How is the Vanderbilt scored?

Each item is a frequency rating, so scoring looks at how many behaviours a rater marks at higher frequencies and whether performance items show functioning is affected. Specific symptom counts and thresholds come from the official NICHQ scoring instructions, which we link rather than restate.

Key points

Symptom items and performance items are considered together.
Parent and teacher forms are scored separately.
Official thresholds live in the NICHQ instructions.
A score summarises observations; a clinician interprets them.

The fuller answer

Scoring is deliberately simple so that two very different raters can produce comparable information.

What scoring cannot do is account for sleep, hearing and vision, anxiety, learning differences or recent upheaval, all of which can look like inattention.

What to do next

Ask your provider which patterns they want re-measured, and when.

Primary sources

1. NICHQ Vanderbilt Assessment Scales (first edition, 2002) (opens in a new tab), National Institute for Children's Health Quality (NICHQ) (2002)

Author: Threaded Care editorial team

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