8 Yr Old Daugher

[Steve1912]

Hi,

I am looking for some insights from a professional.  My daughter seems to display some symptoms of various disorders, but I can't find any specific disorder that really matches her behaviour (ADHD, Autistic).

Thank you very much.  Your time is sincerely appreciated.

Steve


Pros ...

(1)  She is a very sweet girl and rarely shows any anger or hostility.  Very loving and she loves to receive it back.
(2)  She is very nice to everyone and doesn't shy away from talking to anyone, even strangers.  Nowhere near being anti-social.
(3)  She is also generous and freely shares anything she has with her brother or friends.
(4)  She is very easy going and she pretty much goes with the flow.
(5)  Academically, her teachers say she is right where she needs to be.  But, she is fidgety and has attention span problems.  She is in a private Catholic school with smaller class sizes.

Cons ...

(1)  She has a hard time focusing and has a very limited attention span.  She is easily distracted by extraneous things such as crumb on the floor or a fly.  So, homework time is quite frustrating.
(2)  She is immature and naive compared to most friends her age.  Her friends understand things better and a more advanced socially.  Her younger brother seems to understand things better than she does and he is 3 years younger.  I guess I would describe it as she just doesn't get it.  In school, she will play with kids 1-2 years younger than she is.
(3)  Academically she understands subject matter and concepts well, but the next day she seems to forget what was learned the day before.  As an example with reading, she will frequently skip words and has a hard time completing a paragraph or page without prompting.  I really just believe that it's lack of focus.
(4)  She doesn't listen so well and we frequently have to raise our voice after repeating ourselves 5 or 6 times.  We have tried many approaches and techniques and nothing seems to be a home run.
(5)  She is fidgety and struggles to sit still except for when watching Sponge Bob or playing Nintendo.
(6)  Overall, sometime her behavior is just strange; not agressive or in bad way; just different.

[Sandman2]

    She seems like a wonderful child who would do anything to please her parents!  The fact that you are frequently repeating yourselves and nothing seems to work is a real red flag - along with the homework issues.
     I agree, I would definitely look up ADD.
    Normally schools might pick up the behavior and inform parents.  But being in a small class size means that the teachers have more time to adjust to the child and sometimes the problem won't be noticed till around 4th grade when math starts getting much more difficult.
   Also, private schools don't always have the resources to deal with children with special needs.  So sometimes their problems are "overlooked"

[jdtm]

Have you considered ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder (without the hyperactiveness).  Just a thought ....