<p>I think Irishdoctor gave very good advice. Do know that at least with my boys social set, the girls “like” ADD meds because it keeps their weight down. Proceed to work on the stress and see where it takes you.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much!</p>
<p>What are the ways to find specialist, instead of a regular pediatrician?</p>
<p>If you want to start the least expensive way, start with your insurance coverage, and see if you have a mental health benefit. Then online, or by phone, ask for providers who specialize in children and teens. A better option, if you are comfortable with it, is to ask other parents if they know someone good. The school can also offer recommendations, or your pediatrician.</p>
<p>If you want to find a Child Psychiatrist (the best option, as far as I’m concerned, but then I’m biased!), try the AACAP website.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/child_and_adolescent_psychiatrist_finder/child_and_adolescent_psychiatrist_finder[/url]”>http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/child_and_adolescent_psychiatrist_finder/child_and_adolescent_psychiatrist_finder</a></p>
<p>^^ You can also check your local hospital(s) to see if they have an outpatient behavioral group, call the group and see if they have a child/teen specialist --who show up in Shrinkrap’s link :-)</p>
<p>Agree with the above several posters that an assessment is in order.</p>
<p>On the ADD front, I have a son who is borderline. He discovered coffee when he was 13 and believe it or not, it helps him. I suppose it’s a stimulant like other meds for ADD; in any case, it seems to help him concentrate.</p>
<p>I was not saying she was faking it, but perhaps self diagnosing, which having seen many do, can cause those who think they have something, can have symptoms to match their self diagnosis, not a planned or conscious thing, but can happen. Teens will do this when answering surveys or mag quizzes. I am not downplaying the seriousness, but I wouldn’t label just yet or let her label herself.</p>
<p>I think you have gotten some excellent advice here that I am certain will be helpful. But when reading your initial post, what jumped off the page to me was your daughter’s age. She is a very, very young Sophomore who has set the bar high for herself. She is a full two years younger than her classmates. That is a huge gap at that stage of development. You might want to consider ways to bridge that gap to determine if that might be part of the problem. While high schoolers are often “red shirted” for athletic reasons, it has become increasingly popular in many prep schools to have students repeat their 9 or 10th grade years for social development reasons - and yes, many of these students are high achievers. Just a thought.</p>
<p>I have horrible ADHD and I wish you luck in getting this done but a word of advice: if you don’t, know that caffeine is great for treatment of add/ADHD! Maybe if she just drank coffee everyday things would get better. I know it helps me a ton! In fact, i’ve read that people who claim to have “outgrown” their ADHD actually haven’t; its just that adults are much more likely to be coffee drinkers!</p>
<p>I have one kid who was in GT and at the end of 10th grade asked me about ADD. He was a kid who exhibitied lots of inattentive characteristics in grade school but since there weren’t any real problems that his teacher’s saw they discouraged testing when I asked about it. I will say he was not a straight A student but he was a good student. He also had some very irratic patterns in his performance on tests. It was hard to know which kid would show up. We were also parents that stressed education and put in a lot of effort keeping him on track. When we went to our regular doctor he didn’t really buy that he had ADD because he wasn’t a C student. We had our son tested by a psychologist who stated that testing results were consistent with ADD and with this information the doctor perscribed a low dose of adderall and my son had his best academic year ever in 11th grade. He told us he found himself paying attention in class instead of the normal not paying attention. He also stopped spending hours on homework and instead for the most part was able to just get it done when he was on meds. So yes it is possible for a good student to have ADD. By the way my son had already on his own made a point of placing himself in the front of the room and had come up with many conpensatory strategies on his own to keep him functioning. On the flip side my other son who is one of the most focused people I know considered having ADD when he was in college because he couldn’t focus at all in one class. He took it upon himself to go to a doctor to see about getting evaluated. In his case I support him seeking help but really didn’t think he had ADHD. That one ended up not pursuing the diagnosis and aced the class. I completely believe that a gifted high schooler can have ADHD issues that go undiagnosed. I would expect that you would have some very clear examples of what you have seen in your child that would lead you to believe that ADHD is a problem. You would probably also find evidence of your daughter either relying on you to keep her from forgetting to do or turn in materials or she would have probably developed a system of networking with friends. In short I think it is very possible for her to have ADHD but at least from what you have written it isn’t altogether clear. Read about ADHD and if you see your daughter described get her tested even if you are discouraged by your family physician.</p>
<p>Op,
I did a lot of research on ADHD - in attentive type, when planning on evaluation for my 15 yo son. Below is a great link to the NImh, the central govt agency for mental health similar to NIH.</p>
<p>[NIMH</a> · Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)](<a href=“http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder/complete-index.shtml]NIMH”>NIMH » Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Children and Teens: What You Need to Know)</p>
<p>It’s confusing on who to be evaluated by because there are so many overlapping specialties who eval for ADHD. There are psychiatrists, psychologists who specialize in ADHD, psychoeducational evaluations, developmental pediatricians, neuropsychologists, along with the standard pediatricians, family practice and internal medicine doctors. It’s enough to make one’s head spin.</p>
<p>A psychiatrist basically will see if ur D fits the DSM4 criteria for ADHD inatt type. Which if u look at the website, sounds like its probably a “no” based on the info that you’ve given. A psychoeducational evaluator would determine if it’s ADHD vs compensation for some processing difficulties, which also sounds like a no. A psychologist can eval if it’s ADHD vs anxiety or depression. Given her level of stress and perfectionism, seems like this would be best place to be evaluated. Additionally it would give her a person to open up to and discuss her stresses and fears.</p>
<p>Everyone gets distracted and does not function at 100% every second of the day. She may be concerned that this is abnormal. Did you say that you were always suspicious that she had ADHD? Maybe she is responding this way (thinking she has adhd) to satisfy you?</p>
<p>I agree with other posters that you could do your part in trying to reduce her stress by setting age appropriate goals or possibly striving to show her that you love her for herself and not by her accomplishments. However, once these patterns are set, there may be psychological baggage that makes it difficult to reverse even when all parties are working hard to do so.</p>
<p>She sounds like an amazing Kid to me. You are very lucky.</p>
<p>Op,
Cost of evaluation: if it’s an MD - psychiatrist, Dev ped, then sometimes it can go thru ur insurance. If it’s non-MD - adolescent psychologist (which I think would be best for ur D), psychoeducational therapists, neuropsychologists, then it’s usually out of pocket to you (insurance would only cover a small amount).</p>
<p>To find one, you can google, if u dont know of any friends who used one. Or u could ask for a referral from your D’s school.</p>
<p>On the question of cost, if you go through with testing figure out the specialist you want to see and check with your insurance. Ours covered the psyhologist with the usual dedutable.</p>
<p>My S attends an Honors High School, has been a straight A student, taking AP courses, and has ADHD. He was diagnosed in 6th grade. He was on Meds up until Freshman year when he asked to go off the meds. We agreed on a trial period and have not seen a difference in him, nor has he. </p>
<p>When he started meds he saw a dramatic difference in his abillity to concentrate. </p>
<p>What we do not do is accommodations. We did not pursue this throught the school. We had a rough 8th grade with behavior, but who knows if it was the ADHD or just 8th grade boy? </p>
<p>My thoughts on accomodations, are as long as school work is not impacted, and the student has self control behaviorally, then why would accomodations be needed? High School is a perfect time to learn tools to manage yourself and your work. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Thank you all again!</p>
<p>About moving down a grade so she could be with kids her age - we thought about it but ruled it out. Social life is very important to her. (she is outgoing and very sociable.) She would be miserable leaving her friends for many years. She feels much better to be with kids her grade, who are mostly 1.5 - 2 years older. </p>
<p>Thanks so much for all your suggestions. We will definitely do more research, talk to our insurance, and find a way to evaluate her. </p>
<p>It’s very comforting to see other people’s experiences.</p>
<p>Nellieh, interesting. You stated that when your son started on the meds he saw a dramatic increase in his ability to concentrate. So when he went off the meds in High School did the ability to concentrate continue? If so, what do you attribute that to?</p>
<p>A daughter in tears and distraught about her ability to concentrate is a problem and she should be evaluated. Try to find someone familiar with gifted issues.</p>
<p>Maybe it is add or not, but if nothing else some counseling may help if she does have perfection tendencies that are getting in her way.</p>
<p>It is not uncommon for gifted students to work thru add issues until high school or college when they are finally challenged.</p>
<p>You can look google gt world and join their listservs. There is gt family listserv where there have been MANY discussions about gifted and add (or other learning disability). There is a gt special listserv that is specific to talking about 2e kids. You’ll find lots of support and information there.</p>
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<p>Unless you were planning to change schools as part of reversing the skip, I agree that this is not the solution. (I’ve got a May-birthday kid with a grade skip, and I myself was a September birthday who started in a late-cutoff state then moved to an early-cutoff state, making me the youngest in the grade. We both did better with older kids.)</p>
<p>The reason I asked is that “is young for grade” is a huge risk factor for an ADD diagnosis, not because you’re more likely to have ADD, but because you’re often compared to what’s developmentally normal for grademates, not agemates. The younger for grade you are, the bigger the potential mismatch between what’s developmentally appropriate for you and what’s appropriate for your peer group. I personally see that as a risk of misdiagnosis, but the kid in that situation likely has legitimate distress due to the mismatch, and that distress isn’t good, either.</p>
<p>How much sleep is she getting? She’s playing three instruments, two at a high level. Maybe that’s one (or two) too many.</p>
<p>@Hunt, That’s one thing we talked about. Sometimes I feel that she has been living on other people’s expectations, including ours. I feel bad about it. Because she is very smart and seems to be talented, so schools and teachers and coaches… expect a lot from her. She feels bad to disappoint people - that’s how she ended up playing 3 instruments - piano, clarinet, and oboe. She enjoys music to the point that she hates to give up any one of those instruments, but also realized that she didn’t really want to be a professional musician. The academic work is getting demanding so she may have to make tough choices, i.e., giving up things. </p>
<p>I’m sure many of you have kids facing this kind of dilemma. That’s something they will have to face again and again in their lives. </p>
<p>Again, thanks a million for all your advice. I am so thankful to your suggestions on not going through conventional ways. I was overwhelmed and actually quite lost when I called the hospital and learned that we had to do that packet and all her teachers had to evaluate her… </p>
<p>Update - I got in touch (personally) with our pediatrician, who is a wonderful person. She is willing to discuss this with us personally. Hopefully she will be able to suggestion a specialist our daughter can talk to, and we’ll start from there.</p>
<p>It’s hard for a kid who is an achiever and a perfectionist to give up anything, but sometimes it’s the right thing to do. I can tell you that one of the best decisions my daughter ever made was to give up travel soccer. She felt bad about it, but not for long. It was eating up her time.</p>