Since many children who have ADHD also have learning disabilities, these tests should give you more information about your son's academic strengths and weaknesses, as well as clues to his levels of attention under a variety of situations. This information would be extremely helpful in giving your doctor a well-rounded picture of your son. In addition, there are parent and teacher checklists (the Connors Scale is the most common one) that can also give you a better picture of your son's behaviors from at least these two viewpoints.

Most frequently, an I.Q. test (usually the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children or the Stanford Binet Intelligence Test) and a series of academic tests across the spectrum -- that includes looking at reading, writing, spelling, math, and general language skills -- are part of a psychoeducational evaluation. The I.Q. tests will give you an indication of your child's potential. The academic tests will tell you how he compares with his age or grade peers' performance.