How do I tell DD about her diagnosis?

[Anonymous]

My 8 yo DD was just diagnosed with ADHD-inattentive and anxiety. How should I explain it to her?

[Anonymous]

I bet she will be relieved at knowing why her brain works the way it does. Just explain to her that now you know, you ca get her the help she needs to do best in life.

[Anonymous]

You let the psychologist who did the evaluation tell her first, with you there. Talk to the psychologist ahead of time so that you are aware of how she will explain it.

She is old enough to know that she sat through several hours of testing, and to know what was learned from the process.

For many kids, it is a relief to have a name to put to some of their challenges and know that you and her doctor can now help her.

[Anonymous]

My 4 year old told us he had "movies in his brain that he couldn't turn off", so essentially he gave us our first clue. He was incredibly relieved when he was tentatively diagnosed at 6 with ADHD and Asperger's. The doctor was very cautious, but we were sure DS had a rather severe form of inattentive ADHD, which was confirmed later at 10 (Asperger's still unconfirmed).

We shared the news as they came, because there is nothing worse for a child than knowing he is different but not knowing how or why. DH and I are scientists, so for us nothing about this was taboo or hard to understand. We had billed the testing as an examination of how his brain worked, and explained the results as that he didn't have enough neurotransmitters in his brain for him to focus on tasks he didn't absolutely love. That is was a chemical thing, that his brain was different than some other people's brains, but not different from ours, since it was a family trait. Since our son was interested in the neurobiology of ADHD from the beginning, we defined all the terms and he understood. He was even more interested during his neuropsychological evaluation at 10.

We have kept discussing it since then, to explain his middle school accommodations and services, how he should advocate for himself at school, manage his time, hone his study skills, how his diagnosis affects his entire life from his social interactions to his fine motor skills, and which med dosage to choose for which days - on Saturdays he takes a lower dose to attend his native language school than on weekdays, and he is off meds completely on Sundays, which we have done our best to keep low-key and event-free.

[froggymom]

You know your daughter best and how to approach the subject. It has been my experience as a teacher that children are pretty open and accepting of the truth when presented with love and patience. You might research some help http://www.chadd.org/on the topic.