Is My 7 year old having short term memory problems?

My 7 year old has been going to swimming lessons since she was 2. Now during those years there was a break in getting private lessons for swimming. She had a problem with swimming and so I put her in a private class just for her and the swimming instructor. She attends a summer camp which on Tuesdays, they go to the pool. I thought to swim, not just stand in the water. So I take my 7 year old to go swimming, thinking she is a pro by now and has gotten the fear of water defeated. She will get in the water but wants to hang on to me while I am holding her 2 year old sister. So she has had lessons and has been taught to swim but chooses not to do so or she just forgot. Also she gave up easily on riding a bike. She would rather use her motor car then actually work to pedal a bike. She still has her training wheels on her bike. Either she forgot how to ride her bike or just is lazy. She has had trouble processing information. Retaining what she just learned. She forgets the next day. She has been attending Slyvan Tutoring for a year now, and is progressing slowly, she is now at eary kindergarden/first grade level. I held her back this year. She is suppose to be in 2nd grade. I felt like her maturity level was not ready for 2nd grade. Slyvan agrees. They see her distracted and not focused while she is there for 2 hours. She has been to a physchologist and doctor who prescribed aderall. She has been diagnosed with adhd and a memory problem. Her IQ is 75, Borderline on the bell curve. She sees a physchiatrist , and is on a IEP program. I think I am going to try medicine again before she goes to her new school. Her dad is not here, he is deployed for a third time to Iraq. So is she just acting out or is there a problem that needs to be solved or helped?

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

I am not a child psychiatrist, and there is a child's behavior forum here on medhelp, but I will give you my opinion anyway. She may not have any real understanding of what her dad is doing, but the coming and going is probably a great challenge to an already challenged little girl. It sounds like you are already getting the right kind of help, and hopefully the psychologist is talking to her and to you about how to understand her father's absence, and any fantasy she may have about his danger or his return. If that is something you can talk to her about, it might allay some of the fears that are manifested by her immature behavior.