One of the most common things parents say before booking
Yes — and this contrast between school and home is one of the most clinically meaningful patterns we see. What you’re describing has a name: masking. Many children with ADHD expend enormous effort holding themselves together in structured environments like school, and then completely decompress — often explosively — once they’re home and feel safe enough to let go.
Teachers saying “we don’t see it here” does not mean there’s nothing to assess. It means your child is working very hard to appear neurotypical in public. That effort is exhausting and unsustainable, and it often catches up with children in adolescence when demands increase sharply.
At Harley Mind Care, we look at your child’s functioning across all settings — home, school, social situations, and unstructured time. Your account as a parent carries equal clinical weight to the school questionnaire.
Our pre-assessment Conners 4 questionnaires collect input from you as a parent AND from a teacher — so we can compare presentations across settings. Differences between the two accounts are themselves clinically informative.