A few incidents in the last month have me wondering if my 5-year-old son is outside the normal active, distractible range for kids his age. What I’d like to know from people who’ve been down the road is:
How did you find out and how old was your child at the time?
What courses of action/treatments did you try and what worked?
Also, anyone who was diagnosed themselves as ADHD is very welcome to contribute wisdom and experiences. I’d also be interested if there is anyone who was told there child had ADHD and chose not to accept the diagnoses but to work it out another way.
My son was outside the norm on every measurable curve since birth, it seemed. His feeding, eating and developmental traits were all markedly behind or above regular parameters, but then again each child develops differently so it’s not like I put much weight into those milestones.
In preschool it was very obvious that there was the normal range of behaviors from here to here and then wayyyyyyyyy over there was my son, consistently doing that beat of a different drummer thing to the point where he was unable or unwilling to follow the most basic instructions. Everything from an inability to play in groups to marked lack of fine and gross motor skills to hyperlexia, just attending pre-school for two hours was a giant daily challenge.
In Kindergarten the differences were more noticeable, particularly with the fine/gross motor skills, I remember discussing the possibility of dyslexia with his teachers more than once, but that’s far too young of an age to do any definitive testing. Behaviourally his performance got worse and worse, and he continued lagging behind academically.
By First grade he was pretty well regarded as a ‘problem child’ and that’s when the ADHD label began being bandied about. By then we were already using a rigid structured environment at home to try and help him identify the right behavior choices and reward him for making the correct choices, his teachers worked with us on charting performance goals and ‘grading’ him in short increments, his behavior continued to be a problem as did academic performance, it’s difficult to learn anything when you’re busy trying to stand on your head or fly about the room. We began various types of testing, which all showed an above average intelligence but below average results on just about every measurable aspect, the first official pronouncement of ADHD came at the age of 7.
This is, obviously, a much abriged version of our particulars, but my advice is to talk to his teachers. Teachers as a whole are often vilified for wanting to label kids too quickly but they’re in the premiere position to judge your child’s performance ability, if the kid’s making it in school that should be a huge clue they’re not ADHD.
Thanks, Queen Tonya. We did check in with his preschool teacher frequently. He went to a full-day program and was generally able to cope, with occasional listening and participating problems.
We had a conference with his first-grade teacher and she told us he was definitely a challenge, but that she was going to try various ways of working with him. She also said–to everyone–that her policy is basically no news is good news, and she hasn’t asked to see us since then.
He’s generally quite easy to deal with one-on-one. His motor skills are fine, for a left-hander, and he can sit for a very long time listening to music or looking at favorite book. He’d sit all day and let us read Harry Potter to him, if we would let him. It’s really group settings that seem to be the problem.
We will talk to the teachers again. I just feel like I don’t have a good yardstick for this. His sister is, as luck would have it, every teacher’s pet, which can’t be easy now that they are in the same school.
M was always on the move and had impulsivity issues from very young. We accommodated him, tried diet and homeschooled. I didn’t believe he had attentional issues but when he was 8 we saw a neuropsych for a full work up. In her feedback session she pointed out that she did the IQ testing with him constantly moving and she wondered about a trial of meds to see if they would help with his learning disorder.
We did a trial of dex and OMG. What a difference. I hadn’t realised how bad it was until it stopped. He came off dex last year when we had some medication dramas and was off for 3 months. He really wanted to start it again because he feels so much better on meds. Interestingly enough when he was in the psych ward for a medication review I had everyone telling me he was not ADHD :rolleyes: . Apparently if a kid can read a magazine article without meds, that rules out ADHD. I kept pointing out he had not read a novel since coming off dex and that this was a problem for him. In the end they did a trial of dex and within 2 days they admitted they had been wrong and that he does have attention issues. He’s just good at compensating but that compensation comes with a cost.
My younger kid did a trial of dex at 4 but he became very anxious so we stopped. he’s definitely got attentional and impulsivity issues although he’s not particularly active. He did another trial at 6 but that failed as well. Currently he’s on a microdose of prozac which is working OK. We also do a gluten free/ casein free diet and a lot of supplements with him.
I think proper assessment is mandatory if you suspect ADHD. While teacher reporting is useful, it’s not a proper diagnosis and before using meds, a proper diagnosis is essential. We see a developmental paed for ongoing care and that works well for us.
My email’s in my profile if you want to talk about diet and ADHD.