I mentioned above that I believe in ADHD as a diagnosis. I also believe, and have experienced, that the symptoms typical of ADHD can occur due to other diagnoses. When we see something that doesn't make sense, we may naturally categorize it in with what we have personal experience with, and teachers have most likely seen children in their classroom dealing with ADHD. It's possible that the behaviors the teachers are seeing in class aren't due to ADHD at all, but to some other issue that results in similar behaviors and symptoms. I'm not mentioning this to discount the possibility that it might be ADHD, but because this has happened to two of my children.
And even if you discover that some other deficit is presenting like ADHD, that might not be the "real" answer, either. We had our DD tested in the summer between 2nd and 3rd grade due to behaviors that the school thought seemed like ADHD. The neuropsych concluded that the root cause of her behaviors was dysgraphia. But by the end of 5th grade, she had developed the automaticity that she previously lacked, while still exhibiting unwelcome behaviors. Further testing revealed that she actually had ASD, not ADHD or dysgraphia. I think it's unlikely that we'll test her again in two more years and discover that it's not ASD, either - this diagnosis feels "more right" than the other one did - but it could happen. You can't spend too much time worrying about he long term when you're in the middle of this, because there's just no way to predict what might happen.
