Does inattententive ADHD in 10 y.o. present like this?

[Anonymous]

NP here with two (and possibly three) kids who have attention issues in school.

First off, one visit with a good psychiatrist is all you need to start medication the same day. The ratings scales and all that stuff will come in tandem with that to tweak the diagnosis, but most psychs will see what's going on right away and either prescribe something that same day or not.

I am a bit startled by some of the comments on here so far. As if a child can't be extremely bright and articulate and not also have a learning disability or deficiency? My oldest daughter – now 14 – was in a magnet program for the last three years and will be again next year in high school. Highly articulate and crazy smart. Social butterfly. She started complaining in 5th grade that she was having trouble focusing and the next year said she was taking three times as long as her friends to get all the homework done. Always an avid reader, she started struggling to keep up with much more complex texts. She would be fidgety and get distracted easily. She would do homework and then forget to turn it in. Always a straight-A student, we were a little perplexed.

She fought me about having someone evaluate her, but finally gave in in the past three months. With a family history of ADHD (my husband's family, including a recent diagnosis himself), they prescribed her Concerta right away. It bombed horribly, made her feel awful. Went off of it. Then all of her ratings scales from her teachers, herself, and her family were scored. While she was diagnosed as having ADHD tendencies, she was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder that was actually causing her to be extremely restless and distracted. Her score for anxiety was 99%. The anxiety was actually exacerbating what was otherwise manageable ADHD qualities. The first weekend she tried anti-anxiety meds, she was a much happier person and the work at the end of her 8th grade year (and it was a lot) came a hell of a lot easier.

My son, who is 10, however, presents as almost classic inattentive ADHD. He has anxiety from it, but the ADHD is much more prominent in him than my DD. He had speech delays from it as a toddler because he wouldn't listen to you long enough to be able to understand what you were saying and then be able to respond. He has to be redirected often in class to pay attention, but he is an almost straight-A student. He excels at music and math. He's in band. When he wants to, he can hyperfocus like nobody's business. But he daydreams frequently.

I think just because your daughter can describe so well what she is feeling and what is happening with her does not preclude there being a problem. My daughter was seeing signs of problems within herself for some time and talked to me frequently about whether she was normal or not, whether this would pass, how she felt sometimes and not others. She was quite intuitive. Being also very smart, she did not want to draw attention to any possible deficiency and it took me a long time to trust someone outside of our family to help her.

Trust your gut on what your kid is telling you, and good for you for listening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here with two (and possibly three) kids who have attention issues in school.

First off, one visit with a good psychiatrist is all you need to start medication the same day. The ratings scales and all that stuff will come in tandem with that to tweak the diagnosis, but most psychs will see what's going on right away and either prescribe something that same day or not.

I am a bit startled by some of the comments on here so far. As if a child can't be extremely bright and articulate and not also have a learning disability or deficiency?

No way, NOT for children. That is by definition a bad psychiatrist. Namely, b/c a lot of learning disabilities can look like ADHD. That's why you do an evaluation. If the results don't find ADHD, then maybe it's an underlying medical issue.

Also, no one is saying that the OP's kid can't be gifted and have ADHD, but have raised some skepticism that she may be over compensating a little in her reasons for not doing well this year. That's why OP needs to have conversations with the teacher as well as have an evaluation done if the last one wasn't recent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here with two (and possibly three) kids who have attention issues in school.

First off, one visit with a good psychiatrist is all you need to start medication the same day. The ratings scales and all that stuff will come in tandem with that to tweak the diagnosis, but most psychs will see what's going on right away and either prescribe something that same day or not.

I am a bit startled by some of the comments on here so far. As if a child can't be extremely bright and articulate and not also have a learning disability or deficiency? My oldest daughter – now 14 – was in a magnet program for the last three years and will be again next year in high school. Highly articulate and crazy smart. Social butterfly. She started complaining in 5th grade that she was having trouble focusing and the next year said she was taking three times as long as her friends to get all the homework done. Always an avid reader, she started struggling to keep up with much more complex texts. She would be fidgety and get distracted easily. She would do homework and then forget to turn it in. Always a straight-A student, we were a little perplexed.

She fought me about having someone evaluate her, but finally gave in in the past three months. With a family history of ADHD (my husband's family, including a recent diagnosis himself), they prescribed her Concerta right away. It bombed horribly, made her feel awful. Went off of it. Then all of her ratings scales from her teachers, herself, and her family were scored. While she was diagnosed as having ADHD tendencies, she was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder that was actually causing her to be extremely restless and distracted. Her score for anxiety was 99%. The anxiety was actually exacerbating what was otherwise manageable ADHD qualities. The first weekend she tried anti-anxiety meds, she was a much happier person and the work at the end of her 8th grade year (and it was a lot) came a hell of a lot easier.

My son, who is 10, however, presents as almost classic inattentive ADHD. He has anxiety from it, but the ADHD is much more prominent in him than my DD. He had speech delays from it as a toddler because he wouldn't listen to you long enough to be able to understand what you were saying and then be able to respond. He has to be redirected often in class to pay attention, but he is an almost straight-A student. He excels at music and math. He's in band. When he wants to, he can hyperfocus like nobody's business. But he daydreams frequently.

I think just because your daughter can describe so well what she is feeling and what is happening with her does not preclude there being a problem. My daughter was seeing signs of problems within herself for some time and talked to me frequently about whether she was normal or not, whether this would pass, how she felt sometimes and not others. She was quite intuitive. Being also very smart, she did not want to draw attention to any possible deficiency and it took me a long time to trust someone outside of our family to help her.

Trust your gut on what your kid is telling you, and good for you for listening.

I wonder about my DD and anxiety. OP - who evaluated your daughter? Pediatrician? Neuropsych? Psychologist?