My 6 years old daughter is attending kindergarten at a private school. I just got her trimester report. In the report, the teacher says, "She does not listen when her peers are speaking, thus she is often unable to respond appropriately in the group discussion. She frequently needs me to repeat my question when I call on her to respond.� I know that my daughter has a very short attention span and many other symptoms of ADD/ADHD, but it is still shocking for me to hear that directly from the teacher. The teacher also says in the report that my daughter �also needs a great deal of teacher support when it comes to her handwriting.�
Some background information: Based on my observation of my daughter, she learns very fast (if she is focused, which is a big IF) and always sees things in her own ways. She has near photographic memory of visual information, though she is not very sensitive to numbers. As part of the admission process to the kindergarten of the private school, my daughter took a one-hour cognitive assessment at the school last December. After the test, the first word the psychologist said to me was �WOW�. Then she said that she was �running out of things to test your daughter�. I didn�t get a full report because the admission office said that �we don�t give the full IQ test, we only use a few subtests for admissions purposes. Therefore, we are unable to provide you with a full report.� And actually my daughter got an �Average� for the last test for Processing Speed even though the Full Score is �Very Superior�. The psychologist added a note in the one-page report saying that she feels the Average for Processing Speed �is most likely underestimated as your daughter became fatigued at the end of the test.� I�m not 100% whether the cognitive assessment is WPPSI IV.
On the other hand, my daughter does have many symptoms of ADD/ADHD and Tourette Syndrome. If I were the one filling in the Vanderbilt or SNAP-IV Assessment Scales forms, she certainly will be diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. And she also couldn�t pass some causal ADD/ADHD tests like finger tapping. The only thing that may say the opposite is my daughter�s �superior� working memory as also noted in the one-page cognitive assessment report, which is strongly against the ADD/ADHD diagnosis.
Now back to the question: The private school my daughter is attending is a competitive one and is hard to get in. If it is a public school it probably would be better for me to get my daughter diagnosed and to advocate for her to get IEP or 504. But I�m afraid that the private school may not be willing to divert resources for her and may simply ask us to transfer to public school. Initially I was hoping that my daughter�s cognitive ability could carry her over until high school when she may be able to grow out of it. But now it seems that the teachers have already noticed that and are very unhappy about that. Even though my daughter is placed in an advanced language art group and did well in all the reading comprehension and spelling tests, she probably gets more warnings for absent-mindedness and bad handwriting than praises. It may very well lower her grades and is gradually starting to affect her self-esteem now.
This makes me worry about her now. Should I get my daughter diagnosed and advocate for her at the private school, or should I just do nothing and wait till middle or high school to see if she could grow out of it? We really don�t want to leave the pirate school. Not only because it is a very good school but also my daughter has all her best friends there and is generally happy at school playing with friends. Does anyone have any experience with advocating ADD/ADHD kids at private schools?
Thanks. Any input is very much appreciated.
