My daughter has a lot of ADD symptoms, she is 14 years old. The reason I started looking into ADD is because she may fail the 9th grade, and she is very upset about it. She keeps saying that she is trying really hard to understand her school work but just can’t keep the information in her head for a long period of time. My husband and I thought that she was lazy and just didn’t have any ambition, however since looking into ADD we may be wrong, and we would owe her a HUGE apology.

Questions
1. How do you get tested for ADD?
2. Where do you start? Calling the family doctor?
3. Is there anything I can do to help her right now?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I’m just now starting to collect any information.

Call your family doctor and ask for a referral to clinic that does testing for ADD. Once your doc gives you the referral set up the appointment and get her tested. I am surprised no one at school caught this before now. Also remember ADD is genetic in nature. Depending on whether it is you or your husband who has the ADD already you should be able to offer her some stratagies for dealing with it based on your personal experience. Since you didn't mention what her specific ADD type problems are it is hard to offer ideas. If she has trouble at home she needs to have a work center that has a container with everything she might need for homework such as pens, pencils, glue, markers etc. This way she won't have to be disrupted to go find the glue or to look for a pen etc. Bookbags need to be emptied every night and nothing goes back in until it is checked by a parent. Some people need total silence to do their homework while other find it is easier if they have light music in the background or use a set of headphones. Post more on what her specific problems are and I am sure we can all offer more suggestions. In the meantime draw on the ADD experiences of either you or your husband depending on who has it and offer suggestions based on what helped you to deal with it. Good Luck.

Thank you for your reply. I don't have ADD but her biological father may have it. He hasn't been a part of her life at all.

Her symptoms: forgetful, low concentration, moody, frustrated, tired all the time, needs to be reminded to do every day chores that she has been doing for over 4 years, etc.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Hi. My oldest son (now 17) was diagnosed with AD(no..H)D (also called inattentive)just before 8th grade. I had been asking teachers since preschool if they saw an attention problem but they saw lack of motivation, lazy, just not trying, needing to feel real success.........etc. Anyway, ADD is often difficult to diagnose. the person kind of drifts off, but doesn't cause disruption in class so the teacher doesn't always notice. Apparently, my sons eyes would still follow the teacher, while his brain just took a little vacation. I've heard that most girls with add are inattentive like my son. They tend to be content to just sit much of the time. they may have hyper moments but not often at my house.

Anyway, Ritalin has been a miracle for us....along with some behavior therapy as needed. Inattentive ADD tends to have more anxiety associated with it... and, like you, we did owe my son a huge apology. He is now in Senior honors English and made the honor roll.

Call your daughter's guidance counselor and/or the school social worker. See what they can do to help. They may arrange (free) testing. At the very least they should be able to give her some free assessment sessions. Loss of self esteem is a very real side effect of ADD and can be helped, but ohhhh, soooo slowly. See if some kind of tutoring might not help. once she is able to consistently focus she will learn easier. There are also many coping skills which she must learn to help her learn. My son has to review his subjects everyday for a set amount of time. His mind doesn't seem to "keep" the information so he has to keep looking at it, looking at it, looking at it. The counsellor says that is a way of "tricking" the brain into thinking the info is important.

One more thing, as her mom you probably have a pretty good feeling for whether or not she's ADD. Don't let anyone gloss over it until you agree with the assessment.

wish you the best....

cthrn:

You described my daughter to the tee. Can you tell me if your son was put on meds and what kind, dosage? Did you do anything to help him once you found out he was indeed ADD? The more I read the more I sincerely believe my daughter is ADD, (inattentive as you put it). I’m not sure if I want to put her on meds, (still researching). I did call our family doctor and he said he would put her on meds if that was what we wanted. I also found out she will have to be tested at her school with recommendations from her teachers. Thank you for the information. It has helped a lot. Take Care…….Kristi

Do not just let the school test her. Take her to clinic that specifically tests for ADD/ADHD as the docs who review her test results will be able to give you direct suggestions as to what things might work best for your daughter if she tests positive. If she tests negative the doc will still be able to offer ideas of where to turn for help for the problems she has. If I were to have let the school try testing for ADD I am positive they would have told me my daughter has it when in fact she does not have it. My son on the other hand does have it so I have seen both sides of the coin. Get thorough testing so you have a definate diagnosis of what is causing her problems.

hello, Sassy. We had a hard time getting my son diagnosed (I think we were looking in the wrong places). Anyway, he was miserable. He had no joy in his life and when, at age 12 he started making references to suicide I knew that we had to find out something. He was finally diagnosed by a pediatrician and an independant psychiatrist. A psychologist supported the diagnosis. The school was the last hold out. They saw other issues....until he was actually on the Ritalin. There was a BIG improvement and not just in grades. He began to smile once in a while. He wasn't content to just sit all the time. He started to make the effort to call his friends. He didn't hate school anymore (it was no longer a horrible place where he couldn't follow what was going on!) I don't remember his beginning dose of Ritalin, but it isn't perscribed based solely on weight or age. I know others have not had good luck with it, but it has literally changed my son's life. He also has had some behavior conselling and currently is working on anxiety issues, but life for him (and us!) is pretty good.

good luck to you

Definitely get thorough testing away from the school. Start with the pediatrician to rule out any medical condition such as hearing or vision problems and then find some sort of testing whether with a psychiatrist or specialized psychologist. My son is hyperactive and so the diagnosis was fairly easy and I hated the idea of medicating him at 5 years old but, it has made a huge difference for him. He takes Metadate CD 20 mg once a day and it has controlled 98% of his symptoms. He still has mild tics but he's no longer throwing chairs or climbing on tables! How is your daughter's penmanship? My step daughter had such horrible penmanship that the school sent her to an OT and that got her diagnosed as ADD (no H). Best of luck.

Poor small motor skills is one of the prominent signs of people with ADD. My son was receiving PT and OT long before he was diagnosed for his poor small motor skills. His printing is still a challange here although he no longer requires services for that. His cursive is awesome but that is not stressed in this school system therefore neither of my kids feel comfortable with cursive which bothers the heck out of me.

Our son was tested at the family doctor, however, it wasn't an accurate diagnosis. He had a more complicated disorder which goes by "Asperger's Syndrome", however, they are treated similarly so the ADD diagnosis and treatment with Ritalin worked well.

Our family Doctor wasn't really convinced that there is such a thing as ADD and after several years of successful treatment with Ritalin he switched him to Adderall, which was a disaster.

We finally forced the school using the American's with Disabilities Act/ADA to do further diagnostics. It took a while and significant pushing and patience on our part, however after 2 psychologists, 1 occupational therapists and 1 counselor looked at him they concluded "Asperger's Syndrome" and recommended Ritalin in the form of Concerta.

Prior to starting Concerta he had flunked some courses and grown despondent. Now that he is on Concerta, his grades have rebounded to what they were when he was first diagnosed with ADD and taking Ritalin. He's now on the Academic Decathlon. His social skills have also improved.

Some people will tell you that Adderall and Ritalin are the same, don't believe them. Brain chemistry is still not well understood and one compound might work and the other might fail.

You can force the school to do what it is supposed to do by invoking the American's with Disabilities Act. Just be patient once the process starts because a school system is typically very beaurocratic .