PEARL Clinic for ADHD Now Has Shorter Wait Times
Seattle Children's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine Program to Enhance Attention, Regulation, and Learning (PEARL) clinic for ADHD offers evaluations for children and adolescents ages 5 to 15 to diagnose:
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Other challenges with attention and behavior problems
Wait times for a PEARL clinic evaluation are currently two to three months.
Many children with ADHD or related challenges get a diagnosis and medicine from their primary care provider. For children with more complex needs — like ADHD that is hard to diagnose or affected by other issues — a PEARL evaluation may be helpful. Experts from Seattle Children’s Behavior and Attention Management Program do a thorough evaluation that can guide treatment of learning, attention and behavior problems. Then we work closely with you and your patient’s family to plan and provide evidence-based care.
The PEARL clinic does not provide psychoeducational, neuropsychological or learning disability evaluations. Families should talk with their child’s school about a special-education evaluation or services if they have a concern about a learning disorder without ADHD. We can review testing done a child's school.
How to Refer a Patient
Providers should submit a new appointment request form and note “Behavior and Attention Management Program" and specify "PEARL Evaluation Clinic" or "ADHD evaluation."
All referrals to PEARL should include at least one of the following:
- Recent measures such as Vanderbilt Assessment Scales done by a parent and teacher
- Previous psychological/educational evaluations
- A narrative of current and historical symptoms
All referrals to PEARL should include your top three reasons for referral, from among these:
- After my evaluation and reviewing the patient’s Vanderbilt scales, the diagnostic picture remains unclear/complex.
- After my evaluation and reviewing the patient’s Vanderbilt scales, the severity of this patient’s problem is too high to be treated in primary care.
- After optimizing medication, the patient is still in need of other treatment approaches (e.g., behavior therapy) to address impairments.
- After optimizing medication, symptoms and/or impairments have persisted or worsened.
- This patient’s caregivers specifically requested a referral to the PEARL clinic for ADHD.
- I have limited training in the evaluation and treatment of attention, learning or behavior problems.
If your patient has already had a thorough diagnostic evaluation and you want to refer them for behavioral treatments only, such as our parent training programs, please specify “Parent training,” “Treatment consultation” or something similar in your referral.