I find this thread especially interesting because we were told recently that DS had ADHD and it was not correct. He had been having difficulty at school and I arranged a speech evaluation. The speech therapist said she had never seen a child fidget that much in 15 years and that we needed to get ADHD medication immediately; she said it had been a great help to her own daughter. The school agreed that ADHD was a likely reason for his difficulty, so they did a screening test on him. At the same time, our psychologist arranged a screening.
Even his teacher, who thought ADHD was likely, gave responses on the screening that weren't even elevated. He was solidly at the median. It was consistent for the school screening and for the psychologist's screening.
When DS was moved up to a higher grade, those particular symptoms disappeared. He still has certain difficulties (he definitely has some challenges), but the ADHD-like symptoms disappeared.
I think it really illustrates the importance of a proper evaluation.
I agree with polarbear. I think it is worth using the diagnosis for services if that is important (in other words, if you have to get something quickly and think the accommodations will help), but it's better to get services based on the right diagnosis because the accommodations and services needed are different. Even if you use the ADHD diagnosis to get the process started, it's better to really know what is going on.
Last edited by apm221; 11/08/14 01:10 PM.
