Diagnosing ADHD | ADHD Information

We did exactly what you did, after we went to a neuropsychologist for a complete evaluation. The neuro. diagnosed him at almost 5, but we waited for meds until first grade. His teacher talked with my husband and I and prompted us to start meds, but the pediatrician did the two forms first then we started. He also has known our son since birth so he witnessed a lot! We were afraid of medication like so many others. Our pediatrician eventually recommended a psychopharmacologist for the meds, which has REALLY helped a lot!Im just curious....what did your childs pediatrician do to "diagnose" your child? Mine sent home two "evaluation" sheets, both the same front and back, one for me and one for his teacher. I filled mine out and she did hers, and I took them to the pediatrician and she compared them, then compared THAT to something else, plus took into consideration his behavior she has witnessed herself since we started seeing her for other things (staph infection running rampant around here) and said he has ADHD and ODD. Oh , she also asked me questions about his behavior and went all the way back to infancy. I always thought htere was more to it than this. What did your child go thru to be diagnosed?

well,our son went to a special nursery for 1 week where he was observed by a behavioral therapist and psychologist while he was interacting with other kids,adults and on his own,had speech therapist,blood tests and urine tests.

he also sees a child psychologist every 6 weeks and has done so for about 3 months before being diagnosed

According to my experience diagnosing adhd is a process that takes some time. We also filled out the evaluation sheets you talk about. Apart from that my son's neurologist asked for blood test to check thyroid function; some times thyroid problems cause similar adhd behaviors. My son also had some brain tests like electromagnetic imaging and electric impulses tests to check that he didn't have any brain abnormality. And he was also psychologically tested. This process took us about two months. Finally we got the diagnosis and he is on treatment.

I think you shouldn't rely only on paper information. It is better to make sure that brain and body are healthy.

Well I am really desperate I have a 6 yr old with adhd and i have a daughter who is 11/2 yrold with I have been struggling since she was little but never at school they mentioned that she had any problems, but since 1st grade thru 6 grade that is now in her grades always have been so bad she get detention almost everyweek because she does not care what her teachers says, she does not pay atention, she stands up and walk around the class, she forgets everything and at home is horrible because she can never say yes until I start screaming at her and sometimes not even like that, she soes not have self control. My husband and me have problems because how she acts and says stuff I really don't understand . She puts her music so loud and she does not care whenI tell her to lower the music and dances and jumps all the time. She gets bored so easly and starts bodering her brother up to the point that I have to scream at her to stop. It is so frustraring I am almost sure that my precious one has ADHD I love her so much and I am so worry.

Yesturday I talked to her and explain her that I will take her to the spiquiatricst for a check up beacause I though that he has adhd, she knows that her brother has it and that it is not bad to have it. I told her that I lover her with all my heart and I don't understand why she acts like she is doing right now but I will help her.

It is so hard...............

We have had the same ped, since birth and he recommend us to see a neuro. He will not treat adhd he believes it is a specialty. He is given all the info on DS, and is involved in his care. But, does not do any of the medication for it. We did fill out paper work and so did the school when we went to the neuro. We got a full packet of stuff prior to the three appointments we went to three days in a row back in May. We also use a Psychologists we see once a week.

My pediatrician is completely uninvolved as well. He refers me out to other Docs. It's been 2 years and I still don't know if my son has ADHD, sensory integration dysfunction, auditory processing disorder or all of these. The behavior modification psychologist had us fill out some paperwork, read over the IEPs and said to give him medication (without even seeing my son). That's completely unacceptable as far as I'm concerned. The developmental Neurologist basically did the same thing except for the fact that he measured my son's head. BIG DEAL!!!! I've come to grips with the fact that it's much easier for the Doctors to write a prescription for stimulants. If they work, great, their job is done, if not, they may have to actually try and do something about it. I'm not willing to put him on stimulants to make the Doctors, teachers or anyone else's life easier until I have a diagnosis. I just took him yesterday for extensive bloodwork and I will also talk to his allergist about food allergy testing. I am also starting Focus and Omega 3s pending the results of the blood test and I'm taking him for Occupational Therapy once/week. If all this fails, then I will find yet another Doctor and discuss medication.

I feel like this is a never-ending battle!

PSYCOLOGISTS USUALLY DX ADD OR ADHD. MY ISSUE WITH THAT IS THAT IS THE SAME THING AS A MUSCLE EYE PROBLEM WHICH A THERAPEUTIC EYE DR. CAN FIND. I ALSO HATE THIS DX CAUSE MANY OTHER DISORDERS CAN HAVE ADD OR ADHD WITH IT. I THINK A NP IS THE BEST ROUTE TO GO THIS WAY YOUR CHILDS LOOKED AS A WHOLE. I ALSO BELIEVE SCHOOLS SHOULD SEE TO IT THAT KIDS ARE MASTERING THE LESSONS. KIDS WITH DISORDERS ARE NOT NOT ALL TEXTBOOK LEARNERS EITHER. i THINK WHAT OUR KIDS REALLY NEED IS A CIRRULUM TO FIT THEIR NEEDS NOT JUST A IEP WHICH GIVES MODIFICATIONS. WITHOUT A FIRM FOUNDATION NOONE CAN REALLY MOVE ON AND DO WELL.

These are my exact issues - I am now fighting the school to give him an auditory processing test and they keep delaying the scheduling of the IEP meeting. I would take him myself but I'm already paying for the Occupational Therapy myself and the auditory processing test is 0 and it isn't covered by insurance. He's in a special ed classroom for his academics and I'm not sure this is the right thing to do either.

We did have to pay for the neurodevelopment dr. and all his follow up appoitments. But, I can say in our case, we had three appointments in a three days with him, 1st my dh and I for an hour, next day, me and Nate for over an hour, then dh and I to go over findings. Then we talked about therapy.. we had already been going to a behavior therapist.. didn't work.. so we talked of meds.. we were also told meds is only part of it, so we see the other psyh. Yes, this is very costly, neither of these people take our insurance.. We also were working on getting an IEP, we started that last Feb, and it was completed second week of school Sept 13. Nate is going to have pull out help with reading and some other stuff. In Pa the school has 60 school days.. that is actual in house school days to do an iep.. from Feb when we were there..it wasn't even 60 days left of the year.. with all the holidays etc..

My point here is there are good drs. like with any medical problem you have to find one what works for you and your child.. Same with the schools. We also now have in his file a written diagnosis.. he now has rights as a "disabled child" call it what you want.. they have to make exceptions for him now... sorry, as we know this is a very touchy subject with all of us...

SE IS PAYING OUR NP BILL. WAHOO!

We saw to psychs and a ped, had three hours of testing and then questionaires to fill out.

edited to add: I just have to address something that ivanhoe said about our children needing their own curriculum to learn. In this mid-term election year, we are hearing SO much about "so-and-so wants to raise taxes" and "so-and-so will lower taxes". It seems that no one wants to pay taxes, and yet people complain that their services aren't good enough or best suited to them. You can only stretch a buck so far, and if we are going to start expecting our schools to tailor a curriculum to each individual child, you are going to see your taxes skyrocket. Good luck with that.

BPQW39001.488125I say do levels and not grades. The ld school I went to did things this way. The federal govt. is responsable for giving the states the monies for Se services. I have said already they are redoing who will qualify for SE it will be like it was in the 70's which will eliminate lots of kids. The govt. wants to qualify severe disability people only. The rest will be mainstreamed. Just ask you SE directer. In the future all teachers will be required further education to teach cause the govt. wants more kids mainstreamed than like it is now. I think this is great but then they should get pay raises also. [QUOTE=numeca]

It is so hard...............

I wonder how your son was diagnosed early, yet your daughter wasn't. Wa your son hyper and she was not? I have a similar situation however, my daughter it 7 and my diagnosed son is 9. I see the inattention and other stuff in her, just not the hyperness as bad as my son's. These girls seem to slip through the cracks and suffer longer than those with the sever hyperness that my son has.

I agree to have a complete evaluation. She sounds like her self esteem is totally gone to the point that she simply does not care! It also sounds like she could start to make some choices that wouldn't be the correct ones, if you know what I mean, due to the low self esteem.

You are doing the right thing, don't worry!

I would also contact the school and ask for the school psychologist to assist with any therapy that they offer. OUr elementary school deals with all sorts of issues such as bullying, divorces, low self esteem, social issues, etc. They can help!

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