My point is that it seems you are concerned with issues that go beyond ADHD - perhaps EF difficulties?
I've been thinking about this and I am not sure that I am concerned with things that go beyond ADD. She is a very divergent thinker, but I don't know that I'd call that an executive function difficulty or even a problem at all. It is certainly a hinderance when you are looking at a school based setting and tests that test convergent thinking, but is it really something wrong? I'm not sure that it is. I actually think that it is a real plus in life in some ways. It just isn't valued as much b/c it is atypical -- much the way being gifted is atypical and can make school challenging as well.
I'm not bothered that you suggested something more. Just in thinking about it, I am realizing that some of what makes life and school challenging for dd is just part of who she is as a person and things that I don't really think are pathological. I don't want to change those things.
The other thing to consider is whether her reading is commensurate with her intellect. For instance, I've seen gifted kids (WISC in the 90 percentile or above), with reasonable reading decoding and fluency skills (at the 50 percentile). This difference between intellect and reading can cause havoc and sometimes points to a reading difficulty. However, sometimes it points to an attention issue. Sometimes both, sometimes nothing.
No, her reading really doesn't seem to be commensurate with her ability. The two times she took the WISC, her VCI scores were in the 99.7th and 99th. Both times there were two scores in the 17-19 range and one much lower (12 one time and I can't recall the second). She is probably very, very able in the verbal realm. Her reading comprehension runs in the mid to upper 90s and sometimes lower on tests like MAPS, but she pretty consistently decodes extremely well and has very good comprehension (many grades above level). Her troubles with reading related to rate (speed) and distraction. She loses her place or stops part of the way through a sentence b/c she is thinking of something else. A lot of people with ADD with whom I have spoken have told me that they experience similar sx. There may be something more going on, but I think that we'll look at the attention issues first and then see if there appears to be more if that doesn't make a significant difference.
Again, I was trying to point out that
1. The District MUST test
2. The school may be able to deliver supports
3. Sometimes the data shows co-morbid issues that may be contributing to the struggle.
I am still going to private route b/c, as you said, it isn't an exact science and I've seen two experts look at the same data and come away with totally different diagnoses or none at all. I don't trust that the school is going to find anything. I'd rather go the route of someone I've selected myself.
I'll let you know where we wind up once we get through some of the meetings w/ the psych through our insurance.
