August 19, 2025 • 15 mins
Understanding ADHD from a Parent's Perspective
In This episode of Child Mental Health for Pediatric Clinicians, we begin a new series, 'Child Mental Health Talks with Parents,' featuring advocates Ashley and Lauren, who share their experiences raising children with ADHD. They discuss the creation of a Mental Health and Neurodiversity PTA committee, early signs of ADHD in their children, and practical insights for clinicians. Listen in to understand how morning routines and psychoeducational testing can aid in assessing ADHD, and stay tuned for more on masking and self-esteem in the next episode.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
01:33 Starting the Mental Health and Neurodiversity PTA Committee
03:40 Recognizing ADHD in Children
05:25 Executive Function Challenges
09:28 Gender Differences in ADHD
Check out our website PsychEd4Peds.com for more resources.
Follow us on Instagram @psyched4peds
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (00:00):
welcome back to Child Mental Health for
Pediatric clinicians, thepodcast formerly known as
Psyched for peds.
I'm your host, Dr.
Elise Lucco, child psychiatrist,and mom.
Today we're introducing a newseries for the podcast called
Child Mental Health Talks withParents In today's inaugural
(00:21):
edition of Child Mental Healthtalks to Parents, we're gonna
meet with some parents of kidswith A DHD to take a deeper dive
and learn insights into what itis like raising kids with A DHD
and learn from their experiencesabout how we as clinicians can
do an even better job of caringfor kids.
(00:43):
I am really excited to introducetwo parents who are advocates
for neurodiversity, and betweenthe two of them have four kids
with A DHD.
They've also used some of theirown personal experience as
parents to give back to thecommunity by starting a mental
health and neurodiversitycommittee at their local
elementary school.
They're gonna tell us a littlebit about their journey and
(01:05):
share the early signs and cluesthat made them wonder about A
DHD.
And I'm so excited becausethrough this discussion, we as
clinicians can learn about whatare the questions that are best
to ask, and the signsspecifically to look for in a
child that may have a DHD.
Without further ado, welcomeAshley and Lauren.
Lauren (01:26):
Hi.
Ashley (01:27):
Hi.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (01:28):
So happy to have you guys.
Really excited about ourconversation coming up.
Let's start by talking about themental health and Neurodiversity
PTA committee that you guysstarted.
Lauren, I know you're the onewho came up with this.
Tell us a little bit about whatyou guys do, and what motivated
you to start it.
First of all, thank you forhaving us.
We're so excited to be here andtalk about this important topic.
Lauren (01:51):
So I started the Mental health and Neurodiversity PTA
committee because as a parent oftwo neurodivergent kids, I was.
Kind of feeling like on anisland a little bit.
So we had them diagnosed andit's like, here's your
diagnosis.
Go off into the world and goodluck.
(02:11):
Good luck.
Get your 5 0 4 plan.
So what's a 5 0 4 plan?
I was just feeling like alone inthe advocacy piece.
And so I knew as I would talk tolike other parents, I'm not the
only one here that's goingthrough this trying to support
my children.
I knew there were other kids whohad autism and A DHD and I
wanted to create a community.
(02:32):
So I decided to start this PTAcommittee to create that
community of parents and tosupport other parents around me
and support the teachers aswell.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (02:42):
Lauren, that's such a great idea.
Ashley, can you tell us aboutsome of the ways your mental
health neurodiversity groupsupports parents, students, and
teachers?
Ashley (02:52):
We do a lot of really great events throughout the year
to be able to provide thatsupport.
So we have a book club where wetalk and discuss books and we do
a movie night at school where weinvite the whole entire school
to come watch a movie.
So last year we did inside Outtwo where we got the message
across about anxiety to kids ina fun way.
And we have a support group forparents and we meet once a month
(03:16):
and it's just a really great toengage with one another.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (03:19):
How amazing that you, both of you are taking
a need that you internally haveand giving back to the community
and creating this amazingsupport system and service to
help other parents and otherkids and the entire school
better understand and supportNeurodiverse kids.
And the inside out too moviething.
Screening sounds so much fun.
Ashley (03:39):
It was fun.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (03:40):
So from a parent perspective, can you guys
tell us a little bit about theclues that you noticed in your
children that made you wonderabout a DHD?
Ashley (03:50):
Sure.
So I have two children.
I have a girl and a boy.
And for our boy, we reallynoticed something was different
with his hyperactivity.
So he's always running around.
He can do sports and play withfriends all day, and he is
never, ever tired.
Even at bedtime.
He can't sit still at dinner.
(04:10):
He's always bopping up and downand around.
So he requires a lot ofmovement.
For our daughter, it was a lotdifferent because she doesn't
have that hyperactivity piece.
For her it was a lot more aboutexecutive functioning.
So I could tell that she wouldstruggle with simple routines.
Even as a seven or 8-year-old,she knew she would have to get
(04:33):
dressed every morning, but shecouldn't do it by herself.
Like she needed constantreminders.
She needed me to help her pickout her outfit.
She could not clean her room byherself.
It just was an overwhelmingtask.
And so I would have to always gointo the room with her and help
break it down by, category, Hey,let's do all of your books first
and let's do all of your toys.
(04:53):
Okay, now let's put away yourclothes.
So she just can't, to this day,she still can't do that by
herself.
And then she's, you know, she'sdisorganized.
Her room is like a completedisaster, which I know a lot of
kids have messy rooms, but shejust really thrives in the
chaos.
And she will forget things.
She'll lose things.
She's really talkative withothers, which is a great quality
(05:15):
to have.
But it does also result in a lotof interrupting of people.
And that can be tough for hertoo.
So it's a lot of that impulsecontrol as well.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (05:25):
Wow.
And going back to the executivefunction part and just to
review, for everybody who'slistening, executive
functioning, what we're reallytalking about is higher level
abilities to problem solve, totake a multi-step task or
project and break it down andalso be able to make changes on
the fly, if you're interruptedbetween step two and step three
to know how to reset and andthen of course to control your
(05:48):
impulses.
And so you're talking about howyour daughter would have trouble
getting dressed in the morningor cleaning her room.
you can imagine if you strugglewith executive functioning and
mom says, clean your room,you're like, that's completely
overwhelming.
There's books on the floor andthere's clothes over there and I
don't even know what that means.
And where do you begin?
Ashley (06:08):
Exactly.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (06:09):
And I imagine as a parent it can be
really frustrating and it wouldbe hard to understand.
They're not trying to bedefiant, they're not trying to
be difficult or overlyemotional.
It truly is completelyoverwhelming.
Ashley (06:21):
Exactly.
Like I can tell that it wasn'tjust something she didn't want
to do.
It was something that shegenuinely could not do herself.
And I think one other thing I'llmention too is our school
routine in the days which.
Be so difficult, right?
Every morning we do the sameexact thing.
You get up, you get dressed, youhave breakfast, you brush your
teeth, you get your shoes, andwe leave.
(06:41):
And no matter how often we didthat, she still couldn't get it
down by herself.
So now as a fourth grader, sheneeds those constant reminders,
okay, it's time to go do thisnow.
Or send her upstairs, please gobrush your teeth.
And then 10 minutes later I yellup to the stairs, you know the
stairs to her, and I'll be like,Hey, did you brush your teeth?
It's time to leave her school.
(07:01):
And she's like, oh no, sorry, Igot distracted.
I'm reading a book.
And so that was also a reallybig sign for us.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (07:08):
I love how you're fleshing this out.
Like one of the questions thatwe ask as clinicians when we're
trying to suss out a DHD is doesyour child have trouble with
multi-step commands?
If you ask them to do two thingsin a row or three things in a
row, can they do all three ofthose things or do they get
sidetracked?
And what a great example you'regiving of.
Like the classic example of themorning routine that has a bunch
(07:30):
of repeated five or six steps.
The other thing that makes methink about is how visual
reminders can be so helpful.
Making those silly little chartsthat say morning routine and
there's a little picture of atoothbrush, to remind you, you
first brush your teeth and thenext thing is put your shoes on
or, whichever the order is.
Ashley (07:49):
Yeah.
And we've actually,interestingly enough, come up
with a variation of that toolbecause we had tried that in the
past for her and it still didn'twork.
But only recently did we come upwith the same type of tool, but
there's more tactile andinteraction with it.
It's almost like a little flipchart.
And she'll have the tab or brushteeth and she has to move it
from one side to the other side.
And that's actually helped a lotmore.
(08:11):
And so that's not something Iwould've thought of but even
just making that small tweak hashelped her brain.
Understand
Lauren (08:19):
We have a similar thing where my kids love to write with
expo markers, so we have alaminated version of that chart
on our refrigerator.
And one thing I will say tooabout, as a parent of a child
with A DHD, and as somebody witha DHD myself, it's this constant
need to come up with a systemthat might work for a month or
(08:41):
two months and then you find itdoesn't work anymore.
And now I have to come up with anew system.
So there's your sign.
If you're wondering if yourchild has a DHD.
Do you change systems a lot?
Dr. Elise Fallucco (08:53):
Yes, that also makes me think about
parenting in general.
I'm like, you're never able tocatch up.
Oh no.
Something will work for a littlebit and then something new is
thrown in your general directionand there you are again.
For sure so Ashley, you'vetalked about a lot about the
(09:14):
executive function issues withyour daughter that made you
wonder hmm, this possibly couldbe a DHD Lauren, what's your
experience?
What were some of the earlyclues or signs that made you
wonder about A DHD and yourkids?
Lauren (09:28):
So interestingly, I think mine is like the exact
opposite experience.
And so we talk about genderdifferences and stuff.
I have a boy and a girl, so myboy is older and he has autism,
and A DHD.
So he is extremely creative andat the same time really
(09:51):
struggles with organization anda lot of the struggles that
Ashley's daughter would strugglewith, like cleaning up and
prioritizing tasks.
So all those executive functionsit really struggles with those.
It really came down to hisprofile once we got tested and
we were looking at that and hewas very bright.
With the visual spatialreasoning but his working memory
(10:13):
and processing speed was a lotlower.
And so having that differentialwas a red flag of maybe there's
something going on here.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (10:22):
So to recap, in your son, you noticed that he
had problems with organization,problems with executive function
and prioritizing things, andthen when you had him do a full
IQ test, what you noticed wasrelative areas of weakness in
processing speed index, as wellas in the working memory index
and these symptoms together withother problems with
(10:44):
hyperactivity and impulsivityand inattention.
Are the common pattern that wesee in kids with a DHD.
So tell us about what were cluesthat you noticed in your
daughter that she might have aDHD?
Lauren (10:58):
So for my daughter it was a little bit.
A little bit confusing becauseshe couldn't sit still like a
typical A DHD symptom, somethingthat you think of, like
hyperactivity.
When she was watching a show,she'd be bouncing around and
liked a lot of thatproprioceptive input.
We also had sensory issues withgetting dressed and interrupting
(11:21):
others constantly because shethinks she's going to forget
what's in her head, and so shehas to get it out now or else
it's gone forever.
One thing that I noticed withher too, and this was something
that I was just really confusedabout, was word recall.
So she'd be talking aboutsomething and she's trying to
get the thought out before sheforgets the whole thought, but
(11:42):
she can't come up with the wordthat she's thinking of.
So a lot of times she'd say thething or over there,
Dr. Elise Fallucco (11:49):
Her mind is moving very rapidly.
Yes.
And she's thinking about a lotof things and she doesn't wanna
stop and take the timeparticularly to remember this
weird word that she doesn't usevery often.
So she just.
Insert something else and keepson going.
Lauren (12:01):
So we took her to have an evaluation..
So we thought we'd have hertested so she had that same sort
of spiky profile that my son hadvery high in a lot of areas.
And then working memoryprocessing speed was lower.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (12:17):
And so for her, the working memory issue
manifested as kind of troubleremembering the word In your
brain.
Yes.
Lauren (12:25):
Yeah, exactly.
It's oh, that's unimportantdetails over there.
Yes.
Yeah.
I don't have time for that.
Let me get my thought out.
Yes.
Because the big picture for her,she can very much see the big
picture and things, but detailsfor her, she's just not into the
details.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (12:39):
Yes.
And I would say that phenotypeis very classic of a DHD.
Certainly not all kids with aDHD, but a lot of people with a
DH, ADHD are incredibly creativeand can think outside of the box
and can have this amazing bigpicture.
And then when you sit down andyou say, I'm gonna need you to
take me from step one to step571 and make sure the i's are
dotted and the T's are crossed,like people with a DHD are just
(13:01):
like that, you have no patiencefor that.
That's incredibly boring.
Yeah.
And it's much, your brain isoriented towards.
S creativity and big vision andall of these incredible gifts.
And it is boring to go from stepone to step 571.
So
Lauren (13:17):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (13:18):
And we're gonna take a pause right now and
recap some of what we've learnedfrom Ashley and Lauren.
So as clinicians, things that wecan look for and questions we
can ask when we're assessingsomeone for A DHD.
Number one, ask about themorning routine.
And does the child have troublefollowing multi-step commands?
When you ask them to do multiplethings in a row, can they easily
(13:39):
get distracted?
Or feel overwhelmed.
Second of all, for kids who havehad the benefit already of
having some type ofpsychoeducational testing, take
a look at their full scale IQand at the various subsections,
and you might see what Laurencalled a spiky profile, where
there are elevated scores in alot of the subsections, but
(14:01):
particularly or relatively lowerscores in working memory and
processing speed.
Our plan is to continue theconversation next episode with
Ashley and Lauren, and learnfrom the perspective of parents
about masking among kids with aDHD and the toll that that takes
on self-esteem and energy.
(14:22):
Finally, Ashley and Lauren willtell us about what are the
things that they wish thateverybody knew about A DHD.
Thanks so much for listening in.
If you liked this episode,please share it with a friend
and click the plus button tofollow us on Apple and Spotify.
Thanks for listening to ChildMental Health for Pediatric
Clinicians.
(14:42):
See you next time.
welcome back to Child Mental Health for
Pediatric clinicians, thepodcast formerly known as
Psyched for peds.
I'm your host, Dr.
Elise Lucco, child psychiatrist,and mom.
Today we're introducing a newseries for the podcast called
Child Mental Health Talks withParents In today's inaugural
(00:21):
edition of Child Mental Healthtalks to Parents, we're gonna
meet with some parents of kidswith A DHD to take a deeper dive
and learn insights into what itis like raising kids with A DHD
and learn from their experiencesabout how we as clinicians can
do an even better job of caringfor kids.
(00:43):
I am really excited to introducetwo parents who are advocates
for neurodiversity, and betweenthe two of them have four kids
with A DHD.
They've also used some of theirown personal experience as
parents to give back to thecommunity by starting a mental
health and neurodiversitycommittee at their local
elementary school.
They're gonna tell us a littlebit about their journey and
(01:05):
share the early signs and cluesthat made them wonder about A
DHD.
And I'm so excited becausethrough this discussion, we as
clinicians can learn about whatare the questions that are best
to ask, and the signsspecifically to look for in a
child that may have a DHD.
Without further ado, welcomeAshley and Lauren.
Lauren (01:26):
Hi.
Ashley (01:27):
Hi.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (01:28):
So happy to have you guys.
Really excited about ourconversation coming up.
Let's start by talking about themental health and Neurodiversity
PTA committee that you guysstarted.
Lauren, I know you're the onewho came up with this.
Tell us a little bit about whatyou guys do, and what motivated
you to start it.
First of all, thank you forhaving us.
We're so excited to be here andtalk about this important topic.
Lauren (01:51):
So I started the Mental health and Neurodiversity PTA
committee because as a parent oftwo neurodivergent kids, I was.
Kind of feeling like on anisland a little bit.
So we had them diagnosed andit's like, here's your
diagnosis.
Go off into the world and goodluck.
(02:11):
Good luck.
Get your 5 0 4 plan.
So what's a 5 0 4 plan?
I was just feeling like alone inthe advocacy piece.
And so I knew as I would talk tolike other parents, I'm not the
only one here that's goingthrough this trying to support
my children.
I knew there were other kids whohad autism and A DHD and I
wanted to create a community.
(02:32):
So I decided to start this PTAcommittee to create that
community of parents and tosupport other parents around me
and support the teachers aswell.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (02:42):
Lauren, that's such a great idea.
Ashley, can you tell us aboutsome of the ways your mental
health neurodiversity groupsupports parents, students, and
teachers?
Ashley (02:52):
We do a lot of really great events throughout the year
to be able to provide thatsupport.
So we have a book club where wetalk and discuss books and we do
a movie night at school where weinvite the whole entire school
to come watch a movie.
So last year we did inside Outtwo where we got the message
across about anxiety to kids ina fun way.
And we have a support group forparents and we meet once a month
(03:16):
and it's just a really great toengage with one another.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (03:19):
How amazing that you, both of you are taking
a need that you internally haveand giving back to the community
and creating this amazingsupport system and service to
help other parents and otherkids and the entire school
better understand and supportNeurodiverse kids.
And the inside out too moviething.
Screening sounds so much fun.
Ashley (03:39):
It was fun.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (03:40):
So from a parent perspective, can you guys
tell us a little bit about theclues that you noticed in your
children that made you wonderabout a DHD?
Ashley (03:50):
Sure.
So I have two children.
I have a girl and a boy.
And for our boy, we reallynoticed something was different
with his hyperactivity.
So he's always running around.
He can do sports and play withfriends all day, and he is
never, ever tired.
Even at bedtime.
He can't sit still at dinner.
(04:10):
He's always bopping up and downand around.
So he requires a lot ofmovement.
For our daughter, it was a lotdifferent because she doesn't
have that hyperactivity piece.
For her it was a lot more aboutexecutive functioning.
So I could tell that she wouldstruggle with simple routines.
Even as a seven or 8-year-old,she knew she would have to get
(04:33):
dressed every morning, but shecouldn't do it by herself.
Like she needed constantreminders.
She needed me to help her pickout her outfit.
She could not clean her room byherself.
It just was an overwhelmingtask.
And so I would have to always gointo the room with her and help
break it down by, category, Hey,let's do all of your books first
and let's do all of your toys.
(04:53):
Okay, now let's put away yourclothes.
So she just can't, to this day,she still can't do that by
herself.
And then she's, you know, she'sdisorganized.
Her room is like a completedisaster, which I know a lot of
kids have messy rooms, but shejust really thrives in the
chaos.
And she will forget things.
She'll lose things.
She's really talkative withothers, which is a great quality
(05:15):
to have.
But it does also result in a lotof interrupting of people.
And that can be tough for hertoo.
So it's a lot of that impulsecontrol as well.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (05:25):
Wow.
And going back to the executivefunction part and just to
review, for everybody who'slistening, executive
functioning, what we're reallytalking about is higher level
abilities to problem solve, totake a multi-step task or
project and break it down andalso be able to make changes on
the fly, if you're interruptedbetween step two and step three
to know how to reset and andthen of course to control your
(05:48):
impulses.
And so you're talking about howyour daughter would have trouble
getting dressed in the morningor cleaning her room.
you can imagine if you strugglewith executive functioning and
mom says, clean your room,you're like, that's completely
overwhelming.
There's books on the floor andthere's clothes over there and I
don't even know what that means.
And where do you begin?
Ashley (06:08):
Exactly.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (06:09):
And I imagine as a parent it can be
really frustrating and it wouldbe hard to understand.
They're not trying to bedefiant, they're not trying to
be difficult or overlyemotional.
It truly is completelyoverwhelming.
Ashley (06:21):
Exactly.
Like I can tell that it wasn'tjust something she didn't want
to do.
It was something that shegenuinely could not do herself.
And I think one other thing I'llmention too is our school
routine in the days which.
Be so difficult, right?
Every morning we do the sameexact thing.
You get up, you get dressed, youhave breakfast, you brush your
teeth, you get your shoes, andwe leave.
(06:41):
And no matter how often we didthat, she still couldn't get it
down by herself.
So now as a fourth grader, sheneeds those constant reminders,
okay, it's time to go do thisnow.
Or send her upstairs, please gobrush your teeth.
And then 10 minutes later I yellup to the stairs, you know the
stairs to her, and I'll be like,Hey, did you brush your teeth?
It's time to leave her school.
(07:01):
And she's like, oh no, sorry, Igot distracted.
I'm reading a book.
And so that was also a reallybig sign for us.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (07:08):
I love how you're fleshing this out.
Like one of the questions thatwe ask as clinicians when we're
trying to suss out a DHD is doesyour child have trouble with
multi-step commands?
If you ask them to do two thingsin a row or three things in a
row, can they do all three ofthose things or do they get
sidetracked?
And what a great example you'regiving of.
Like the classic example of themorning routine that has a bunch
(07:30):
of repeated five or six steps.
The other thing that makes methink about is how visual
reminders can be so helpful.
Making those silly little chartsthat say morning routine and
there's a little picture of atoothbrush, to remind you, you
first brush your teeth and thenext thing is put your shoes on
or, whichever the order is.
Ashley (07:49):
Yeah.
And we've actually,interestingly enough, come up
with a variation of that toolbecause we had tried that in the
past for her and it still didn'twork.
But only recently did we come upwith the same type of tool, but
there's more tactile andinteraction with it.
It's almost like a little flipchart.
And she'll have the tab or brushteeth and she has to move it
from one side to the other side.
And that's actually helped a lotmore.
(08:11):
And so that's not something Iwould've thought of but even
just making that small tweak hashelped her brain.
Understand
Lauren (08:19):
We have a similar thing where my kids love to write with
expo markers, so we have alaminated version of that chart
on our refrigerator.
And one thing I will say tooabout, as a parent of a child
with A DHD, and as somebody witha DHD myself, it's this constant
need to come up with a systemthat might work for a month or
(08:41):
two months and then you find itdoesn't work anymore.
And now I have to come up with anew system.
So there's your sign.
If you're wondering if yourchild has a DHD.
Do you change systems a lot?
Dr. Elise Fallucco (08:53):
Yes, that also makes me think about
parenting in general.
I'm like, you're never able tocatch up.
Oh no.
Something will work for a littlebit and then something new is
thrown in your general directionand there you are again.
For sure so Ashley, you'vetalked about a lot about the
(09:14):
executive function issues withyour daughter that made you
wonder hmm, this possibly couldbe a DHD Lauren, what's your
experience?
What were some of the earlyclues or signs that made you
wonder about A DHD and yourkids?
Lauren (09:28):
So interestingly, I think mine is like the exact
opposite experience.
And so we talk about genderdifferences and stuff.
I have a boy and a girl, so myboy is older and he has autism,
and A DHD.
So he is extremely creative andat the same time really
(09:51):
struggles with organization anda lot of the struggles that
Ashley's daughter would strugglewith, like cleaning up and
prioritizing tasks.
So all those executive functionsit really struggles with those.
It really came down to hisprofile once we got tested and
we were looking at that and hewas very bright.
With the visual spatialreasoning but his working memory
(10:13):
and processing speed was a lotlower.
And so having that differentialwas a red flag of maybe there's
something going on here.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (10:22):
So to recap, in your son, you noticed that he
had problems with organization,problems with executive function
and prioritizing things, andthen when you had him do a full
IQ test, what you noticed wasrelative areas of weakness in
processing speed index, as wellas in the working memory index
and these symptoms together withother problems with
(10:44):
hyperactivity and impulsivityand inattention.
Are the common pattern that wesee in kids with a DHD.
So tell us about what were cluesthat you noticed in your
daughter that she might have aDHD?
Lauren (10:58):
So for my daughter it was a little bit.
A little bit confusing becauseshe couldn't sit still like a
typical A DHD symptom, somethingthat you think of, like
hyperactivity.
When she was watching a show,she'd be bouncing around and
liked a lot of thatproprioceptive input.
We also had sensory issues withgetting dressed and interrupting
(11:21):
others constantly because shethinks she's going to forget
what's in her head, and so shehas to get it out now or else
it's gone forever.
One thing that I noticed withher too, and this was something
that I was just really confusedabout, was word recall.
So she'd be talking aboutsomething and she's trying to
get the thought out before sheforgets the whole thought, but
(11:42):
she can't come up with the wordthat she's thinking of.
So a lot of times she'd say thething or over there,
Dr. Elise Fallucco (11:49):
Her mind is moving very rapidly.
Yes.
And she's thinking about a lotof things and she doesn't wanna
stop and take the timeparticularly to remember this
weird word that she doesn't usevery often.
So she just.
Insert something else and keepson going.
Lauren (12:01):
So we took her to have an evaluation..
So we thought we'd have hertested so she had that same sort
of spiky profile that my son hadvery high in a lot of areas.
And then working memoryprocessing speed was lower.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (12:17):
And so for her, the working memory issue
manifested as kind of troubleremembering the word In your
brain.
Yes.
Lauren (12:25):
Yeah, exactly.
It's oh, that's unimportantdetails over there.
Yes.
Yeah.
I don't have time for that.
Let me get my thought out.
Yes.
Because the big picture for her,she can very much see the big
picture and things, but detailsfor her, she's just not into the
details.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (12:39):
Yes.
And I would say that phenotypeis very classic of a DHD.
Certainly not all kids with aDHD, but a lot of people with a
DH, ADHD are incredibly creativeand can think outside of the box
and can have this amazing bigpicture.
And then when you sit down andyou say, I'm gonna need you to
take me from step one to step571 and make sure the i's are
dotted and the T's are crossed,like people with a DHD are just
(13:01):
like that, you have no patiencefor that.
That's incredibly boring.
Yeah.
And it's much, your brain isoriented towards.
S creativity and big vision andall of these incredible gifts.
And it is boring to go from stepone to step 571.
So
Lauren (13:17):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Dr. Elise Fallucco (13:18):
And we're gonna take a pause right now and
recap some of what we've learnedfrom Ashley and Lauren.
So as clinicians, things that wecan look for and questions we
can ask when we're assessingsomeone for A DHD.
Number one, ask about themorning routine.
And does the child have troublefollowing multi-step commands?
When you ask them to do multiplethings in a row, can they easily
(13:39):
get distracted?
Or feel overwhelmed.
Second of all, for kids who havehad the benefit already of
having some type ofpsychoeducational testing, take
a look at their full scale IQand at the various subsections,
and you might see what Laurencalled a spiky profile, where
there are elevated scores in alot of the subsections, but
(14:01):
particularly or relatively lowerscores in working memory and
processing speed.
Our plan is to continue theconversation next episode with
Ashley and Lauren, and learnfrom the perspective of parents
about masking among kids with aDHD and the toll that that takes
on self-esteem and energy.
(14:22):
Finally, Ashley and Lauren willtell us about what are the
things that they wish thateverybody knew about A DHD.
Thanks so much for listening in.
If you liked this episode,please share it with a friend
and click the plus button tofollow us on Apple and Spotify.
Thanks for listening to ChildMental Health for Pediatric
Clinicians.
(14:42):
See you next time.
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