Diagnosing AD/HD?

Who do you see for this? How do they diagnose it? How do you know it is not something else?

Mattingly's teacher was mentioning that my son was struggeling with independednt work, he would be zoning out and would forget a ton of stuff even when asked one on one. He also had a very hard time answering questions when asked. He would take an extreme amount of time to respond.

The teacher met with someone at the school, some group, can't remember the name.

Joseph has a different teacher and she has been doing a ton of small group instruction with him. When working on his own he is no where near as productiive and his work is way worse.

Over break I brought them to a neurologist and he mentioned it sounded like ADHD, with out the hyperactivity. We had an EEG and are going back for the results tomorrow.

I am just not sure what to expect, what to ask, and from the reading I am doing, it seems that there are different people who can diagnose ADHD. I am not sure which is better.

Their teacher was mentioning a processing disorder and that has some of the same symptoms so not sure if I should bring them to a different Dr or speech dr for that.

Any help would be appreciated.

Re: Diagnosing AD/HD?

Crashing...

I would have your son see a neuropsychologist for a full evaluation. A good evaluation will contain tests that tease out whether the symptoms being seen are truly due to an attention issue, or due to a processing issue, learning disability, anxiety, etc. I am a little biased b/c I am a psychologist, but I truly feel that this is the most thorough and comprehensive way to make a diagnosis.

BTW, my first impression reading the teacher's description was a processing disorder.

Best of luck to you.

Re: Diagnosing AD/HD?

Thank you - He did meet with the speech teacher this week and the speech teacher said that he was able to answer everthing he asked him he didn't notice the delay in repsonse and also was able to complete all the tasks he gave him, he worked one on one with him. So he is thinking that maybe it is not processing. This is all so confusing.

Can you rec a good neuropsychiatrist?

Re: Diagnosing AD/HD?

We are bringing A to LIJ's Developmental Pediatrics. StonyBrook has the Cody Center, but they are more about spectrums, LIJ sent us a ADHD packet.

We opted for a dev ped first, b/c I have heard that neurologists are very quick to diagnosis AD/HD and give Rx and be done.


Text/email me - we can talk.

Re: Diagnosing AD/HD?

Sounds like Auditory Processing Disorder to me :)

Lois Heymann, is top in the field however, she is very costly. She is a SLP. You may want to take your child to an audiologist for testing or ask around for SLPs who focus a lot on auditory processing.

Btw, interestingly enough Dyslexia and Auditory Processing Disorder are often found together.

Re: Diagnosing AD/HD?

Is auditory processing disorder hereditary?

Re: Diagnosing AD/HD?