Brief Description
The NICHQ Vanderbilt Assessment Assessment Follow-up - Parent Informant (VAS-Parent- Follow-up) is a follow-up measure to the 55-question NICHQ Vanderbilt Assessment Scale—Parent Informant scale and is used to track ADHD symptoms in children. The VAS-Parent-Follow-up can be used to assess the severity of ADHD and comorbid oppositional-defiant symptoms, as well as track changes over the course of treatment. Parents/caregivers are asked to rate how often their child engages in behaviors related to attention (e.g., “Does not seem to listen when spoken to directly”) on a scale from “Never” to “Very Often” as well as rate their performance in specific areas (e.g., “Reading”) on a scale from “Excellent” to “Problematic.”
Assessment Administration Type
Parent/caregiver report
Number of questions
27
Age Range for Administration
The VAS-Parent- Follow-up has been validated for 6 to 12-year-olds.
Recommended Frequency of Administration
No standardized frequency; recommend administering every two weeks or as clinically indicated.
Summary of Scoring and Interpretations
The VAS-Parent- Follow-up consists of:
1 item that asks if the evaluation is based on a time when the child is medicated; this item is not included in scoring.
18 symptom-related items scored on a 4-point Likert scale from 0 ("Never") to 3 ("Very Often"). Items 1-9 assess for symptoms primarily related to inattention, while items 10-18 assess for symptoms primarily related to hyperactivity/impulsivity.
8 performance-related items scored on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (“Excellent”) to 5 (“Problematic”).
While a total score is provided adding items 2-27 and ranges from 0-94, it is more helpful to look at the subscale scores. A Symptoms subscale score is calculated by summing the responses from Items 2-19 and ranges from 0-54; higher scores indicate more severe ADHD symptoms. Scores of 2 or 3 on a single Symptom item reflect often-occurring behaviors. A Performance subscale score is calculated by summing the responses from Items 20-27 and ranges from 8-40; higher scores indicate more problems in areas of performance. Scores of 4 or 5 on individual Performance items reflect problems in that area of performance.
Blueprint Adjustments
Blueprint has not included the section on medication side effects or problems (e.g., headache) the child may have been experiencing in the past week. Blueprint also has made Item 25 (“relationship with siblings”) skippable if the child does not have any siblings and thus, if skipped, the Performance subscale score will range from 7-35 with higher scores still indicating more problems in areas of performance.
Clinical Considerations
Estimated completion time: 6-10 minutes
The VAS-Parent-Follow-up is a follow-up to the NICHQ Vanderbilt Assessment Scale—PARENT Informant, also in Blueprint’s library; Spanish versions also available.
There are also NICHQ Vanderbilt teacher-report scales; all NICHQ Vanderbilt scales seen here.
The NICHQ Vanderbilt scales are particularly helpful for collecting data from parents and teachers and assessing academic and behavior performance over time. The VAS-Parent-Follow-up should NOT be used alone to make any diagnosis; it should be used as a part of a comprehensive evaluation consisting of multiple sources of information.
Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) commonly co-occurs with ADHD; estimates of co-occurrence range from 30-60%. Children with ODD tend to be uncooperative, defiant, and/or hostile toward peers, parents, teachers, and other authority figures.
Citation
Relevant Articles + Further Resources
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