Tomorrow…

M is a straight A student.  Until this year she always has been, it has come so easily to her.  She learned to read before entering kindergarten, and she is quite proficient; her teacher says the best reader in the class.  She has an incredible vocabulary, and always… always asks questions if someone says a word she doesn’t understand.  She memorizes things easily; to the point I use her as my human recorder if I need to remember exactly what needs to be picked up at the grocery store.  Her mind is uber-creative.  She can play with her dolls for hours, and playing make-believe is one of her very favorite things to do. 

Tomorrow she’ll have an assessment to help determine if she has ADD or ADHD.  You see, here’s the other side of M:

• M talks.  Constantly.  Without taking time to breathe.  If she didn’t have the need for sleep, she would talk 24/7.  This is seriously not an exageration.  I’m embarrased to admit that I’ve told my child to “shut up” before because I just need a few moments of silence.  The shock value of that is the only thing that will make her stop for a few moments.
• When M reads, she must read out loud.  She really truly can’t read to herself.  And, while she’s very proficient at reading, she has a hard time comprehending what she’s read.  Her teacher explained it this way… there is so much going on in her head, that if she reads to herself, it’s competing with all that other stuff.
• She has an incredibly hard time with multiple choice tests, they are her nemesis.
• Her writing skills are all over the place, her thoughts very disorganized, with no pattern or progression of thought.  Her creative writing is hugely entertaining, however, her creativity makes the reading (albeit hard to follow) fun to read.
• If you talk to M about a specific subject, she’ll look like she’s listening, but then in the middle of what you’re saying, she’ll ask a question completely out of left field.  For example, I was talking to her about my parent/teacher meeting, and the testing she was going to have Friday for ADD and all of a sudden she asked what day Thanksgiving was on. 
• She fidgets, picks, scratches at herself, bites her nails, she can’t stand still.  The teacher said whenever she looks back at M, she’s doing cheers in her seat, complete with hand motions and mouthing the words.  This doesn’t happen some times.  It’s all the time.
• There are more examples, but this is enough.  I’ve always just thought it was her “second child syndrom” behavior, the need to get attention at all costs – any attention is good attention to M.

So tomorrow she has the assessment, and to be perfectly honest, I’m not really sure what I’m hoping for.  If this is what she has, then it’s treatable, but if it’s not… then what do we do?