We're just working with this local psychologist at the teacher's request to try to help improve DD's behavior and help the teacher deal with her, which I think is helping the teacher somewhat even though she's not seeing the improvement in DD's behavior we had all hoped for.
So she gets up and moves around, and/or tries to leave? What else?
The specific kind of psychologist is important. A talk therapy type of psychologist isn't going to be able to do much about this. A behavior therapist would get some traction by helping your DD get any missing skills and incentivizing her to change her habits, preferably after observing her in the classroom and strategizing with her teachers.
Behavior therapy is notoriously ineffective for ADHD in elementary-age children; if that *were* the problem (not saying it is) meds would be the likeliest strategy for the medium term while working on building other skills.
And as I've said, I'm really not convinced DD has ADHD--I think she's 'gaming the system' to get out of stuff she considers boring by, for example, going to the bathroom or going and getting a book to read.
That would also be a classic autism spectrum move: not valuing the activity for its own sake, and not feeling the social cues that suggest that one should do it anyway, one just leaves. (Again, not saying she has ASD either-- I don't know.) One can learn to stay checked in, but lots of positive reinforcement and skill-building may be needed.
I guess we'll tell the teacher and psychologist that we need a diagnosis and will be seeing a specialist about it before considering medication, but I bet that won't make either of them very happy.
It is not your job to make them happy.
I'm glad you are pursuing a diagnosis-- if you see the right expert, it will make a huge difference in your (and the school's) ability to see what your DD needs.
DeeDee
