Find out how they arrive at their diagnosis, opinions and conclusions. If you're not comfortable with their approach, find someone else. If you're not sure ask other professionals in the area their opinions about the specialist you've picked. A good ADD evaluation should address all the areas of a potential living imbalance. Both parents should give their versions of the problem to the evaluator.
Some doctors prefer to use written symptom questionnaires.
They are not a replacement for face to face talking between the parents and evaluator or calling the teacher on the telephone. Someone should meet the child's entire family one time. After the possible emotional, family or school problems have been evaluated and are being addressed, there may be a role for a medication intervention. Ritalin or similar drugs have been used safely in children for fifty years. No parent is immediately eager to start medicating their child but they should not feel guilty when after a thorough evaluation and multipartite treatment plan, they decide to try Ritalin for their child.