adhd

[skooniebird]

my ds(10) teacher wants to have him ested. so we filled ou the paper work sent it back in and we ha a drs apt thursday.. can anyone tell me what to expect??

i don't know very much about it so any help would be great

The psychologist my son saw when he was 5, used a combination of IQ tests and different games to get his info. It is all geared towards the specific child's age. I initially went in with him to have it all explained to me, then left him, and waited in the waiting room for approx 60-90 minutes until testing was complete. My kid loved it. Thought they were just having a play date.
Results didn't come back for over a week. Turns out he had an extremely high IQ and so part of his problem he was BORED so much of the time. Even though I had him doing 4th grade reading and worksheets while the other kinders were learning letter sounds etc., it just wasn't enough. It also showed how ridged he was about rules and already had some self esteem issues from being so different. He was on medication for 2 years, and saw the psychiatrist and psychologist, every 2 months or so. With alot of work on our part and the WONDERFUL 3rd grade teacher he had, we were able to drop the meds, and use behavioral modification techniques. I am basically against medicating, though I know it is needed in alot of cases. I have done years of work with disabled children and adults. My son being on the medication for a few years was just enough to give him and us time to work on the skills he needed to learn and be able to apply in certain situations. Without his brain just spinning in circles from the ADD. And I know this first hand , as I have ADD also. It's kind of like your mind just goes wandering off without you constantly and you really forget what it was you were doing or get so frustrated with how long it's taking you just want to break it and forget it. It's not a biggie. No invasive brain scans, or anything horrible. Just try to keep saying patience,patience patience, in your head. Many ADD kids are extremely gifted in some form= but also usually socially behind their peers. It's a long, sometimes wearing road. But they are also some of the funniest most enjoyable kids too, Always try to remember that when you hands start creeping out to strangle them. GOOD LUCK TO ALL

 

[skooniebird]

he is 10 in the 4th grade..

One thing I learned with my DS, age 15 now. Never be afraid to step in at school at ANY time. With the no child left behind act, your child is entitled to special services meeting his or her needs. Whether they be more difficult work, because they are too advanced, or extra help because they are falling behind.
If you have time, you also have a right to sit in on the class during times or subjects in which you know your child is struggling. Get involved! Children are uncanny at spotting another child's weakness. Be it extra talent in an area, or struggles in an area. Though you may have a wonderful relationship with your child, they more often than not won't tell you about problems they are having with others. They may tell you someone hit them, or called them names, but you won't know of the exclusion they can be subjected to. This happened to my oldest. I knew to extent, but never quite the severity. I am now on a newly formed Bullying Prevention committee at our school. We have found that 9 out of 10 children really don't know the true definition of bullying, and that exclusion is one form. Many people all together don't know that adolescent suicide, according to studies across Canada, western Europe, and the United States, should not be labeled suicide in 85 to 90% of cases, but should be labeled Bullycide.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

My DS was diagnosed severe ADHD when he was 4.He is 13 now.

Wow, how did you get the diagnosis? My son is 4.5, and his teacher, the school psychologist and his former social worker are all sure that he has ADHD. I've been researching this for a long time, and I have become convinced of it too. We adopted him at age 2, but he has always been extremely hyper and unfocused. At first we chalked it up to his age, but as he gets older, it hasn't gotten any better. He doesn't sleep well. He has boundless amounts of energy. He doesn't listen to a thing we tell him, so he is constantly getting in trouble. I can tell him not to do something 20 times, and as soon as I turn my back he'll do it for the 21st time! He can't focus on much, even television. If it's something he really wants to do, like a video game, he'll focus longer. He's destructive, he runs around the house talking nonsense and says repetitive things that make no sense. We have to constantly remind him to "use his words". He has an IEP and is in special day classes for speech delays. He has made a lot of progress, but is still a bit delayed in most areas. He does ok in school group situations like circle time, but has trouble doing solo tasks. His birth mother used drugs while she was pregnant with him, and he's also been on chemo since he was a year and a half. I'm sure all of it has had some effect on his brain. We've taken him to two different doctors and a therapist, and everyone acknoweledges that there may be a problem, but noone will do anything about it. We're pretty much told that he's still too young and we have to wait until he's in at least the first grade, when it starts affecting him at school. It's frustrating for us because we're trying to deal with his behavior the best we can, and it's so obvious that we're dealing with a bigger issue. I'm amazed when I read about others who were able to get their children treatment before the age of 6. I get the feeling sometimes that others feel we're just looking to medicate him. That may be partially true, but if we thought he had some other disease that required medications, we'd be doing the same thing! The problem for us is that ADHD is overly diagnosed, so I can understand why it's hard for us to get a diagnosis. I know kids that are way less hyper than my son who are on meds, and I'm not sure how the parents got their doctors to prescribe them. My son has almost every symptom of ADHD and we can't even get a definite diagnosis let alone medication.

 

[janette]

My DD was tested at age 4 but at that point it was inconclusive. It is harder if they are younger but not unheard of. With your son Steph you might ask the Drs for a referral or go to a pediatric psychologist or neurologist. The issue I'd be concerned about is that kids with severe ADHD can sometimes be a danger to themselves due to lack of impulse control. Especially the younger ones. It sounds like he probably has multiple issues and that does complicate it but you should be able to get a better picture.

One of my friends has an adopted son that was very difficult to control, they didn't test him until 1st grade but with the lowest doses of medication his behavior has improved tremendously.

 

[snowwite]

Wow, how did you get the diagnosis? My son is 4.5, and his teacher, the school psychologist and his former social worker are all sure that he has ADHD. I've been researching this for a long time, and I have become convinced of it too. We adopted him at age 2, but he has always been extremely hyper and unfocused. At first we chalked it up to his age, but as he gets older, it hasn't gotten any better. He doesn't sleep well. He has boundless amounts of energy. He doesn't listen to a thing we tell him, so he is constantly getting in trouble. I can tell him not to do something 20 times, and as soon as I turn my back he'll do it for the 21st time! He can't focus on much, even television. If it's something he really wants to do, like a video game, he'll focus longer. He's destructive, he runs around the house talking nonsense and says repetitive things that make no sense. We have to constantly remind him to "use his words". He has an IEP and is in special day classes for speech delays. He has made a lot of progress, but is still a bit delayed in most areas. He does ok in school group situations like circle time, but has trouble doing solo tasks. His birth mother used drugs while she was pregnant with him, and he's also been on chemo since he was a year and a half. I'm sure all of it has had some effect on his brain. We've taken him to two different doctors and a therapist, and everyone acknoweledges that there may be a problem, but noone will do anything about it. We're pretty much told that he's still too young and we have to wait until he's in at least the first grade, when it starts affecting him at school. It's frustrating for us because we're trying to deal with his behavior the best we can, and it's so obvious that we're dealing with a bigger issue. I'm amazed when I read about others who were able to get their children treatment before the age of 6. I get the feeling sometimes that others feel we're just looking to medicate him. That may be partially true, but if we thought he had some other disease that required medications, we'd be doing the same thing! The problem for us is that ADHD is overly diagnosed, so I can understand why it's hard for us to get a diagnosis. I know kids that are way less hyper than my son who are on meds, and I'm not sure how the parents got their doctors to prescribe them. My son has almost every symptom of ADHD and we can't even get a definite diagnosis let alone medication.

When I brought him in to see the doctor I was concerned about his difficulty toilet training(still had accidents at 4 yr old),his aggressive behaviors whenm frustrated(ie) biting,hitting etc and I was at my mits end.Over all he was just so different from his older sister that I was concerned. He was in pre-school and was socially behind the other kids. He had little concept of boundaries(whats mine is mine and whats your is mine too was a problem) When the pedicatrician suggested possible ADD or ADHD I didnt know anything about it. But I was desperate. I brought him in for tests which consisted of me filling out forms and DS putting pegs in holes,following directions w/a paperclip,drawing a picture etc.It was done over several visits. We saw specialists after initial findings by our doctor revealed ADHD. I am a nurse and we live north of Boston so I pushed to get him seen by head of peds neurology.I dont agree with medicating unless absolutely necessary since there can be side effects.For some people it is tghe best option though. I ended up changing physicians when our MD wanted to add a med to treat the side effects and keep him on the drug that caused tics and seizures. He felt benefits outweighed risks and I disagreed. We now have a homeopathic physician whose views are closer to my own.
BTW,Another poster noted her child has ability to hyperfocus on things he enjoys like viseo ganes.This is very common in ADHD and ADD.My DS is great with the computer and is a math whiz but reads and writes on a 4th grade level(he is in 8th grade)He is really smart and can talk your ear off about science especially astromony but he cant write a sentence using capitals and punctuation.It is like his brain just races ahead or something. This year the school made an accomodation for him to type answers on PC and he is doing great. He does still spell everything phoenetically but it is much better.
We have resources here that I am not sure atr national. I contacted the Federation for Special Needs and attended some classes to teach parents about diagnosis.
Feel free to PM me anytime

 

[~queenie~]

thank you all for your replies! I guess we will see what thursday brings!!

 

[donnajon]

DS 9 was diagnoses in summer between K and 1st grade. His K teacher never said he was ADHD and I was prepared to tell her she needed to learn to deal with active kids (she never complained - just said he was active and lost focus easily). I got Hooded on Phonics and tried to do work with him after school. That is when it became very clear to me he had problems. He would literally climb up on the table while doing the work, get down when I told him to and immediately climb back up. He just could not sit still. (TV or Video games do not count! They will not use that in any type of eval.) I started doing some research and looked up the diagnostic criteria in the DSM IV - and started going "Yep, yep, yep" to most of the criteria. That is when I scheduled a consultation. I work in mental health and have a friend who works in child & adolescent mental health. We had the summer school teacher do the Connor Scale before the eval so I already had that prepared.
One of the things that I remember was that the behavior has to be disruptive in at least two settings. If it is just at school or just at home, it won't be considered ADD/ADHD.
A very interesting website I used was:http://www.kidsource.com/NICHCY/ADD3.html

Also, if your child does get diagnosed with ADDor ADHD, make sure you get him a 504 at school (if he goes to public school). The school will try to deny it - it means more paperwork for them - but it is a federal document that allows accomodations for any child with a handicap. The school didn't want to give me one - luckily I had a sister who is a special ed teacher and she said as long as he has the diagnosis they can't not give him one.
The school didn't want to because he wasn't a behavior problem (and what does that have to do with a learning disability!?!) I fought it and they did give it to me. He gets extra time on tests and has extra set of books at home. I can monitor homework and if it is too much, I can decide when he has done enough. The school initially wanted to just help us out unofficially and give us the accomodations without anything in writing. My sister said we needed the 504 because when he gets older and goes to a different school, it would be considered an old diagnosis and he wouldn't qualify. The 504 gets updated every year. In high school it will allow him extra time on the SATs. DS is very smart and is on the honor roll but he really has to work hard at it. He cannot do timed tests! He can do the work, it just takes him forever! Good luck!

 

[skooniebird]

One of the reason's that in the last 2 to 3 years they have shied away from medicating children under 6 is the over and misuse of medication. Plus, it is so hard to tell with a very young child. We all sound like very concerned parents here, but it is necessary to remember that without a long standing relationship (of at least some months ) many doctors need to be able to look at parent-child interaction and learn more about the family dynamic before they will want to prescribe meds. We have to face facts, there are many parents out there who just think little Johnny is too hard for them to handle and want him put on meds to make THEIR live's easier. What so many people don't understand is if you do not actually have ADD or ADHD then the medicine is actually going to make you more hyper. I have seen some parents in my children's school push for meds and have this happen. And having ADD myself, I have to stop myself from laughing at them. Alot of the medications, including Adderall, are amphetamines. On a non ADD or ADHD person this is going to hype them up like crazy. Because of the way a person who truly has its brain works, it has a different effect of helping us to not have thoughts constantly racing, to be able to start a project and think clearly and to be able to finish. It's also a choice you really have to consider for young children, because it does usually greatly suppress the appetite and their growth can be inhibited. That's why you will often hear of doctor's wanting children to have med "holidays" ( a time off their meds for good eating and growing) which is often during school breaks when we parents get the full effect of the behavior LOL. Meds can't work by themselves though. The important adults in the childs life have to be committed to a regimine of consistency. Having schedules for just about everything, and having them posted in many places and many notes pinned inside jackets etc. etc. help train the mind to work in a more orderly fashion. The meds can just help slow the racing thoughts down enough to begin to grasp some of these concepts. We would have one BIG poster in an easy tp spot place in son's room. Like listing every piece of clothing he needed to have to get fully dressed. Then another in the bathroom as to what all needed to be done in there-even including toilet flushing,and turning out lights when leaving. Then one on coat closet door, listing his backpack and all the things he needed to check that he had, and to ask or check outside for the weather to determine what coat to wear, and finally SHOES. Heaven know's why but only in the last 15 months has the boy (15 yrs old next month) actually consistently remembered to put on shoes before leaving. And this happens in northernmost Illinois in the middle of January guys. 10 below and he would get half way down the driveway before he would figure out he forgot his shoes! Like I said, I have ADD too, but that behavior has always just baffled me to no end. It's like HELLO- aren't your feet a little cold? Oh yea- hehehe. Good grief. He took meds only during 1st and second grade. Along with a strongly enforced behavior program it helped slow him down enough for us to be able to teach him so many of the basic skills he needed. After that, we were able to just use the behavior modification, the schedules, and constant positive reenforcement. There are days here and there when he is seeming to have a harder time that I consider meds again, but then I make appointments with all of his teachers, with his grandparents, with any other adult who sees him regularly and question them about what they are seeing and I usually realize it's just certain situations or people and we figure out another way to try to handle it. Any adult your child spends more than an hour or two a week with is always a great resource for you. And they may all seem to be talking about a totally different child. It helps figure out what situations can act as triggers and to address them.