Diagnosis of ADD in high school? Bloggy

Parents Forum
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<p>I'm fairly sure D16 has ADD. She was classified as gifted in kindergarten. She's always done well in school but this year is struggling with honors chem and honors precalc. She does terrific on the homework but when she gets to the test, not so well. She states she can't pay attention in any class really, and basically has been teaching herself the concepts at home from her notes and by asking friends by text since middle school. I just found this out, BTW. She says her short term memory is "shot" She's fidgety, has trouble completing tasks at home, and always has to have music or something on or her "mind wanders". She regularly forgets things if she does not make a list. I have made an appointment with the pediatrician and one at the children's psych at the local children's hospital (that ones first available is in February) </p>

<p>Questions:
1) Has anyone had this happen?
2) Will medications help, or will we need behavior modifications too?
3) Will anyone think this is some sort of ply for lack of a better word, to explain her grades? I don't think we'd be asking for extended time or anything.</p>

<p>Full disclosure--I am a Nurse Practitioner and did psych some years ago, but things are different, and well, this is my kid, not some patient. </p>

<p>Thanks. </p>

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<p>Discuss this with your family physician immediately. Yes, older kids and adults are dianosed with ADHD, and are treated in various ways. You want to know WHY your kiddo is having the difficulties she is having. </p>

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<p>@thumper1 appointment is made and is on Monday. </p>

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<p>Hi - yes, absolutely. You’re describing my younger son to a T. We did choose to try medication as well as strategies for focusing, doing homework, studying in general and taking tests and both have helped a great deal. My younger son is also deaf, so had compatible accommodations already in place (preferential seating, taking tests in a room without distractions - he doesn’t have extended time but some kids do need that). It’s not a ploy at all to ask for accommodations; rather, it’s leveling the playing field. Who cares what others think if it helps your daughter. Keep us posted!</p>

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<p>Also make sure you don’t forget the basics- when was her last eye exam? Hearing test? What’s her diet like and is she getting adequate sleep?</p>

<p>I have a neighbor whose teenage daughter finally got diagnosed with some easily treatable thyroid condition and her problems in school disappeared. I am not diagnosing over the internet- but make sure you run through a checklist of physical health before you do the gauntlet of ADD/ADHD testing…</p>

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<p>@BTMell thank you , @blossom She wears glasses so annual eye exam, regular check up in September. Diet is good and varied and she does get about 7 hours of sleep a night. I assumed there would be blood work before they did the ADD testing. </p>

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<p>I have 2 with ADD both gifted and diagnosed late. Gifted kids can get by until the rubber hits the road so to speak.
Meds can help but they only do so much. I’m not sure but mine had a lot of trouble being able to complete the homework…so if your DD can complete the homework she must be able to focus some what . Maybe it’s not ADD but something else?</p>

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<p>Could be ADHD. </p>

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<p>Some with ADHD have issues with short-term memory, and some have issues with long-term memory. My H has ADHD (is treated), and he has a fab short-term memory. (I on the other hand, have a lousy short-term memory…I can be in a grocery store heading for the milk, spot another item that I need, and then forget to get the milk! lol. But, I have a fab long-term memory.)</p>

<p>When your D says her short memory is shot, does she mean that she can’t “cram for a test” because she can’t remember things that she has just read in her textbooks? If so, then she can’t be someone who crams for tests. She needs to study for tests several days in advance (when anxiety is lower) and then REVIEW already-learned concepts a couple of days before the test. This will help her “get in the zone” while taking tests because she’ll know the answers, rather than glancing around while she’s trying to remember something she tried to cram into her head a few hours earlier. </p>

<p>Nearly my H’s entire family has ADHD with Executive Function Disorder (EFD). </p>

<p>Does your D have any Executive Function issues…these often go hand-in-hand with ADHD. </p>

<p>Does she have planning or organizational issues? </p>

<p>Does life tend to just “hit her in the face” because she doesn’t think ahead? </p>

<p>Does she forget to consider the possible weather for the day and leave the house w/o a jacket or other likely needed items (sunscreen, hat, gloves, etc)?</p>

<p>Does she lose or misplace things? </p>

<p>Does she blame things on “bad luck” rather than realizing that inattention or poor-planning caused an issue? </p>

<p>Does she have some problem-solving issues (will run into a problem, but not be able to “think outside the box” for another solution)? </p>

<p>Does she have issues with time (under-estimating or over-estimating how long something will take)? </p>

<p>Does she spend too much time on projects that don’t require that much time, at the expense of other projects that also need to get done?</p>

<p>Does she hyper-focus on some things (usually things that she likes/enjoys)? For instance, the same kid that can spend hours on a video game and know all the details/rules/strategies may be a complete fail when it comes to figuring out what to pack for a week’s trip to a place where he’s never been.</p>

<p>Does she have trouble pulling herself away from something that has her attention? (for instance, if my H is focused on something, it is hard to pull him away to come to the dinner table or get out the door).</p>

<p>Does she have any anxiety issues? (My non-expert opinion is that some/many with ADHD also have anxiety issues.)</p>

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<p>@MichiganGeorgia‌ She completes the homework because, in her words she can get up, have a snack, play music, put it down and take it back up. </p>

<p>@mom2collegekids She doesn’t try to cram. It’s finals this week and she’s been sitting at the table, studying since last week. I don’t see executive function issues, She does have a planner and writes everything down because long ago the rule was established that if they forgot something they needed they would go without. She does tend to leave a “wake” of stuff when she comes in the house. I don’t think she’s overly anxious, but she does tend to cry at seemingly random and small things, like the other night when she dropped something and broke it. Her dad can not standing it when she (or I for that matter) cry or get upset, so I don’t know if she holds things in. </p>

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<p>??
What does that mean? That sounds like your H has anxiety issues.</p>

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<p>@mom2collegekids He very well might, his dad was military and he was raised very strictly. No crying, or yelling among other rules. She just does those things with me, when I’m around. </p>

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<p>Great set of questions @mom2collegekids‌. </p>

<p>@kandcsmom‌, my D is a bright girl who had some very serious vision problems from 9-12 but we also had her tested a couple of times because we thought there might be an issue with ADHD but the neurospych did not diagnose – however, we were primarily focusing on fixing her vision and not so worried about LDs. She also always had lots of anxiety. I don’t think there were any short-term memory issues. She did have a lot of executive function issues. Once the vision problems were solved, she was in a great private school who effectively noticed the symptoms of ADHD and responded by giving her extra time and trying to help her focus. She then was able to get in to a fairly good and high pressure private HS. We talked to the school psychologist at the end of her freshman year as she just wasn’t doing as well as she could and didn’t seem that focused. He read the reports we’d had done and said, they guy you used seems a little sloppy. I would also do these three(?) tests (one pivotal test turned out to be the Test of Variable Attention) and gave us the name of an (expensive) local psychologist who he trusted. She did the tests and diagnosed ADHD. The school started giving her extra time and her performance improved. She started taking Ritalin a year later and her performance soared. In HS, she went from B average in her freshman year to B+ in her sophomore year to A- to close to A in her senior year.</p>

<p>I thought you might like to know that she just finished getting her BS in Nursing with a 3.97 GPA (she will graduate summa cum laude and was inducted into the school’s Phi Beta Kappa equivalent and Sigma Theta Tau). In February, she starts her training to become a nurse practitioner. She transferred into this program at the end of her first semester at another college, where she was expecting to be a biology major. </p>

<p>Extended time helped her a fair bit – although it seemed to relieve anxiety and let her focus – and the SAT folks gave her extra time but she wanted to take the ACTs. The ACT folks denied it and I had to appeal and pay the expensive psychologist yet another pretty good fee. The Ritalin made a huge difference. She watched the first half of a film on epigenetics without Ritalin and the second half with Ritalin and said, “I understood so much more from the second half. I need to start taking Ritalin right away.” She now uses it for exams, some classes, studying, and she also used it when she did her preceptorship in the Cardiac ICU unit. </p>

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<p>A couple of other things. She couldn’t sit still – she almost never made it through dinner without giving us a dance performance (she was a dancer). We used to say Dinner and a Floor Show.</p>

<p>Interestingly, she was shy, very anxious and a bit perfectionistic as a kid and now is so charming (and talkative) in an ADD-ish sort of way that we say that if she moved to the forest, the trees would start responding to her. She’s effervescent and enthusiastic and just lights up whatever room she is in. But she wasn’t like that when she was in middle school.</p>