does my daughter have ADD?

[Tarcey]

I have been noticing for a while that my 7 year old daughter seems 'different' to other children of her own age.  She has always been a loving and outgoing child but the older she gets, the more obvious it is becoming that she is different to other children.   She is overly too sociable in the respect that regardless of what we tell her she will approach total strangers including adults and talk trivia to them such as 'I am going swimming tommorrow'.  It is apparant that other children her age also find this behaviour strange.   If other children are unfair to her, she doesn't seem to have the ability to stand up for herself and can't understand why they are behaving this way, although she will stick up for herself when arguing with her 3 year old brother.  At school she is above average for reading but her maths and written work are behind as she is unable to concentrate.  The school has tried putting her in a small group, but unless she has 1-1 constant attention she loses interest and is off her chair chatting and distracting other children/ messing with something etc.  Her teachers are frustrated because they know she has the ability to do the work, and have asked for her to be assessed by a psychologist in the school in order to know how to work with her.  At home she often needs to be told to do things over and over again, and although you are talking to her it is obvious at times that she has shut off! (although at other times only need to be told once).  We have noticed that she is unable to sit and watch a full childrens film unless it has been on a few times. ( I have a grown up son and a 3 year old neither of which have exerienced any of these probs so I know its not just me)!   I am desperate to know the best way to help her  I would love to be able to talk to anybody who has experienced  a similar situation.

[jdtm]

asked for her to be assessed by a psychologist in the school in order to know how to work with her.

I copied part of a sentence from your posting.  I hope you agree to have her assessed.  I think this would be one place to start.

[Tarcey]

Thanks for that, perhaps I should have gone on to mention that she is being assessed by a psychologist who is coming into the school tommorrow.  I just wondered if anyone had any similar personal experience with their own child as I dont know anyone who has.

[LRM1021]

A lot of the issues you are describing do indeed sound like ADHD. But there could also be many other things going on, so the first step is an assessment. You're doing the right thing.

[musicmama]

My adopted son was just like your daughter.  He used to go up to complete strangers and hug them.  He was too touchy and lovey with his friends.  We had to have several discussions about who likes to be touched and how to touch them.  He is still very affectionate (holds my hand in public at 13).  I figure this is affection he didn't get when he was little, or maybe some people need more affection than others.

As far as the ADD/ADHD goes, it was third grade before my son was diagnosed with ADD.  I can ask him to get something from another room, and it will take him 4 tries to get the right thing.  His brother who is ADHD has no problem with this.  I would not gauge how much of a movie your child will watch (my son will sit for HOURS).  Since they are going to test your daughter, you may ask them to see if she has a processing issue.  Are they testing her for learning disabilities as well as ADD?  Students who are struggling may be more social because they don't know what else to do.
Let me know how things turn out.
Good luck and God Bless