I am also curious: how do you find doctors to rule out ADD ? Most seem to diagnose it than rule it out, based on the parent and teacher's feedback on the questionnaires. It seems to me that they err on the side of diagnosing it than ruling it out. Would that be an accurate assessment ? Also, where (resources wise, doctors' list wise) could I find doctors who do educational testing and ADD testing ?
I would suggest starting by asking for a referral from your pediatrician for a psych who does educational testing. Re ADHD, our ped's office does an ADHD evaluation, but if your ped doesn't, they should have an idea re who to go to for a reliable eval in your area.
While I do think it's possible some drs "err" on the side of over-diagnosing ADHD, I think in general most drs are trying their best to diagnose and treat patients appropriately. We're one of the families here who had a child misdiagnosed with ADHD (inattentive type) when they were seven, but to be fair to the neuropsych who evaluated ds, he did fit the criteria and was classified as "mild". It wasn't until he was older and we'd made progress sorting out and accommodating for his learning disabilities that the behaviors that were similar to ADHD symptoms disappeared. When he was re-evaluated through our ped he was found to *not* have ADHD. Also keep in mind - the behavioral surveys are one part of an ADHD evaluation, and they are filled out by both parents and teachers. If a teacher were to subconsciously (or purposely) skew a survey, or if a teacher is seeing behaviors at school that parents don't see at home, that will show up as two very different response sets on the surveys. To be diagnosed with ADHD, behaviors have to show up in more than one setting (ie, they can't only be happening at school or only happening at home). They are also supposed to (according to our ped) be symptoms that started when a child is young, not when they are 7 years old in school.
I would, however, be wary of a dr who suggests trying ADHD meds just to see if they will work - without going through the ADHD eval. We've had a dr suggest that for our oldest dd who *looks* very hyperactive, and that's the type of situation which I believe is where "overdiagnosing" ADHD occurs... as well as missing out on other very real issues. JMO, but I think if you go with a dr who your pediatrician recommends, and they use the behavioral surveys and an in-depth parent interview, the dr is not going to purposely err on the side of finding ADHD.
One suggestion if you're worried about a teacher's input on the surveys is to ask another adult who spends time with your child at school to also fill out a survey - it could be a teacher's aide, for example, or a gym teacher, or music teacher, or a gifted pull-out teacher etc.
Best wishes,
polarbear
