I was wondering after reading a few posts that mention ADD and of course all the crap i am going thru with our school district,just exactly WHO is allowed to give out the official diagnosis of ADD?? Is it the family doctor, the school pyschologist, the special education director or a child pyschiatrist?? I ask because it seems like after talking to alot of other parents in our school district that the school is constantly trying to convince parents their children have ADD. I do realize that ADD is an actual condition,but it seems like the schools/teachers here push it SO much!! Whatever happened to a kid having a individual personality or a quirkiness about them?
I have a cousin who worked as a teacher's aide in our district, she said the school gets a certain amount of money from the State for every student they have in the district that is on ADD medication. If that is true, no wonder why they are pushing it so much around here!
I don't know that my dd has ADD or not,,,,who gives the official word on that. Because honestly i do not trust the school district to make that diagnosis for me.

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We had to take ouroldest son to an actual child psychologist who is trained in ADD/ADHD, depression etc. Once there, it was a series of questions we answered, a booklet he answered, and one for teachers. The answers given are then tabulated in different segments (ie 1-10 for hyperactivity, 11-20 attentions) to see where he fell and the range of his disease, for lack of a better word.

Once he was diagnosed he was put on medication. That was altered and messed with alot due to the medication he was on for depression. The ADD medicine caused facial tics, which we just had to find the right one. A different one caused weight loss, he cant afford that! He has to go back every one to three months to be evaluated.

hope this helped a little...

alizabeth

The schools want a manageable situation. They do see so much ADD, that they do know what it looks like, but their resources are limited. I, personally, would not go by only a school diagnosis. I would use it as a basis of information (our tests were so limited, they did not tell the whole story), but go to a Developmental Pediatrician. A psychologist or psychiatrist can help, but I would rather go the the dev. ped. and get the physical things tested at the same time - they are trained in this.

To me, taking a child to a psych. before a deve. ped is like going to a doctor and saying you want medications for a headache, without finding out the cause of it. You need the full picture, rather than just getting therapy on the symptoms. Like buying new shoes for aching feet, to no avail- you should go see why the feet hurt=maybe all your shoes are to small.

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My school system does NOT get any benefit from it....since most don't take meds AT school, they actually may not even KNOW that some of the kids are on it!!

As for diagnosing...with my oldest (ADD), it was her pediatrician. With my 6 year old (ADHD), it was a psycologist WITH the pediatrican who made the diagnosis.

I definitely would not let the school make that diagnosis. They are NOT drs!! But, keep an open mind about all they say AND what the drs. say. One of my biggest pet peeves is those who think that ADD IS nothing but the school's way of "handling" kids with the "quirks" or bad parenting skills (not at all saying that is YOU, as I know you have struggled with your dd's issues for a while now!). As a mom of one who is ADD, another who is ADHD, and FOUR more who are "normal"....I am quite sure that it was neither the school's ways or our parenting skills that were the problem! Plus, I can't imagine dealing with my two....or THEM dealing with LIFE, without the help their medication provides! I do think it is probably abused, but for us, it IS the correct diagnosis...and I thank God that there is help for my family with this!

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I can only speak for my own experience. It was somewhat of a collaborative effort although my school was very careful to not push the idea of ADD. Plus my pediatrician said he would NOT put any child on ADD medicine without ruling out everything else first. So the school counselor ( a social worker in our case) the speech therapist and finally the school system psychologist all did TONS of testing on her. When we had our school conference to discuss the results they showed that on her Wechsler IQ test, there was a significant gap between two different measure of IQ based on distractibility. So what that means is that ...yes, your child is smart, but no, your child can't function at that level because they're too distracted. They told me there was a certain # gap that usually did indicate ADD and my dd's was more than that. But they were still very careful to say I should show the results to my pediatrician. Although I found the process very slow, the people themselves were very nice and supportive. So I did then take the testing results to my pediatrician and he reviewed them and started her on meds. Best thing I've ever done for her.

The only people that can actually prescribe meds or make a medical diagnosis is a physician which would include a psychiatrist, but NOT a psychologist or counselor. What ever you do, don't let them diagnose her with one of those little checkoff things. I can never believe that any parents would settle for that or that any doctor is negligent enough to prescribe off that. JMO

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My ds doesn't have ADD but was diagnosed with Autism by the Early Education Psychologist through our school district in 2003. My dh and a few other family members weren't really believing that he was in fact Autistic so we got a second opinion. Then we got a formal diagnosis through the University of Fairview (University of Minnesota) doctors in 2004. Aaron has an IEP through the Elementary School and it states that he has Autism Spectrum Disorder and he gets free services through the school consisting of Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy and Adaptive Phy-Ed.

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Yes it is true that the schools get more federal aid for each child that has ADD, but it is also true that they get more money from the feds for each child that has a diagnosed learning disability too. Hence IMO why they push the labels or at least try to push the labels. I also think it is done as a way to curtail any behavoral problems as too many behavoral drugs carry side effects like turning a kid into a zombie. I always use to wonder why these current labels never really existed 20 years ago and now they are just a normal part of the school vocabulary. It wasn't til my own kids were in school that I discovered the money issue and figured out that the schools just can't squeeze anything more from the tax payer and need to get that money from somewhere.

I've dealt with the problem for years with each of my kids. Not so much the ADD issue, though that arose with my oldest, but with the learning disability issues. 2 of my 4 kids scored low enough to be labled learnng disabled even though IMO they aren't. The oldest doesn't care about school and therefore doesn't even try, and child #3 is an auditory learner. Even her teachers have said that her knowledge exceeds her age, but she doesn't learn like her classmates doing worksheets, and schools aren't designed to handle her type of learning. The school psychologist even told me that truely she is not ld, however this is the only way they can get the money to hire the extra teacher that works with her during the day so that she can continue to enjoy school and learning. Child #2, the teachers have sworn for years now has a huge ld, but testing has revealed that he is at or slightly above average. His biggest problem is he is bored with being chained to a desk all day. He is my hands on kid. Child #4 hasn't made it to the school system yet, but I suppose I will go down the road with her too in a few years.

As for the issue of who diagnoses the ADD, I would never allow the schools to do it as they cannot write you a prescription for any kind of medicine. Reguardless of what they have seen and what they deal with on a daily basis, they are not MD's and do not hold degrees in medicine. In fact, it was my own family doc that asked me when I walked in and told him what the schools were saying about my oldest what their medical degree was in. He also told me that their diagnosis was a case of practicing medicine without a license and very dangerous waters to tread. Now if I hear an ADD/ADHD label come up I first ask the school where their degree lies, and when it doesn't show MD, I just tell them that they can label to their hearts content and that I will take my child to a qualified professional for a diagnosis, but if their label is wrong, then they just sank their boat in shark infested waters.

We went to our pediatrician with our suspicions, he referred us to a psychiatrist. I would never allow the school to try to diagnose my child.

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I love your spunk!! I am gonna remember all this when i go for my dd's IEP meeting on the 17th of this month. I am so tired of them telling me ADD when nobody has officially tested and confirmed it, nobody with a medical degree that is.

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"Go on, get outside, get the stink blown off ya!!"

Which ever path this journey takes you on... remember this... Use your own best judgement. If you are at all uncomfortable with a diagnosis, or treatment plan... get another opinion.

I made a huge mistake with my DD... I was happy with what the first doctor told me. That dd was mildly add but felt it was not severe enough to warrant putting her on meds, and that the best course of action was through dietary changes and training her in self discipline, helping her to learn better study skills and so forth.

Then the schools pushed said this isn't working and insisted she be tested by them, I said no, and took her to another doctor, this doctor spent 20 mins with dd and put her on meds... and the road to misery for my daughter was paved with Ritalin, then Concerta. We spent 2 years on this hellish road... then one day my daughter stepped in front of a car doing 35 as she crossed the street to school... thank heavens none of her injuries were life threatening.

We learned a week later when she finally said... I don't want to take those pills anymore... they make me feel weird..... when questioning her we realized, that the meds were making her jumpy, edgy and anxious. At which point we called the doctor and said, she comes off them now... she didn't agree and refused to tell us how to wean her off of them... So I called her pedi... he told us just to stop them.

Best decision we ever made. Our daughter is now fine, and is an A student.

Please don't think i'm saying there is no such thing as child who needs these meds... I know a couple of children who absolutly need them. I'm just sayin if it doesn't feel right trust your mothers heart and gut.. and keep asking and insisting till you feel its right.

Kelly