How to determine?

I mean how do you determine if you have a learning disability vs just plain lazy? I dont think people grow out of Adhd or ADD since it is a genetically defect. Shouldn’t documentation be recorded since childhood?

Some people don’t get tested until later in life. Testing is not standard (meaning not part of routine children’s healthcare screening), so some people don’t even know they have it until they are prompted to get tested by someone or something. It is fairly routine if someone is diagnosed early to be periodically retested as well (eg, elementary school level, maybe again in early high school).

I don’t think the typical manifestation of ADHD looks like “lazy”, though.

Then how the heck do you get prompted to get screened? I am pretty sure people will start noticing those symptoms early on. I got left backed in 1st grade but it was because I was never exposed to the english language.

Some people are able to compensate, but it isn’t uncommon for them to hit a wall in high school when the work gets more challenging. And some just stop trying, and end up near the bottom of their class or dropping out. Sometimes they reach adulthood and are never diagnosed. If the adults around them don’t get them screened, most kids wouldn’t know that was contributing to their issues. I’m not sure what your point or actual question is, though.

I want to know if I should be tested for Dyslexia,adhd or a LD because I got left back in the 1st grade.I somewhat procrasinate and hate very repetitive task over long periods of time( I do somewhat phase out of reading stamina on the SAT)However, my grades seem to be rising with each year passing by then as opposed to the common trend of falling down. Some people might even say I have dyslexia because I read my text and speak it out before I press enter.

As far as sometimes procrastinating an hate repetitive tasks over long periods of time, I think you would find it difficult to find many people who are always diligent about completing tasks or love being seriously bored. Maybe they suggest a learning problem specific to a disability, but that distinction would be part of an evaluation. Just like in medical tests, you don’t tell the md that you think you have a particular condition and ask for lab and other tests that diagnose that specific problem. Instead you describe your concerns to the doctor who will order lab tests pertinent to your complaints.

Diagnoses of LD, ADHD and other disabilities is made by a qualified examiner, very often a psychologist and/or medical doctor, who first would interview you, your parents, and often your teachers to find out what difficulties you routinely experienced as it changed over time in an educational environment. Students are left behind for reasons other than a disability so that particular piece of your history is interesting and perhaps helpful in establishing a disability, but is neither necessary nor sufficient in formal terms to diagnose a disability. Before starting the evaluation, you need to think about and write down the kinds of difficulties you experience now and how the basic problems have changed over time. Have examples. You don’t want to waste your time and money not getting the kind of information you need. I was once asked to evaluate a student because he was an unknown quantity. I refused because I had no direction and had about zip hope of identifying what was unknown and perhaps multiply unknowns (quantity).

Now I am very deliberately using the term disability. While it may be polite to say someone has a learning difference, we share commonalities and differences with other learners. The difficulties must be more profound and pervasive than just really annoying or different responsiveness to a teacher’s style to qualify as a disability or disorder that requires accommodations. The standard is comparison to other people. Some students have difficulty to read because of issues with learning basic reading skills or comprehension or both or have severe visual concerns that prevent access to reading print text. To receive accommodations after high school, it is necessary to document a disability and request accommodations that compensate for the functional limitations of the disability.

Very good information, including manuals on specific disorders, is available at ets.org. Start by pressing on the picture of the girl and follow the services for persons with disabilities trail. Look for the guideline books on disabilities because they should provide specific responses to your questions. The ETS information is more extensive than ACT provides but is relevant to both testing agencies.

You mentioned that you were held back due to the fact that you did not know the English language. Unfortunately students who have ESL are often held back because their level of language proficiency greatly impacts their classroom performance and on grade level skill development. Also it is not uncommon for an English language learner to become very proficient at oral language and still lag in reading, writing and other language based academic skills. The fact that you have shown an ongoing upward trend would seem to support this. While being an English language learner places many students at a disadvantage, it is not a disability. However, it is possible to be an English language learner and learning disabled at the same time, these students rarely show a steady upward trend and tend to show problems learning in their native language as well as English.