Seeking Advice on ADD Testing for an Older Child

Hi S., we are going through all of this with our 14.5 year old son. He was just diagnosed with ADD (not ADHD because he's not hyper, just has some focus issues). He was missed in school and by us for all of these years because he's extremely smart, he always tests way above his grade level and impresses all of his teachers. But, he wasn't doing his homework and in most cases would take hours to do what he should do in 30 minutes or so.

So, we have Kaiser (Oakland) and their psychology department ran a battery of tests on him: a computer focus test, scantron, and then we, his teachers and our son filled out behavioral questionnaires on him. They crunched all of the numbers and came back that he did have ADD (more specifically Executive Functioning disorder). Makes sense to us now that we look at all of the symptoms and compare them to our son's behavior.

If you don't have Kaiser, there are Educational Psychologists that do this work. In fact we are now working with one. Kaiser's frontline treatment is drugs and we don't want to drug our son, we want to give him the tools he needs to become unstuck when he's stuck and to move him forward. So, we're paying (a lot!) for an educational psychologist. So far we like her but we've just started. We're in Oakland, but if you need a referral message me and I can pass that info on.

We too thought our son was being lazy, but now we feel quite bad that we didn't notice this learning disability before! So it's not a bad idea to have your daughter screened at least. Hope this helps.

M.

Hello,

My Name is Theresa,

I had the same problem with my child he was finally in the the 4th grade even though school has always been very hard for my son since K1. His teacher had noticed he might have a problem,with learing, so she requested to go see our pediatricain. We did she has my son since birth she, gave hima fairly easy test, which was sitting still talking to him asking questions, needless to say my Dr. said no My son does not have ADD or ADHD she sent me back to school with a form saying the school with have to test him. So they did, it took time it was all free and what they learned was he has a learning disability he has severe auditory processing,which I really never thought he was lazy he always tries so hard. But husband too said he was lazy. Now my son is special Ed and he does get alot from school he is now going to the 7th grade and boy lets me tell you it get's harder for our kids. This was a really hard time for us,my hubby and I but thank God we went to look for help because it was even harder on my son.
So You should start by your teacher or your Dr. because it's never too late to get help for your child. I know of a family who went to get help, when their child was a freshman in high school.

So I hope this help's if you need more infor let me know,
Thanks Theresa

S.,
I am by no means a professional on this subject but my friend and I were just talking about this about her daughter. My friend is a homeopath and said that her daughter's behavior changed drastically after changing her diet and watching what she ate. She found out that she has reactions to food color dye and that dairy products made her have melt downs. She stopped giving her these foods and she was a totally different person.
Everyone is so into this ADD thing that they probably don't even realize that it may be food related. If this were my son, I would try everything first before labeling him ADD or give him meds.
Try a food experiment and see if she changes. Another kid on meds scares me.
Hope this helps. It sure helped out my friend!
T.

All school districts/ regional centers do assessments for this type of thing for free. You might need a referal from soemone at school but get in touch w/the regional center & set up an appointment. Since it's free, it will only be your times that was taken & it will ease your mind. If she has any problems, they'll get you the help & services she needs. All for free for the duration of her education in the public school district. Depression, sadly, is becoming prevalent in teens as well, so you might want to get her a few sessions w/a therapist.

Have her checked out for dyslexia. My sisters sons were not the best of students, and they had them tested after a very observant teacher mentioned what she thought the problem was. The oldest boy was in 7th grade by the time it was discovered. He used to say he could read a book in a day so they thought all was fine. It turns out he was skimming through the book because it was too much for him to read. The younger son (after diagnosis) repeated a grade and was given extra time to take tests because of his problem. His teachers also gave oral instructions for the test rather than having him read lengthy explanations. Speak with the school district about their testing program (don't wait for summer to be over, call them now) and intervention plan.

You say you have used tutors, but have you had her tested for learning disabilities? I would try that first before ADD testing. Good luck.