I want to encourage parents to seek an expert for consult, advice, or testing if you feel in your gut that something bigger may be happening, combined with tangible facts and observations you see.
(This also applies to yourself and adults in your life but my main concern
is for children who have no choice but to rely on their parents for care.)
It can only hurt the pocketbook sometimes to make such a consult. There are usually no worse negative consequences, especially if you find out the problem is not the worst that it could have been. Yet the positive benefits from finding that help or a full resolution to struggles or challenges is worth that financial gamble if some diagnosis is made.
Sometimes people do not want to accept that maybe there is a real problem. They do not want to be the parent of a child with a learning disability. Or a mental illness. or that teen angst is actually clinical depression. Or that a food allergy is causing a mood or behavior problem, because the idea that cutting out wheat is too overwhelming. So they avoid validation and instead live with daily struggles. How nonsensical!
Maybe the parent is ignorant about the various diagnoses? I'd like to think that is he case but sadly sometimes ego is the real issue!
The thing is once a diagnosis is that it can open a door to treatments or strategies that relieve the situation or fix it.
So is it not best to seek a consult for advice?
I think the first step to helping our kids is admitting we don't know everything and that we are not experts in everything. Others have special training and expertise.
Homeschooling parents are used to DIY and self-education but we must keep, our egos in check and admit we don't know it all.
To be a responsible parent and to not (unintentionally) neglect the kids we love so much we should seriously consider seeking an expert's opinion to discover or rule out the diagnosis.