Does my daughter have add/ adhd?

she is almost 10years old and it seems like with everything even the little things like asking her to take our dogs out to go to th ebathroom is so difficult with her. i know that that is normal for children to not listen all the time and to not pay attention, but its alot more than just taking the dogs out and its like i have to think of her as a 4yr old when i talk to her and walk her through tings. we have made chore charts and daily activity lists she can check off as she does them and she forgets even when ill tell her to go do it. she is my stepdaughter her real mom is not in the picture and has bi-polar for awhile now so i thought it was that but she has bee nwith me for 2 yrs while my husband was deployed. i talked to him about bi-polar or add/adhd in her and he doesnt think so, but im with her everyday all day and she is the first 9yr old i know that acts like this. any help or suggestions? i cant seem to get her to pay attention and follow through and etc

i also thought that maybe becuase she was passed from her real mom to her dad at about 4 where he had a wife that didn't treat her right and put her two before my daughter and then to me and her dad being in iraq for almost 2yrs and going to a one parent and only child situation was it too, but she has all of my attention and doesn't have to share so i dont know if this is just a phase or what its been almost 3years its been goin gon

she would have to be evaluated by a physician and from there would take in her family history and her enviroment. just from what you have its hard to say whether it stems from her past or something else. it could be an 'all of the above' situation. and no this isnt typical 9 or 10 year old behavior. at this age they should have developed a several step thinking level.
here are some sites that i find useful sometimes. my specialty may be in early childhood but my kids are not so sometimes i need a little extra insight. but good luck
http://www.aap.org/healthtopics/stages.c...

http://www.education.com/reference/topic...

Well kids sometimes tend to keep things in. Maybe she needs to talk to someone. You cant get her to pay attention and follow through but have most of the people in her life? Here today gone tomorrow. Another thing you can do is talk to the doctor about this. They are the ones who really should be answering this for you. Best of luck

ok you need to know one thing if a child doesn't listen to you they don't have add or adhd just cuz she doesn't like to listen to you and i'm adhd and bipolar ok and i think her thing is she doesn't like you mabey sit down and talk to her go hang out off a while have a girls day try being with her not aggenst her

bi - polar, Depression or any type of anxiety runs in families and is linked with A.D.D most of the time.

See how her grades are???

It may seem like Kids with A.D.D are in there own little world.

I certainly suggest to get her tested. It seems possible from the information you gave.

I have an ADHD son that is like that. He just turned 9. He was also having problems in school so I talked to the Dr and had him tested and he has been taking medication for the past 2 years (only while school is in) and it has done wonders for him. He is a different child on his medicine...he can actually find things. You would be amazed at the things he has a hard time doing without it. He loses track of what he is doing and is so forgetful, you have to tell him things ten times when he isn't on his medicine. He is bouncing off the walls this summer, but I wanted to give him a break from that medicine! It could be that she just has some immaturity issues from what she has been through too. Either way, I would have her tested.

It does sound like she may possibly have ADHD. You would need to have her evaluated to be sure. Tasks can be difficult for an ADHD child. Things need to be broken down into small tasks.. they have to be direct. For example: you can't say to an ADHD child "hang up your clothes" and expect the clothes to be hung on hangers in the closet... they may just hang them on a door knob.. Not a great example, but I'm sure you get my point. I am a therapist so I work with this a lot. As for the previous poster that is against meds.. ADHD does exist and it is not so Doctors can prescribe medicine.. ADHD can be managed with behavior therapy and interventions. Good luck!

Sorry, ADD/ADHD doesn't exist in the extent that society presents it to exist in. It's actually very rare, but many doctors are prescribing speed in forms of 'pharmaceutical drugs' to supposedly help ADD/ADHD victims. Your daughter is acting like a typical 10 year old. But it's a new trend to diagnose kids like this, who are acting up due to their AGE, in order to zombie them out and then say "Hey, look! My daughter has improved! Look at how she doesnt act out!" Take a look at how ADD/ADHD 'medication' works. It's horrible. She is not bi-polar. She does not have ADD/ADHD. That diagnosis is mostly a fantasy that parents want to place on their child in order to not have to tend to the child's needs and give them the attention they deserve. You just have to be a stricter parent and offer discipline as you see fit regardless of what she wants. She's just a little bit spoiled and acting like most normal 10 year olds do. Time to administer much needed discipline. Spare the rod, spoil the child. But whatever you do, don't label your child under some 'trend' that's going on, and don't give her speed, which comes in the form of Ritalin, Concerta, and all of those terrible medicine thats slow the child's brain WAY down.