</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
chaotic13 said:
My kids had physicals today. So my H is repeatedly frustrated with my youngest son (9) and his inability to focus, stay on task, follow more than 1 step instructions, etc. My H is not very kind when providing his medical opinion about my ADHD or our son's ADHD tendencies. Anyway, the physicals seemed to be a good place to make an inquiry regarding getting my son assessed.

The resulting discussion with the physician was less than enlightening. He basically had me fill out a 20 item questionnaire and then based on my answers said he might have an inattentive type of ADHD. He went on to rattle off a bunch of basic Wikipedia type statements to me while making eye contact with only the floor. He offered no real information on how I might proceed with ruling in or out the likelihood of my son having this condition.. At one point he said, "well you can wait until school starts and let his teacher do an assessment of him???" I said... "Hum... well... I don't think I want my child's school to be diagnosing (labeling) my child and determining if he should be medicated or not." The pediatrician then gave me some vague statements about potential treatment options including experimenting with medications and a reward system for addressing bad behavior. At that point I held up my hand and said.... "I never said he had a behavior problem. You just assumed that misbehavior was an issue." "The whole reason for me raising this issue is because I want an assessment to determine what his REAL challenges are and to design an appropriate plan for dealing with them."

That is exactly the stereotype that I want to avoid. My son has a problem with focusing, is easily distracted, and has trouble finishing tasks. He does not have a behavior problem. He a really good, compliant, kid who does not disrupt or interfere with other children's learning. After making this point clear, I asked for a referral and left.

It just really pisses me off that even medical professionals seem also be so ignorant.

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">Heck, I'd change the pediatrician after that round. There's no way you can trust him to properly assess anything IMO...

That wasn't a proper diagnostic exam... many things can look like ADHD for one, and two, there isn't anything objective about what he did. He was probably ready to medicate your boy in 10 minutes.
Take your boy to a child psychologist. Child psychologists are far better than pediatricians and child psychiatrists at assessing ADHD and in determining treatments. They aren't into simply medicating, but they will refer you to a trusted psychiatrist if you and the child psychologist thinks it necessary.
Teachers are the last people who should be making any kind of psychological assessment on the kid. I would stay away from the referral doctor he gave you, and instead look at your insurance benefits and get another one (if you need a referral at all), but make sure it's a child psychologist, not a PDOC.
How annoying. I hear this all of the time, even in my adult ADHD friends. I even experienced a little of it myself once--and I promptly left that evil psychiatrist. Ack. I hate this kind of ignorance and stereotyping. Scary.