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Today we had our big doctors appointment for our DD6.5. She is a gifted child that seems to learn everything intuitively but struggles with executive skills. Drawing and story writing as her strengths. Completing math worksheets and sitting in her seat are a daily challenge.

The doc was very thorough, going over all of our records and the forms both parents and the school filled out. After a lot of analysis, we decided to give Ritalin a go. The big reason we decided to go with medication is that our DD6.5 is missing out on things that will enrich her life. Piano lessons, gymnastics, theater are all very good for her and she wants to do them. But her lack of focus and problems turning off her imaginational over-excitablity inhibits her ability to do these things. And even though she gets good marks now, I foresee the day when her inability to sit in a seat and focus may hinder her learning.

The best thing that happened today was when the doctor said she wanted DD6.5 evaluated at the Belin-Blanke center in Iowa City, Iowa. She focused as much on our daughter's GIFTEDNESS and her strength as she did on her attention issues. This was SO different from what the school psychologists have done. They just look at pathology. Our doctor says that the people at the BB Gifted Center will be able to find strategies to help teach her since her thinking is so ABSTRACT and she is such a visual-spatial thinker. While she will need to learn to focus some (with the aid of Ritalin we hope), our doctor is promoting the idea that the classroom may have to be adapted to meet her extraordinary needs as well. These are all things that were music to my ears.

We entered terrified, but we left with hope that things are going to better.

I'm not an M.D., so I'm just thinking out loud here.

Six and a half is very young. Today's schools expect children to sit still for far longer than they did in the early 80s and before. IMO, this is unhealthy and the expectation that children can sit still for hours is unrealistic for many kids. Especially if the children are highly creative and highly energetic.

I believe that my son is highly gifted. We haven't done an IQ test, but he's skipped two grades and his current grade isn't much of a challenge for him. He's never taken Ritalin (though it was suggested that we look into it back in kindergarten). Like your daughter, he wouldn't sit still, created distractions (circle time was a big problem), and was generally a huge challenge for his teachers. We had constant meetings about his behavior. Yeesh.

A big part of the problem, which a teacher who taught him for two years finally admitted, was that the work was too easy for him. Some kids act out when the work is too easy.



Repeating: I'm not an MD. I also haven't met your daughter. But here is a thought that occurred to me in reading through your previous messages: does she really have ADD or she just frustrated with boring worksheets? Why should a six-year-old --- a little child --- be expected to sit and focus on something that's too easy? If she can do relatively complex things on a computer, why should she be happy to sit down and count little pictures of fruits or balls or happily do other very basic stuff? Personally, I was not surprised one bit when my six-year-old was getting fidgety when asked to spend hours focusing on stuff that was too easy for him. Who wouldn't?

I don't know your daughter and I don't know how serious her problems with paying attention are. But if she can focus on stories or non-worksheet math problems, why are you convinced that she has ADD? Isn't the ability to hyper-focus kind of the opposite of ADD? A kid in my class in first grade had ADD. He could not sit still and could not focus, and if he was off his meds, it was blazingly obvious to one and all. Phew.

Has anyone asked your daughter why she doesn't want to do those worksheets? When does she concentrate and when does she fidget? Is there a pattern to her behaviors?



Does it get worse after lunch at home? What classes does she have after lunch? Is she tired? Does it still get worse if she's asked to sit down and do something that you've seen her hyperfocus on?

I googled "gifted children" ADD misdiagnosis. This book was one result.

ADD has a very broad definition and we live in a culture that (IMO) labels children with ADD too readily. And the jury is still out on Ritalin and changes to permanent changes in brain chemistry.

Again, I don't know your situation, so if I'm coming across as rude or clueless or otherwise negative, please excuse me. It's just that I've read so many messages here describing kids who sound so much like yours, and are suffering from a poor educational fit rather than ADD. You know your daughter's problems better than anyone. I am only here throwing out questions that may or may not have been asked.

Just my two cents. Well, maybe fifty cents at this point.

I am NO kind of expert, but the current DSM-IV does not allow for a diagnosis of ADHD before age 7. I personally would not medicate unless she was having some serious behavioral or learning problems.

When my son first started having problems we started by adjusting his diet: minimizing sugar, eliminating red and yellow food coloring and signing him up for soccer (extra exercise). Omega 3 supplements can also be helpful.

Good luck.

Actually Val, hyperfocus is considered a symptom of ADHD. And ADHD, particularly inattentive type (which used to be called ADD) is not about the inability to pay attention ever, but the ability to control your attention. Just because a child can read a book or play computer games for hours, or any other activity that the reward is part of the doing, does not mean they are able to make themselves pay attention to somethig boring now for only an abstract later reward (or avoidance of later consequences).

I think it's really hard to diagnose ADHD in the presence of poor school fit, because as you say how much bordem can you expect a 6yr old to tolerate? But the gifted, primarily inattentive type kids who can manage to pass school are the ones that get missed, especially girls - because they aren't bouncing off the walls, picking fights and generally driving everyone else spare.

My DD is nearly 10, in so many respects she is SO much better now than at 6.5, with some improvements due to maturity, some due to OT, diet, piano & swimming, etc. But i cant tell you how much I wished we had pursued an accurate diagnosis at 6.5-7.5 yrs. And while I know that all those things we did before accepting we needed to go for the ADHD and ASD assessments helped her, putting the cart before the horse only made getting a diagnosis that much harder.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I agree that a gifted kid bored out of their brain can be misdiagnosed. But dual diagnosis is a very real possibility and given how under diagnosed girls can be, let alone gifted girls, I do wonder how likely is misdiagnosis v. dual diagnosis? It's oh so appealling to say that it's just over excitability and giftedness. Would that my DD was just over excitable...

I am also NOT an MD, but with our experience with dd10 and the schools begging us to medicate her for ADHD, I am glad I found this list of 50 diagnosis that mimic ADHD. For DD10, we discovered that although gifted, she was also having focal seizures along with being stealth dyslexic and dysgraphic. I am not suggesting that your child is any of those things...here is the list if you like:

http://www.incrediblehorizons.com/mimic-adhd.htm

The decision as to whether or not to medicate for ADHD is tough. It is even tougher when you are not 100% convinced that the diagnosis is correct. As everyone here knows, I've recently gone through this with my HG, dyslexic, dysgraphic DS10 who also has sensory processing disorder. I was very reluctant to believe the ADHD diagnoses, but started the medication merry-go-round last summer. It has been a terrible year of one side effect after another. The medications gave him stomach aches and took his personality away. I was devastated. HOWEVER, we lowered his dosage significantly a few weeks ago and I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER with the outcome. He feels great, his personality is fabulous AND he can concetrate at school! Now, I have to be completely honest and also let you know that his teacher started curriculum compacting about a week and a half ago and that has helped tremendously, too. It is so hard to find the correct answers with gifted kids.

Also, I did a phone consultation yesterday with Dr. Ed Amend. He has written several books on gifted children and on misdiagnosis/dual diagnosis. He was a wealth of information and very friendly. If you are at all questioning your decision, I would highly recommend that you give him a call.

We have started with just a half of the itsy bitty pill three times a day. And so far so good. She is still a creative whirl-wind, making stuff all day. Her spaciness has improved already. We have yet to see if any side effects will arise.

But as for whether or not to medicate, we went back and forth. In the end, these things lead us to give it a try. We were beginning to see real social issues from her distractability. She was REALLY struggling to complete tasks in the classroom. She wasn't able to participate in activities she was really interested in and this seemed to be getting worse. And while reading "Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis" it discussed our exact situation. The stimulant may help her focus, and we can stop the meds whenever we decide. Besides, I take medicine for depression. If a medicine would help her be more successful, then let's give it ago.

Most of all, I am so glad they are getting her in at the B-B Center. There we can access her full range of extra-ordinariness so we can get her the services we need to truly challenge her and tap her amazing creative potential.

I am glad to hear things are going well on the meds.

Just a tip from our own experience, make sure your DD is getting enough to eat! My son did not have much of appetite while on stimulants at all.

I was reading this yesterday and found it to be very interesting. You might as well.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...switch-conventional-schooling-homeschool

The book Simplicity Parenting is really great, too. She apparently got, I think, 68% of the kids in her study functioning so well that they no longer qualified for the diagnosis. It is very worth reading.

We are a pretty "crunchy" family and do whatever we can naturally before going with meds. My DH is convinced ADHD isn't even a real diagnosis and / or that it might be caused by many different things (chaotic lifestyle? certain things in processed foods? simple boredom, because school is a prison? or maybe a real disease caused by environmental toxins?)


I think I would never medicate a young child, but I'm not in your situation, so I don't really know what is going on. I just know these drugs can have serious long term effects...though some of them haven't even been studied well enough.

My sister and her friends took Adderall in college to get better grades. She even managed to get a diagnosis. She does not have it. Taking speed to do homework and study is just so sad and pathetic. ;(

Hah, I always love folks who don't believe ADHD is "real". I always want to let them borrow my DS for a few days. ADHD is very real, and can be seen in MRIs, they show marked differences in brain development. Kids with ADHD who go unmedicated have a much higher risk of drug and alcohol abuse as well as depression and suicide.

Also, Ritalin has been in use for like two decades now, and has been shown to be a safe treatment for ADHD. The key is being certain you have a proper diagnosis. ADHD is still primarily a diagnosis of elimination- you have to rule out sleep disturbances, viral illness, etc. that's where I think many Drs take the shortcut.

Actually, Ritalin has been around for decades and it's been used to treat ADHD since the 60s.

But the jury is still out on its long-term risks. The Wikipedia has a lot of well-cited information on this subject.

Obviously, ADD and ADHD are real (as I mentioned, a kid in my class had ADHD, and I've seen it up close). However, I think there's a lot of overdiagnosis, especially over the last 20 years or so as schools have become increasingly focused on worksheet-type seatwork and less focused on developing creative abilities while cutting recess. And honestly, I don't think that the type of work handed out in public elementary schools necessarily teaches concentration skills. There's too much busy work, too many short worksheets with multiple choice questions, and too little work that requires real, sustained concentration on a single general idea.

For example, how many novels do public school kids read as part of school by, say, fourth grade? By that I mean, read, discuss in class, and write about? I do NOT mean reading AR books at home and filling out a reading log and never analyzing the book. And how much time do fourth graders spend reading one- or two-page sheets with a small group of multiple choice questions used to "assess comprehension?" These worksheets teach kids how to read in units of sound bytes and how to answer questions on high stakes tests. They certainly don't teach them how to read a serious book and analyze it. I wouldn't have sat still for this, and I don't have ADD.

So it's just easier to drug some kids. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to claim that there's some kind of conspiracy. I just think that these labels have become popularly known and it's easy to think of them as a result. Plus, ADD and ADHD are defined loosely enough to make it easy (too easy, IMO) to justify the diagnosis.

Just my 2c.

I have never seen a worksheet with multiple choice questions in 5 years of elementary school. Not once. They're all short answer/ written response.


Several per year by fourth. We are involved with this now.


Until recently, I'd never seen this either. We have started to get assignments in RAZ Kids, which includes godawful-quality texts and inane multiple-choice questions; this has happened only in the past two weeks, as a pilot, and I am hoping it goes away again.

But in general, you've made me feel better about the quality of our school, so thanks.

As for whether ADHD meds are overprescribed: it's up to parents to be skeptical and weigh the pros and cons. We need doctors who are very careful and not beholden to drug companies. We need teachers who know it's not their role to diagnose anything or recommend meds. However, if suffering is being alleviated (those who have needed meds will know what I mean), I don't think it's for bystanders to judge whether it's right or wrong to use meds in that particular case.

DeeDee

I agree with you in a way, but in a way I don't. I think American society needs to do some serious questioning about these drugs.

Interesting: today's NY Times has an Op-Ed piece on Ritalin. It was actually worse than I thought: three million children are being given these drugs.


And:

A diagnosis of ADHD can (correctly) be made only if the problem is occurring in more than one setting. That is, trouble concentrating in school is not sufficient for a diagnosis.

Boredom in the school setting or inappropriate instruction is obviously a problem for lots of kids, and can lead educators to make incorrect assumptions about ADHD; but responsible physicians look at functioning at home and in other non-school settings, as well as at school, before making a diagnosis or prescribing meds.

In the current environment, there are lots of places where this process can go wrong and lead to incorrect diagnosis; I get that. But the current public conversation around this issue often throws out the baby with the bathwater.

DeeDee

Not sure what you mean. Are you saying that the editorial I quoted is just a case of fear-mongering?

He presented some provocative information questioning long-term benefits of stimulants in children. I'd be interested in your opinion about it.

Some interesting research on the topic:

http://newideas.net/adhd/research/functional-neurology-adhd-brain-studies/mri-stanford

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/adhd/content/article/10168/53841

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/744742

This sort of brings back memories. Given a sensitive, nontraditional, Gifted parent, I've experienced the situation where school is the ONLY environment where the child shows symptoms because school is the only place where the child goes that has more than the minimum of rules, boundaries and limitations.


We have to keep in mind how much intensity and effort a gifted parent can pour into keeping a child functional when in truth the child has fallen well behind agemates. Not to mention how much energy, intensity and effort the child is pouring into holding it all together. This is a very difficult situation.

Ideally there would be a differentiated diagnostic list for every spot on the IQ curve.

shrugs and more shrugs
Grinity

Regarding the Stanford study:


So in other words, the guy in the Times pointed to exactly these limitations as being potentially serious flaws in the logic around Ritalin use.

I'm a scientist and one my greatest frustrations with my field is the tendency to draw conclusions from too little data. It has been proven again and again that a too-small sample size can lead to false-positive and false-negative findings. IMO, a study like this shouldn't be published until the authors have tested a much larger sample size.

Put another way, this is why the FDA insists that drug and device companies run Phase III clinical trials with thousands of people.

FWIW I wanted to mention an interesting radio interview I heard the other day with a local psychologist who has a clinic for kids with ADHD, anxiety, ld's, ASD, etc. Instead of medication he uses a program that sounds like video games that are programmed to get more and more interesting if the kids keep their attention and focus. Supposedly it helps to "train" the brain by rewarding the attentive behaviors.

I know nothing about the program but it sounded like an interesting non-drug approach.

Well, Alcohol is a depressant. So why is one of the stereotypes of a person under the influence of Alcohol is more talkative and sparkly at a party? Dancing on the table? Lamp shade on head?

Turns out that Alcohol depresses the part of the brain that usually is at work inhibiting us from dancing on tables and saying what we shouldn't say. Who knew? Brain is complicated, not 'What you see is what you get.'

So a stimulant activates the part of the brain that directs attention. That part of the brain helps gifted kids with ADHD-I directly by speeding up the normal parts of their brain to match their gifted parts, and indirectly by helping kids with ADHD guide their attention towards topics that the children really want to pay attention to, but aren't inherently rewarding.

Is it morally right to keep any child in a classroom that is markedly below their level to learn? No. It's just as bad to do it to academically advanced kids as it is to do to kids who get misplaced into special ed classrooms when they have normal intelligence. But that doesn't mean that no gifted child as ADHD or ADHD-I.

Is my science perfect? No. But it's better than, 'Oh, a stimulant must stimulate hand and foot movement' in the paragraph above. Brains are tricky. HG and PG kids are so far from the norm that it's really really hard for families to make these decisions.

((shrugs))
Grinity

I once had a job where I had to set up psychiatrist appointments for the 5% of our students who received the medication monitoring service in their IEPs or MPs. I feel like I've seen it all as far as that goes, from the student whose meds worked so well, none of his teachers realized he had a disability, to the student whose parents took her off the meds at Christmas--and nobody noticed!

For a few kids, it makes them so much calmer and happier, as well as more productive. I did once have a student who had been exposed to crack cocaine in the womb who seemed to have two settings: zombie when he was medicated, and uncontrollable when the meds wore off. But that's one student out of a ten year teaching career, and not the only one with prenatal drug exposure by any means.

At one point, I noticed that about 40% of the students with ADHD diagnoses in their plans had birthdays in the last two months before the kindergarten cutoff date in that district. I believe that immaturity early their school careers gave them a reputation that brought some pressure to find an ADHD diagnosis in some of the cases. I also later discovered that at least one of our students with severe ADHD whose parents were dead set against medication got busted for "self-medicating" with marijuana later in his school career.

I have a couple of adult friends who took Ritalin as kids. One just turned 50, and is a Lieutenant Colonel in the army. Another is a designer for a famous videogame company in his 40s. Both of them still have ADHD. Both of them quit taking Ritalin when they were teenagers, maybe. Both of them learned some kind of coping strategies when they were older, and found careers where they could be successful.

These days, there are many more choices for ADHD medication. The follow up appointments are really important. You can try different medications if there are side effects, or adjust the dosages for any number of reasons.

Yes, students do too many worksheets in school, and not enough problem solving. Yes, the nature of schoolwork probably means that some immature kids, some gifted kids, and a whole bunch of kinesthetic learners are misdiagnosed. But for some kids ADHD medication can make all the difference.

This, this, a thousand times this. My son's school experiences were incredibly eye-opening in helping me realize the extent to which we had subconsciously structured our interpersonal interaction style and home environment to accommodate his disabilities.

I know the concerns some have expressed about why she struggled on school work. I have a DS9 who has been accelerated 2 grade levels in Math and Music. He struggled through 1 and 2nd grade math before the advancement. His struggle was from boredom. Now that I think about it, I experienced the same thing back in grade school till I was placed in a TAG program.

But DD6.5 could do any skill, but lacked the focus to be able to complete longer assignments, pay attention in class, focus during activities without wandering. In other settings it was the same. She intuitively learned to read music. But couldn't sit through a 20 minute lesson (or 5 minutes) without wandering off. Swim lessons were a nightmare!

It took us a long time to wrap our minds around the Duel Diagnosis. How could our kid be so bright, read at age 4, pick up any math skill instantly, make art like Picasso, and still need assistance from an aid in the room? And I know her Imagination-Overexcitablity really feeds into her distractability. But if this medication helps her deal with her ADD symptoms without hindering her wonderful giftings then we are going to give it a chance for HER. I want her to be able to keep up with her peers. And her spaciness was beginning to hold her back.

We have a game plan. That is to keep the dose as low as possible and to keep using strategies from 'Smart But Scattered' to improve her executive skills. We hope to get her off the medication down the road once she has developed coping methods to be successful. We are also monitoring her for the common side effects (reduced appetite, nightmares, insomnia, etc) and seeing her doctor weekly. Not to mention that we are getting her a total evaluation from the Belin-Blank Center in Iowa City in three weeks. This wasn't an easy decision, or one we rushed into. The school didn't push us into this. Nor did a doctor make a rush to judgement. This decision was a long, labored one by all involved.

MOST OF ALL, we are watching her creative output. She has always been such a gifted artist and builder. If those activities were diminished (as an artist myself) I would stop this little experiment immediately! We will do whatever it takes to help her succeed. I believe I am raising a future Leonardo di Vinci. We hope this will help her succeed.

There is an editorial in today's New York Times about how ADD medications have never been shown to provide any long-term educational benefit to children. It also talks about the many side effects. Food for thought!

One of my sons (age 9) is extremely creative (I'd call him HC+ if there was such a designation), and suffered from some of the same things you've described about your daughter at the same age, at school and elsewhere. He could never pass a swim test and would spend the whole swimming lesson bouncing around.

It seemed to be going the same way last summer. They put him in a Level 2 class initially (translation: "We're pretty sure you can get into the pool by yourself, but we'll work on that skill over the next two weeks.") By the end 8 weeks of lessons, he had passed Level 5 (end of level test: do a racing dive into the deep end followed by five laps of four different strokes, including back crawl and butterfly). He had taught himself how to do the racing dive the summer before and could swim to the bottom of a nine-foot pool when he was seven. But he just wouldn't pay attention during lessons until last summer.

As he's matured a bit, he's become much better at this sort of thing. He still has a way to go, but we've seen a lot of progress. It can be frustrating and difficult, but I think that with him, at least, he needs time for the right circuits to form in his CNS.

The article has some elements of fear-mongering, or at least provocative and not that well substantiated opinion.

It is not clear from his description what long-term benefits they were looking for in the study. Is "behavior" (which?) improved in 20-year-olds as opposed to 10-year-olds? One hopes so, he says it was not, we have no idea what was measured. What does he mean by "behavior problems" that didn't improve over a 10-year period? Against what baseline(s) were these problems assessed?

He thinks "the illusion that children�s behavior problems can be cured with drugs prevents us as a society from seeking the more complex solutions that will be necessary." And he says that "Drugs get everyone � politicians, scientists, teachers and parents � off the hook." I don't think very many people actually advocate using meds as the only treatment option for ADHD. In the short term, meds can help a person access the other treatment that's being offered, and gain enough impulse control to practice the skills that are being taught. That's a short-term gain, but one with longer-term implications for both functioning and self-esteem. The author doesn't address any of the subtleties around how and why these drugs are used.

The question of whether deficits are inborn or not, highlighted in the second page of the article, is interesting, but the author appears to be rather eager to blame parents (and the environment parents provide) for their children's disabilities. Environment plays a huge role, I'm sure, but I don't think we have enough science yet to say that most cases of ADHD should be blamed on causes in the family home. (I imagine the highly nurturing parents here whose kids have attention issues may have something to say on this subject.)

I'm not saying that everyone needs meds, nor that all meds are safe, only that the use of carefully prescribed meds to improve the lives of people who genuinely benefit from them should not be unjustly stigmatized.

DeeDee

We have to keep in mind how much intensity and effort a gifted parent can pour into keeping a child functional when in truth the child has fallen well behind agemates. Not to mention how much energy, intensity and effort the child is pouring into holding it all together. This is a very difficult situation.



I can't get quoting working on my phone... But I may need tonprint and frame that.

The quote you made says, He thinks "the illusion that children’s behavior problems can be cured with drugs prevents us as a society from seeking the more complex solutions that will be necessary".   

That's the thing right there.  "us as a society" is not going to change the way it's running things just for one little child right now at this moment.  Trust me I worry about this.  As a mom I do constantly re-direct, reframe, rephrase, generally work on getting the behavior I want to see out of my kid.  I don't trust that teachers will want to put in that same effort.  My kid's just loud and opinionated and has "a high sense of entitlement".   I resent that other people's "not perfect" is ok, but mine might not be.  I worry.
I want for him to be able to go to school.  I feel like the world has more to offer him than just I do.  I like what aculady posted in a recent thread re:learning styles.  "a noticeable area of strength is a  learning style.   a noticeable weak area is a learning disability".  I want my kid to be able to go to school as long as they have something to offer him.  I don't want him to not be able to go to school because he is unable to participate.  The disparity between that quote above and reality is the difference between just wishing what all of society would do and deciding what you as a parent will do for your child in the circumstances you're given.  I don't think my kid has ADD, but if I thought so I would choose like Art dad to seek out respectable professionals to help find a way to relieve unnecessary suffering.  I'm pretty all natural, I had natural water births for my kids, cook most meals from scratch.  When my kids have seasonal allergies they get children's Claritin.  Why not relieve unnecessary suffering?  


About ADD. From what I've read it's called "the medicine merry go round" because it takes several tries to get the right prescription and dosage because we're all unique, but the results are worth the effort.  I know someone who's kid took Ridlin  through school.   They said it wasn't a cure-all, but what it did was allow him to tell his kid honestly, "the Ridlin is treating the ADD part of your brain, now you are responsible for your behavior and will be held accountable".  

Ps, lol. I told my dad I read about ADD inatentive type and I think maybe that's what I've got because I can't seem to focus. He said, nope, you just have a four year old and a toddler. Your brain went on vacation. Wouldn't you?

It seems to me that some children feel more comfortable inside their own skin with Stimulant medication than without. As a parent that's what I'm looking for. Having great big ideas and not enough power to explore them is a particular pain. Looking at agepeers and concluding that one just isn't that smart actually can have long reaching negative effects.

My other insight is that similarly to how gifted children seem normal to gifted parents because the apple didn't fall far from the family tree.....2e kids seem normal to 2e parents...but that doesn't mean that they aren't 2e.

I was wondering - Art Guy - what kind of responses you were hoping to get from your original post.

I'm wishing that people didn't want to turn this thread into a political discussion of the wider implications of ADHD in America, but I realized that I'm not you, and this might be exactly what you were looking for.

On rereading, I'm thinking that you might be looking for me to say: 'Wow, good job in going that extra parenting mile. BB sounds exciting. I hope you find the medication that opens doors for your DD right off the bat. One never has all the answers one needs to make these important decisions, but it sounds like you are doing everything in a good way - that's the nature of parenting, one has to jump in a try.'

Which is how I feel.
Smiles,
Grinity

I was just sharing our experiences, as requested by a parent who has experienced the same thing. This debate doesn't alarm me. I have been on both sides. So I feel our experience can shed light on how others proceed.

Lol, I have thick skin. I can take those who think we are doing things wrong. ;-)

Grinity, this is out of line. Sent you a PM.

I think I might make my signature line "Ditto what Grinity said."

Oh yeah. I can't tell you how many assessments DH and I have sat in and said "That's not normal? I do that! [He/She does that.] Huh."

And then there are the areas that I thought DD was doing so much better than me, completely missing that she is just like me....

This professor is getting a lot of press and here is one response http://notesofapsychologywatcher.blogspot.com/2012/01/ritalin-gone-wrong.html

There are several issues with this article but to dismiss all the studies on the genetic component and the science behind dopamine seems to me a bit of a private agenda being put forth.

Plus he ignores all the research on women and ADHD and the High IQ and ADHD which do not fit into the bundle of goals that he states are "the academic performance, peer relationships or behavior problems, the very things we would most want to improve."

Within the High IQ population these issues are not paramount for the most part. Research has shown that most of these kids don't hit the wall until secondary education or adulthood.
http://www.drthomasebrown.com/pdfs/OJPsych.HighIQKidswithADHD.pdf . Anxiety issues represent a good chunk the ADHD picture.