The reason I don't know if she would be considered ADD is that she has some Anti-ADD seeming things about her.
The main thing being that she *can* focus if she's interested in something. She can tell me all about a teachers' lecture, or a video they watched at school. It's just that if she's *not* interested in something, she doesn't usually focus well.
I think that's the definition of ADD, actually. ADD is thought to be a weakenss in doing the reward center of the brain the makes us happy for a boring job well done.
Having said that - it doesn't automatically mean she has ADD, there are lots of other ways to discribe this set of traits.
Some people have to be 'emotionally aligned' with a project to do well on it. Some see the big picture and hate the details. Briggs-Myers talks about people who prefer to collect more information rather than come to a decision.
If you do an evaluation, make sure it's someone who is well versed in the presentation of ADD in highly gifted girls.
Of all the points you listed, the one that concerns me is the 'last-minute finish to projects when she tries to do otherwise.' I would certainly keep working on that one, because there is a point where the projects get so huge that last minute will limit the quality of what she can accomplish.
Recently a family member was diagnosed with ADD, and I was curious what life was like on the stimulant medication. I asked if he thought that I had ADD too, and if he thought the medication would make my life better. He said: "Oh yeah, you have it, but you don't need medication - you make it work for you!" That had the ring of truth to it. Now when I hear your yo-yo story, I think "That's normal isn't it? Oh wait, maybe that's normal for me!"
The interesting thing is to figure out what conclusions your DD has made about herself based on her behavior. Does she feel 'dumber' than the other smart kids in a way that makes her work harder, or makes her give up?
I have 'a zillion' little tricks to keep me on track - my latest is a Sufi style of mediation called Heart Rhythm Meditation. I've always been 'a natural' at drifting off with upward Meditation, but I've never perused it because it seemed redundant. Finally I've found a style of meditation that keeps me grounded and able to regulate the OverExcitabilities and do the things I want to do in the world. They call this 'downward meditation' - how cool is that?
Your family is lucky that your daughter seems to consider most
school work to be interesting. What has helped me so much is that I am able to 'strongly encourage' myself to be interested in most of the things that I need to do. That seems a skill worth recognizing in your DD to the extent that she already has it, and developing through praise evermore of.
Also - it seems prudent to have her hearing tested, as well as her 'central auditory processing' checked - if 'Huh?' is her favorite word. If that's fine, you may want to figure out 'alternate cues' for commonly used instructions. I sing quite a bit to cue other people. Humming to let people know I'm in their space, 'Good morning to you,' 'clean up song,' 'working on the railroad' to boost the energy.
Words from other languages make good cues for common routines.
The trick to this not seeming patronizing is to clearly be using it on yourself to manage your own energy first.
I've heard of families where the mom uses handsignals. I'm thinking that if your DD is willing, making an agreement to both wave your arms back and forth as if you are doing the wave before you give instructions - in the manner of clearing an etch-a-sketch before changing the subject and starting a new topic.
As a child one of my biggest complaints was that adults were always 'creeping up behind me and wanting me to do jobs for them' right in the middle of a terrific daydream. Now I realize that I was always in the middle of a terrific daydream - they didn't have a chance.
Does your daughter have any sense of time? I am always 'in the present' with no innate feeling of time passing, especially if I'm in the zone - when things get tough, I set my wrist watch for 5 minutes all day long, so that if I drift off, I get a chance to see if it's a choice every 5 minutes.
I'd love to talk some more about this topic.
Grinity
