The questionnaires used by parents and teachers 'have only a modest agreement with one another' and the different questionnaires have scales which 'are reasonable as group measures when fairly large numbers od subjects are available, but they are not satisfactory ways of identifying individuals as hyperactive' (Taylor, 1994 : 287). the shortest version of the Conners scale, which is the one most used to diagnose hyperactivity and which ' was originally developed for measuring outcome in drug trials'..........contains items from other factors as well, especially that of defiance' (taylor, 1994 : 287). McGuiness also questions the validity of the conners scale as a means of establishing abjective data. (McGuiness, 1998)

Extract from 'Journal of child psychotherapy' Vol 26 No.1 2000 by Maria E. Pozzi