Is anyone aware of a way to assess a child for inattentive type ADHD that doesn't rely solely on behavioral scales?
Dh was dx as an adult with ADD but has never been treated and is generally an unhappy person who thinks that he is stupid. Dd10 exhibits many of the same signs and I am really worried about her.
She has wildly erratic grades and test scores. For instance, the MAPS (achievement) test that the school gives put her in the 58th percentile for reading in May of 2010 and the 94th for reading in August 2010. Math MAPS do the same thing as do her other standardized tests. Her "strengths" and "weaknesses" on these tests also change everytime she takes them.
She may get an A on a practice test on Monday and then a C on the real test on Tuesday and then an F when she is allowed to retake the test. She loses her place on the page when reading constantly and stops mid-sentence b/c something came to mind or the sentence didn't make sense without the last few words and she is confused. Once I prompt her to read the whole thing, it is always "oh! that makes sense."
On individual achievement tests, her reading consistently tests btwn the 95th-98th percentile with her speed dragging the score down (it tends to run the the bottom 25% with everything else very high). Likewise on individual achievement tests, math runs around the 98th-99th percentile and writing consistently at the 99th. The group NCLB tests run in the "proficient" range.
She's been IQ tested twice (once to rule out LDs along with the individual achievement tests). The scores were 20 pts apart over the course of one year with the first testing being higher (99.9th percentile vs. 97th the second). Either way, she seems to be able enough that she shouldn't be struggling so much. Her school has given me the "good guessing" line too many times to count regarding her IQ scores and higher achievement scores.
At this point, I'm not hearing that exact line, but they prefer to place her in the lower groupings where she can get As vs. the advanced classes where she is so erratic. I'd be okay with that if dd was okay with that, but she isn't. She's very competitive and feels really bad about herself when she isn't placed in a class where she has to do something. Her spending the class period daydreaming is also worse in the easier classes, but the work is so easy that she can still get by with good grades. She also tends not to have friends when she is grouped with kids who are struggling students. There seems to be a lack of rapport with the other kids when she's in that spot.
I'm basically hearing lack of ability or lack of effort from her school as to her erraticness. I really don't think that either is the case.
About a year and a half ago, we had the psych who did the last bit of testing look at ADD as well. She did this solely based upon a behavioral rating filled out by her teacher, me, and dh. I believe it was called the BASQ. This didn't work out too well b/c dh, while meaning well, tends to see the worst case scenario and filled the thing out such that it looked like she had everything from schizophrenia to bi-polar. The teachers don't see a problem b/c, at her worst, she is at least at grade level and she doesn't cause problems in school. She sits quietly in the back of a class of 30+ kids and daydreams. Her teacher put everything in the typical range and wrote that dd was "nothing special" on the form.
With the teacher thinking that there was no problem and dh's form virtually unusable, dd apparently didn't have ADD. Is there anyway to rule in or rule out ADD without relying on the subjective opinions of teachers and dh?
Dh was dx as an adult with ADD but has never been treated and is generally an unhappy person who thinks that he is stupid. Dd10 exhibits many of the same signs and I am really worried about her.
She has wildly erratic grades and test scores. For instance, the MAPS (achievement) test that the school gives put her in the 58th percentile for reading in May of 2010 and the 94th for reading in August 2010. Math MAPS do the same thing as do her other standardized tests. Her "strengths" and "weaknesses" on these tests also change everytime she takes them.
She may get an A on a practice test on Monday and then a C on the real test on Tuesday and then an F when she is allowed to retake the test. She loses her place on the page when reading constantly and stops mid-sentence b/c something came to mind or the sentence didn't make sense without the last few words and she is confused. Once I prompt her to read the whole thing, it is always "oh! that makes sense."
On individual achievement tests, her reading consistently tests btwn the 95th-98th percentile with her speed dragging the score down (it tends to run the the bottom 25% with everything else very high). Likewise on individual achievement tests, math runs around the 98th-99th percentile and writing consistently at the 99th. The group NCLB tests run in the "proficient" range.
She's been IQ tested twice (once to rule out LDs along with the individual achievement tests). The scores were 20 pts apart over the course of one year with the first testing being higher (99.9th percentile vs. 97th the second). Either way, she seems to be able enough that she shouldn't be struggling so much. Her school has given me the "good guessing" line too many times to count regarding her IQ scores and higher achievement scores.
At this point, I'm not hearing that exact line, but they prefer to place her in the lower groupings where she can get As vs. the advanced classes where she is so erratic. I'd be okay with that if dd was okay with that, but she isn't. She's very competitive and feels really bad about herself when she isn't placed in a class where she has to do something. Her spending the class period daydreaming is also worse in the easier classes, but the work is so easy that she can still get by with good grades. She also tends not to have friends when she is grouped with kids who are struggling students. There seems to be a lack of rapport with the other kids when she's in that spot.
I'm basically hearing lack of ability or lack of effort from her school as to her erraticness. I really don't think that either is the case.
About a year and a half ago, we had the psych who did the last bit of testing look at ADD as well. She did this solely based upon a behavioral rating filled out by her teacher, me, and dh. I believe it was called the BASQ. This didn't work out too well b/c dh, while meaning well, tends to see the worst case scenario and filled the thing out such that it looked like she had everything from schizophrenia to bi-polar. The teachers don't see a problem b/c, at her worst, she is at least at grade level and she doesn't cause problems in school. She sits quietly in the back of a class of 30+ kids and daydreams. Her teacher put everything in the typical range and wrote that dd was "nothing special" on the form.
With the teacher thinking that there was no problem and dh's form virtually unusable, dd apparently didn't have ADD. Is there anyway to rule in or rule out ADD without relying on the subjective opinions of teachers and dh?
). I'm also very resistant to subjective inventory tools and wish there was something more objective.
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