On the other hand, the problems that this causes are certainly real barriers to her in the here and now. It's hard to imagine my 12yo DD taking college coursework independently at this point, given her struggles to organize and prioritize her time.
Then again, by the time another decade has passed, the "problem" will vanish. So I don't really consider this to be the same thing as ADHD/ADD, which persists. This is immaturity instead.
Prior to hearing this Dr talk I would have been horrified to even consider that my DD might have innattentive ADHD, let alone consider medicating her. I came away feeling convinced that
a) she clear does have inattentive AHDH, or executive dysfunction if you prefer
b) so does my DH and his whole family
c) that this is caused by immaturity of the pre frontal cortex. The goal of medicating in this Dr's eyes, being to help the child function and make use of their that part of their brain until they get that massive development as a teen (so that they are using those nerves when they grow rather than not using them and having them pruned). The question is, looking at my DHs family, whether my DD will ever grow out of her "immaturity" of executive function...
I am taking her to a neuropsychologist during the 9 month wait for the developmental paed so we have plenty of time to think and to see if other things help. But my feeling is that we have done a huge amount to teach her useful skills, to set up her environment in a way that supports her and that she is learning to manage a lot of those functions well (for her) but she's just so SLOW about so many things because of how her brain functions.
I really do want to do more to help her but I am not sure if it can be taught, or if it needs either maturity or medication or both...
