I truley beleive my 8 year old son is add, about a year ago I took him to a child Psycologist to address this issue and before I new it he was being tested. The problem is I stopped taking him after several months due to insurace problems. The outcome of his vists at this point was not what I had expected I thought for sure the Psycologist would tell me my son was add and guide me on what to do but this was not the case instead he tells me that my son is borderline add and is very bright he gave me an iq score of 128 and said he wanted to test him more because he felt like he was not reaching his potential. I don’t understand borderline, I thought you either were add or you weren’t. My son has many of the signs of add. Should I have him retested? Do any of you know if the schools test for add? Has anyone else had a diagnoses like this. I had also thought about having him tested for an LD his handwriting is terrible. I think if I could get him to slow down that might help but I’m not sure. I would love some input on this tanks in advance. Cindy
Re: Help child possible add
You might consider asking the school district for a full educational evaluation, with particular attention to areas related to ADHD and executive functions. Executive functions are those functions that enable us to plan ahead, make good use of time, break assignments down into workable parts, and even determine how well we consider possible consequences of our actions. This is an area often overlooked when evaluating a child’s needs. It is also frequently the key to building stepping stones to siccess for a child with ADHD.
If your child is having difficulties at school that negatively impact his education, your school district has the responsibility to help identify the source of those difficulties.
No matter the label, the needs should be identified and supports put in place to help him be more successful.
There is unfortunately no way to tell if someone “has” or “doesn’t have” ADHD. It is entirely a clinical opinion, with no objective test to back it up. You can take a child to three different people and get three different answers.
There are huge overlaps in the symptoms between ADHD and PTSD and Bipolar Disorder and even Giftedness. Your child may be displaying signs of giftedness given the IQ testing. He may be bored by school and feel that he doesn’t fit in. Many gifted children are emotionally behind but intellectually ahead of their peers, and so have a hard time making friends. You might want to look at sites related to giftedness and see if the “symptoms” fit your son.
Also note that a diagnosis of ADHD is of limited use, except for getting medication. Studies have shown that kids who get the ADHD diagnosis get LESS attention from school staff after they are treated with medication than kids who are not diagnosed or treated. Also, many studies looking at medicated vs. non-medicated kids diagnosed with ADHD have shown no difference in terms of academic or social achievement in the long term. Sometimes you can get the teacher to make accomodations based on an ADHD diagnosis, but it comes with a lot of negative connotations. On the other hand, a label of “gifted” implies that the teachers need to do MORE and be creative in how they approach your child, so I think it is a much more useful label in terms of getting things done.
I raised two boys who qualified for both the ADHD and the gifted labels. I kept them out of regular school during their elementary years, using either homeschooling or alternative public schools with a more child-centered curriculum and structure. My oldest went back to “regular school” in 6th grade and did extremely well academically, and no one every suggested he had ADHD, even though he had all the symptoms at age 6 or 7. He is now 21 and has graduated with honors from a good high school in the area, and is working a very demanding job with remarkable success. My youngest is now 9 1/2 and no one would ever say he has ADHD now. He is more responsible and reasonable than either of his older brothers, mostly because we learned a lot from what we had to do to get Patrick through school. But he used to be called “wild man” and some of our friends refused to watch him because he was so difficult to manage.
Impulsivity and a need for stimulation go hand in hand with high intelligence. He may simply need a different kind of structure where he can meet his needs to be challenged intellectually and where he can relax socially. Don’t be boxed in by a diagnosis. Look at what will really work for him.
Hope that is helpful. Good luck!