal barriers, including time for collaboration, (b) conceptual and linguistic differences between professionals’ training and practice, (c) differences in expectations for collaboration held by health care providers and educators, (d) limitations to collaboration associated with one’s role in a given system, (e) absence of specific processes to coordinate care, (f) barriers associated with privacy laws in health care (Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, HIPAA) and education (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, FERPA), (g) lack of continuity in care for youth from year to year, and (h) lack of resources in some low-income communities and schools" (Power et al., 2013). The disconnect between the health and education institutions creates discontinuity in the care of those with ADHD, depriving these individuals of services lawfully guaranteed to them.

This project aims to highlight the cruciality of creating a multidisciplinary framework that incorporates SLPs during the evaluation of ADHD.

People with ADHD often present with a complex constellation of symptoms that are typically unrecognized, and often overshadowed by the behavioral manifestations exhibited. "A detailed evaluation can be a challenge for the family physician who first learns of a child’s difficulties during a routine office visit when parents are intent on obtaining stimulant medication for a child who has already been “diagnosed” with ADHD by themselves or teachers. This initial office visit may only allow time to listen to the parents’ concerns, explain the need for a thorough evaluation and arrange for further data collection. A systematic approach to diagnosis can help the physician avoid the tempting (and seemingly time-efficient) urge to forgo a comprehensive evaluation, write a prescription and “monitor progress” at a subsequent visit" (Smucker, 2001, p. 817).

The education and training of SLPs include learning the various domains of communication and their impacts on a person’s speech, language, and social development. Therefore, the addition of these trained professionals in ADHD evaluations may prove to be invaluable for differential diagnoses. SLPs offer practical perspectives underpinned by experience and evidence-based knowledge/research in the domains of communication that may illuminate the presence of differences or difficulties.

A multidisciplinary evaluation allows for a holistic assessment where each discipline; has the opportunity to note their observations, easily disseminate findings, and efficiently collaborate to establish a diagnosis. This approach ensures considerations are made for all aspects in the presentation of an individual's ADHD, including if/how communication is impacted.

The findings of our study suggest that children with articulation difficulties may be at higher risk for executive dysfunction... The implications of the comorbidity across these domains are critical for assessment and intervention purposes where more broad-based approaches will prove useful. Practitioners such as speech language pathologists and occupational therapists may want to consider an integrated method of assessment to expand their test battery to include measures of EF. It will also be of essence to provide referrals to one another when comorbidity is suspected (Netelenbos et al. 2018, p. 7-8 ).

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Comprehensive pediatric care for children and adolescents with ADHD is achieved when the primary pediatric health care professional communicates effectively with the school. With the parents’ approval, it begins with informing the teacher about the diagnosis and treatment.