Nams.....I can't believe that they told you that ADHD is a difficult to deal with disability and painted such a hopeless picture!! That's terrible! And it's not the case at all. Many people with ADHD grow up to be HIGHLY successful adults.

I don't want to toot my own horn, but I have fairly severe ADHD (along with all the other disorders in my signature below), and I got straight As in high school (a rigorous private school), I graduated university with an honours bachelor of science and a 3.7 GPA (that's an A- average), and I'm now in my second year of medical school again with an A average.

Always remember -- the sky is the limit for your child. A disorder like ADHD will not hold him back. It just means that he will have to go about things a little differently than most kids (different learning methods, organizational strategies, and eventually medication). His brain just works differently, that's all. But his brain works just as good as the brain of his peers. Don't treat his ADHD like a disability. Don't ever think of it as a limitation on what he can achieve. I never did, and that's why I succeeded. My parents told me when I was a kid that I could do anything I set my mind to, and I still believe that!

One more thing about testing. I wasn't aware that all children needed to be 'formally' tested for adhd through the school board? I was diagnosed with adhd by my psychiatrist at 14. She simply asked me some questions about my symptoms, decided I had adhd, and prescribed me medication. So for parents who are having trouble obtaining testing through the school board, another option might be to go to your doctor and get a referral to a child psychiatrist. It may work!

Also, many private psychologists do adhd testing/assessment, and if your third-party insurance (through work) covers psychologist's visits (most do), that might be another option. You could also just have a private psychologist see your child and write a letter urging the school board to formally test your child for ADHD as soon as possible. Hand the psychologist's letter to the school board, and it should speed things up. A letter like that from a psychologist would cost a lot less money than asking the psychologist to do a full assessment/testing for adhd.

My parents did this for me to get me tested for the gifted program. The school board was taking forever, so my parents took me to see a private psychologist who administered an IQ test, and wrote a letter describing the results of the test and urging the school board to test me for the gifted program as soon as possible. My parents wrote a strongly-worded letter, and gave it to the school board along with the psychologist's letter/my IQ test results. I got tested for the gifted program right away after they did that. It definitely expidited things!