Newly dx

[maggsmom]

Hi! My 9 year old was recently diagnosed by her counselor with ADHD. We have NOT gone through a comprehensive examination she did it via the Conners Rating Scale and clinical observation. I have been learning as much as I can about ADHD but have some questions:

1. Should we go through the hassle (time, money, stress, anxiety) to have her evaluated by a psych? I don't have a leg to stand on with school because her grades are good and as long as she has an organized teacher with good classroom management skills, she should be supported in that area. She is a chatty kathy and can be impulsive physically (like to hold hands) but only does this when she feel comfortable so her "behaviors" aren't really showing until the end of the school year.

2. Even though I like her existing counselor, my daughter is not getting what she needs out of therapy. We really struggle with emotional regulation at home and BIG reactions and meltdowns to small things. Sometimes I feel like I'm teaching the counselor things. My daughter would probably benefit more from a more pediatric friendly "hands-on" or "doing" approach, not just talking about it. We already do that at home. I need someone who can help her work through her emotions more than my limited knowledge can. I guess my questions are:

a. Is there a name for this type of therapy?

b. Is one field better at providing services (ex. psych, LCPC, SW)?

Any knowledge would be amazing!

[Elijah1]

Learn from reliable resources. Two are Russell Barkley's book Taking Charge of ADHD and info from the National Resource Center on ADHD at help4adhd.org. Have your daughter work with someone who is familiar with ADHD and the behavioral/educational interventions and with the executive function problems. At this time, she may be keeping up in school but may not be efficient in her performance. If you question the accuracy of the diagnosis, talk to her pediatrician and get a referral for a second opinion.

[Pennywink]

Hi!

First - 100% agree with everything Elijah1 just posted. Barkley's work has really been the most helpful to me.

youtu.be/SCAGc-rkIfo(Not working as expected?)

Making these decisions is definitely very personal, so I will just say what we have chosen in our house as of now.

It's sounds like your daughter is a bit like my son, in terms of ADHD. His academic work is great (except handwriting,) and his behavior issues at school involve spacing out more than being hyper or disruptive. In Feb, he was diagnosed ADHD-Inattentive with the Vanderbilt Assessment, completed by myself (w/ my husband) and my son's Kindergarten teacher. After a brief interview, the pediatrician made the diagnosis (though we had also done this same assessment a year earlier, so it wasn't as fast as it seems.) In May, a pediatric neurologist also diagnosed Tourette Syndrome (our pediatrician referred us), but since my son is doing well academically & socially, she advised not medicating at this time, but to have our eyes peeled for any deterioration to his quality of life. Once that happens, we will probably then do more thorough testing & look at medication options.

We also currently do not see a therapist, but just adapt many strategies (from Barkley and from Smart But Scattered by Peg Dawson) at home. (Barkley actually suggests that treatment needs to be at the "point of performance" - the place where the behaviors happen, to be effective.) Most elementary school teachers at my son's school are already pretty familiar with basic accommodations, so we haven't need any outside of what they already had in their bag of tricks, except maybe an analog timer instead of a digital one.