J.S.
ADD is a medical diagnosis, not a learning disability. A public school (and most private schools) cannot test for ADD--you will have to see her doctor about that. Then your doctor can make recommendations for therapy--either medicine, a change in diet, etc. Sometimes doctors will also want to check other things to be sure the issue is ADD and nothing else that presents itself as ADD (like depression, mini-seizures (absence seizures--they don't look like a typical seizure--it usually just appears that the child zones out for a few seconds) or even blood sugar levels, etc. The school can do educational testing to determine if there is a learning disability, but before they ever do formal assessments, they should try other interventions first--such as small-group instruction (like with a tutor that the school provides). Explore the interventions that the school is or will be trying. School personnel cannot always tell a parent/guardian exactly what they think due to liability issues. For example, I cannot tell a parent I think their child has ADD--because I am a teacher, not a doctor, and even though, based on experience, I am pretty good at knowing what ADD looks like and manifests itself, I am not able to diagnose it...I can tell the parents what I see...the child is not attending to instruction, is unable to complete work, seems to lack focus and concentration.
The same rule applies to learning disabilities--I can't tell a parent that I think their child may have dyslexia. I can tell them what I see, slow fluency, poor word retention, etc, but I am not an educational diagnostician or a dyslexia specialist and can not diagnose kids.
So when you go to your conference, be prepared to ask a lot of questions. Ask the teacher about ADD, and what she sees. Ask if the counselor has any kind of screening for students with focusing problems. Ask if she is falling behind in all areas or only reading. Ask if the teacher sees anything that might suggest dyslexia is a possibility. If there is even a small chance that dyslexia is a possibility you can get her tested for that at Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas for free. It takes a while, and is a bit of a process, but it would cost more than $1000 to have a private educational diagnostician do it.
Make sure the teacher knows how much time she is spending on homework--and kindergartener should not be expected to do more than 20 minutes of homework per night, plus 20 minutes of reading--not just her reading, also you (or someone) reading to her--that is an important part of learning to read.
I am sorry this is so long. I hope it helps.
