Teachers can make an educated guess as to whether a child has ADD or ADHD. School nurses often second that diagnosis without diagnostic expertise. Unfortunately, a high IQ can create boredom that mimics ADD, dyslexia can create frustration and lack of focus that is mistaken for ADD and ADHD, and dysgraphia can result in difficulty doing homework mistaken for either disorder. Have the child tested for ADD, their IQ and dyslexia at once before assuming it is ADD and drugging them based on a school nurse’s recommendation.  How can parents get this range of testing for an affordable cost?

Contact the school’s special education department. Have this individual or someone in their group administer the tests. If the child is having academic difficulties, this testing should be free to parents. Do not have their own teacher perform the testing.

Parents can also ask for the school’s recommendation of an educational consultant. While the educational consultant may have the teacher perform a review of the child’s abilities and personality, have someone other than a parent or immediate teacher fill out a review form. This provides a less biased review of the child’s behavior. This psychologist may charge a fee, but it may be partially reimbursed by the school district.

If the school believes the child has ADD and parents have a diagnostic test that indicates contrary, contact your pediatrician. The pediatrician can refer parents to someone within their health network that can perform these tests. If the cost of testing is a problem, arrange only ADD testing for the child with the psychologist. If the psychologist says it is not ADD, the pediatrician can refer the parents to Shriner’s Hospital for dyslexia and dysgraphia testing. (Shriner’s Hospital will not do ADD testing.)

All academic testing costs for a medical diagnosis are deductible health costs. This can be funded by a Health Care Reimbursement Account and Flexible Spending Account. Depending on your health plan, these services may also be partially covered by health insurance.

Parents can also refer to advanced tutoring centers. Some of these centers offer computerized ADD and dyslexia testing, since it helps properly diagnose children who come in for tutoring. However, these centers may offer a discount on testing if parents commit to a tutoring contract and schedule.