Need possible 2nd oppinion

[Trixie6468]

Hi
My dd is on her 6th session with neuropsych and he told me today that she has severe language delays/SPD/ADD/CAPD and Anxiety.  He is telling me that he would place her under the PDD umbrella with the specific diagnosis of MSDD (multisystem developmental disorder).  He tells me when I ask him if that means she is Autistic and he said no, although she shows some charateristics, he would not put her on the spectrum because of he social and relatedness capabilities are very strong.  He said that when questions get hard (she is 2 1/2 years behind receptive and expressive) she spaces out, as if she shuts off her brain to everything.  She is in the 1st grade and is 7years old.  She has an IEP and goes into a resourse room for accademics in language and reading and math only 3 days a week (the other 2 days she is in the reg ed classroom).  This neuropsych is telling me that it is slow with working with my dd because of her attention, I am just very confused and cant seem to get a straight answer from him yet.  my dd is very bright and she is at a first grade level with very little modifications to her learning, except for she does need to work one on one when doing her accademic work.  Please help me to understand this better.  Thanks

[ggreg]

Dear Trixie,
Well, I'm not a professional, but I might be able to shed some light on what's happening with your daughter, as I have many problems with paying attention.  I was 5 years old when I was in the 1st grade.  I am now a retired person.  After a car accident, the pain distracts me so much that I, too, space out when I try to focus on just about everything that regular people take for granted.  Just making a post here is difficult.

I cannot take in but so much information at a time, I cannot get organized to do all the things I used to do, my communication skills and creative mind are a dull normal compared to what I was.  If you can imagine how you would feel if one day if it took you an hour to fix a bowl of cereal because it was so demanding, well, welcome to my world.  It took me a long time to accept this, to ignore people's expectations of me, to get used to a life of unmade beds and dreams unfulfilled, and still feel secure with myself.

Many disorders befall people for different reasons, some unknown.  Just that your daughter needs one-on-one help in grasping information at her age and school grade plainly shows she has a deficit.  President Woodrow Wilson had dyslexia, letters were a jumble for him, so he had to study very hard and compensate all the time just to get through his day.  And he ruled the world.  So, just because a person is compromised is not something to get all tore up about.  

Me, I don't have the energy anymore to do anything about my condition.  But your child is still young.  She is receiving the kind of attention at school that will serve her well for a lifetime.  She is learning good habits to cope with and even perhaps overcome MSDD.  It sounds to me like you have a very thorough and responsive physician, which I recognize because I went to hell and back before I found someone who understood me.

I appreciate your concerns, thinking your daughter is fine, and what is all the fuss, and what is this doctor talking about.  Everything you are feeling is telegraphed to your daughter.  But the fact of the matter is, there is absolutely no harm in going along with the doctor and the notion that she can't think straight.  I can't think straight, but it harms me indeed that my family doesn't get this.  They all think I'm fine, they're in denial, but when my neurologist looked at the X-rays of my back for the first time, he was visibly shaken.  And when he did a little exercise to show me how screwed up my thinking was on account of my back, I was saved.  
GG