Thanks for your thoughts again Incog!
What has my radar up regarding pushing ADD on DD is that with all of the testing (even after finding visual deficits) the recommendation continued to be "share with Pediatrician for Attention Deficit issues". If I had not been aware that there were Behavioral Optometrists and asked if there was a reputable one in the area, we would have been in a much different position.
I have always thought that DD has "something amiss" but she has taught herself to compensate for quite some time. For instance, she is a good reader (according to the teacher she is 6 months ahead of other kids). I believe her reading level to be much higher if she didn't have visual issues since she can read words off things (charts in a doctor's office like the names of nerves and diseases and things). She asked me the other day what insipidous meant! She tends to panic if the words are small or italic. I think that is why she is comfortable with reading for her teacher using larger darker print books. Once the print gets smaller, she can't keep her place.
Her math skills are below grade level, but I believe that has to do with her trying so hard to keep her place on the page, that she can't "multitask her brain" to retain that and get the answer as well. (if that makes any sense.)
She has horrid hand writing! She doesn't create lettes or numbers in a natural progresson such as making an "n". She will make the arc and then go back and stick a short stem on it. Numbers are always backwards or sideways.
She is a really good kid and she knows that she is "different". She gets very upset when her GT sister will sit and do all of her homework for the week in 30 minutes and it takes babybear 30 minutes to copy 5 spelling words 3x each (poorly).
I never thought DD was ADD, but the school seems to cling to that label as their "easy out". So far, the Pediatrician is not entertaining anything from the school until all of the testing is done. Her teacher is excelent with her and willing to try things to help her, so that is a blessing!
Hopefully we will find the right combination before babybear's frustration has done any more damage to her self esteem!
Thanks again!! It helps to hear from those BTDT parents!!
