Hi again mamabear. I know you know the school can't diagnose your child with ADD, only a doctor can. I don't know if they get better funding with that diagnosis, but it's not relative in that they cannot choose or influence whether her diagnosis is ADD of LD.
Personally, if our pediatrician diagnosed one of my children with what I consider a neurological condition(I consider ADD nuerological) I would follow up with a pediatric neurologist. But, that's just me.
I can tell you that in the past I wondered if DD6 had ADD. Mostly becuase of what I notice as her inability to focus and stay on task, limited attention span at times. But she has been tested for ADD and we have been told she does not have it.
I have noticed she is much less fidgety in academic situations since starting therapy. I do feel her issue caused her actual physical discomfort during reading tasks. This has seemed to decrease.
She is like your DD7, has a mind of her own, totally different thought process, very smart. I have decided if I choose to keep her in a public school setting, it is my job to teach her how to cope with the aspects of that setting that are at a mismatch to her personality, most likely to cause her trouble.
I have worked with her on being aware of when she is focusing and when she is not. I want her to be aware of the difference of *feeling* between those two things. The goal would be for her to learn how to "turn" focus on and off. I've seen some progress there, she is learning how to focus on tasks she is less interested in. If she had ADD I don't think I could help her learn to do this and I probably wouldn't take the approach that I am taking now.
If we find that her enviroment is not a good fit after I've done everything I can to help her, I will create an individualized education plan and homeschool her.
It's never easy.
You are certainly a really good mom for doing whatever it takes to help out your children. I hope the vision therapy is helpful, it sure has been for our DD.
