We are pursuing having dd10 assessed for ADD (not the hyperactive physical type). Dh is likely someone with ADD who was not dx as a child. He said that sudafed has always helped him focus
and just has a lot of the symptoms.
Dd has been IQ tested twice -- once with a GAI in the upper 140s, once in the upper 120s. Either way, she is likely gifted to some degree. The second psych who tested her assured us that she did not have a LD or ADD based upon her WIAT (achievement) scores all being higher than expected given the second set of IQ scores and based upon behavioral forms filled out by me, dh, and her teacher at the time.
My behavioral forms
did indicate a concern for ADD, dh's indicated that she had everything from schizophrenia to bi-polar, and the teacher's indicated nothing. Dh's assessments are basically useless b/c he is a hypochodriac and really negative. I recall one of the questions asking about her pulling out eyelashes and eyebrows to which he responded "frequently." When I asked him about it (she never pulls hairs out), he said that "she could." I told him that they were looking for what she
does, not what she could do.
The teacher's form put everything in the typical range but she really didn't get dd. She was the one who told us that the IQ scores were due to "good guessing" and she wrote that dd was "nothing special" on her forms for the psych.
In any case, due to seriously erratic school performance, difficulty focusing, constantly getting distracted while reading (it takes her a good 9 months to finish a book), careless errors (including missing entire pages on tests -- i.e. completely turning past one page and not answering any of the questions on it b/c she didn't notice the page was there), and some other issues, I am really at the point where I feel like ADD is a real possibility. I am also feeling like it is significantly impacting her school experience.
I contacted our insurance co to see if we could get them to pay to have her assessed. They were rather shocked that a parent would be self-referring and wanted to know why her school and/or ped wasn't making the referral, but they do seem willing to pay.
The thing is that her teachers are unlikely to see a problem b/c, even at her worst, she is an average student and doesn't perform below "proficient" or the 50th percentile for grade. If we go the route of behavioral scales again, I don't think that we are going to get an accurate picture of what is going on.
Is there any other way to dx ADD other than subjective opinions of parents and teachers? The psych at our ped's office seemed to feel so, but he is out of network and it would cost us $800 for him to assess her. We paid over $1000 a bit over a year ago for the last IQ and achievement test piece and it just isn't in the budget for us to spend that much again when we can have it done virtually free through insurance.
Thoughts or advice?
