    Convincing the Teacher
Q:
"Our six-year-old daughter's teacher reassures me that everything is fine, yet my daughter comes home every day crying about what she calls her "slow brain" in reading and writing. Why isn't the teacher picking up on this problem?" 
A:
It's common for ADD to cause or coexist with some learning difficulties. Seek an educational assessment to see if there is a gap between your daughter's intellect and her ability. Also, children often hide their concerns at school. She may be bottling up a day's worth of frustration only to let it out at home, where she feels safer. If this is the case, meet with both your daughter and her teacher and, together, assure your daughter that it's okay to feel upset at school. Finally, try to get a good analysis of how she functions in the classroom, by involving the school counselor if necessary, and report it to her physician. If she's not on medication, you may want to consider it. If she is on medication, it might require an adjustment. Sometimes a different type of medication or a different dose will work better for a particular child.
Dr. Carol Brady is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Houston, Texas. She is also a specialist in school psychology and a well-regarded speaker in the area of ADHD, children, and families in trauma and Tourette's Syndrome.
She received her Ph.D. from LSU and she is currently on the scientific advisory board for the Tourette's Syndrome Association and is an adjunct faculty at Baylor University and the University of Texas. Dr. Brady hopes to help children and families who deal with neurological/developmental disorders by serving as a regular columnist for ADDitude magazine.
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