Children and adults with attentional difficulties vary greatly and do not all have the same difficulties. Persons who are predominantly inattentive often ignore details, make careless mistakes, have trouble sustaining attention, problems following instructions or finishing tasks, or appear forgetful or disorganized. Children who are predominantly hyperactive-impulsive are often fidgety, have trouble staying seated, are often in constant motion, tend to talk excessively, and often blurt out answers and interrupt others. Some children demonstrate difficulties in both of these areas. Overall, it is important to note that individuals with ADHD can pay attention. However, they have problems with what they pay attention to, how long they pay attention, and under what circumstances they stay attentive. Their difficulties pervasively affect their life, both at home and at school. People with ADHD generally have difficulties with working memory (the ability to keep information in mind that needs to be used to make decisions and guide behavior) and executive functioning, which includes the abilities to plan, organize, multi-task, prioritize, persist, and self-monitor when completing tasks.

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In order to provide a thorough evaluation of all relevant factors in an individual’s situation, we offer a comprehensive ADHD assessment. This assessment evaluates a child's or adult's history of difficulty, current cognitive functioning, academic performance, current behavior, executive functioning, virtual reality attention testing, and screening for social/emotional issues.

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CPEA uses the latest technology to assess attention in both children and adults. Continuous performance tests have been used to evaluate attention and distractibility under high and low demand situations. These are typically computerized tests that has a person respond to certain stimuli when it is presented and ignore other stimuli.