Any ADHD/ADD parents out there?

[hypnorm]

My son Ewan is 5, he is an august birthday so is the youngest in class, but also the tallest!
Last year in reception there seemed to be no major issue apart from him not really understanding personal space and not sitting still at carpet time.
Now he is in year one and its a bit more full on, within the first two weeks on being back the teacher had complaine numerous times about him not sitting still, being disuptive, and not concentrating. he now sits on his own or is taken out of the class so he will do his work. the teacher said his work is fine when he sits and does it, and his reading is great, but his concentration is zero.
he can concentrate on something well if it interests him.
We have parents evening next week and i was going to ask about ADHD, my hubby said he wondered if ewan might have it, he is such an active boy.

How did you get a diagnosis, did the teacher mention it or did you have to see the doctor?
i dont want to see a health visitor as we fell out with the current one!

any advice would be great ... even advice on concetrtion at school,
teacher has tried sticker charts but he wasnt bothered.

 

[apaton]

hi my young brother has extreme adhd , the school arranged for him to be assesed as he was showing signs although i dont think it was discovered untill he was around 7 i dont know what age they can diagnose at,hope someone can help you out more x

 

[Mom23monkies]

My oldest son is ADHD and a doctor would need to make the diagnosis
My doctor is reluctant to eval any one under the age of 6 as he says its hard to tell before that if its real adhd or just a child acting out.
But my Dylan is ADHD and was put on medications in his 3rd grade year and it has made a WORLD of difference
No matter what happens dont let any one PUSH you into having him tested unless you WANT to. But if you want to then Good luck and keep us informed
I have done tons of research and am more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

 

[Mom23monkies]

hi my young brother has extreme adhd , the school arranged for him to be assesed as he was showing signs although i dont think it was discovered untill he was around 7 i dont know what age they can diagnose at,hope someone can help you out more x

It seems that age 7 - 8 is the average for when its caught.

 

[Annunakian]

My son is going to be 6 in a couple of weeks and has been diagnosed with ADHD and Impulsive Disorder since he was 4.5 or so. I had no idea what was going on until his behavior (and anger problems) got so out of control that he was harming himself and others and had to be put into an institution for children with alike conditions. He has been on medication ever since and has, just recently, been on a decent "cocktail" that helps him with his moods, anger and sever hyperactivity. He was in a special needs classroom for K4 and now is in a 'regular' classroom but visits with a special needs councilor at his school frequently. He is doing so well in school now and at home and sees a therapist and psychiatrist every couple of months.

 

[N1kki]

best bet is to take your son to the doctor ask about ADHD and let the doctor make a diagnosis,if it turns out your son has it.Then the school should be notified by the doctor then a program of some sort will be put in place so you and your son get all the support you need.

 

[lornapj83]

hey there my son has been very different since he was 2 ive been trying to get him help since he was about 3 hes 6 now he has severe tantrums he winges all the time he cant be on his own with my 2 younger boys cos he basically beats them up pushes them down stairs punching biting scratching nipping etc hes also like it with my eldest no body would listen to me for now 4 years he has been at his new school a little over a year and the teacher was telling me hes just a NAUGHTY child but theres no chance a child of 4 5 6 yrs old could be so consitent 24/7 so i took it again in to my own hands as no one would listen to me i phoned the school nurse and she put me through to the right place i now have only just got a appointment in the next 2 weeks which they will assess him im so relieved its like a weights been lifted my son who is 6 actually acts like a 2/3yr old he doesnt go to the toilet properly either fingers crossed you get the help he needs xx

 

[Mom23monkies]

good luck

 

[louisechippy]

my son was diagnosed at 5 for the same reasons as you describe my son daniel was fine in pre school and reception class the reasons the doctors gave me for this was that it is mainly play based learning.... our issues also started when dan moved up to year one and then had to work rather than play. The processes for bieng diagnosed vary from place to place the same as medicating the children, but i know they are majoritly the same where as if the school have issues with him ask them to get the school nurse to ascess him whilst in class, the school did this with daniel and his school nurse said he could tell as soon as he walked in the room which child he is ment to be acessing they will make some excuse as to why the school nurse is there so not to make it obvious with our school he did a talk on healthy eating.... once this is done either him or the school can write a letter to your normal doctor raising there concerns who will then reffer you to the adhd doctor who will do what they call an inital assesment chat with you regarding his behaviour and ways to manage it ( and probably tell you there is nothing abnormal about your childs behaviour.. they did this with me ) then they will send out a cpl of questionaires one to be done by you and one to be done by your sons school same questions on each called a connars report from the results of this is where they get there dianosis from and how bad your son has it if he has it at all.. in the uk they do have a policy where they dont like to medicate the kids before the age of six unless they feel it is very neccersary so please be prepareed for them not to do alot before then......

think thats about it x feel free to ask any questions x

 

[Mom23monkies]

My childs teacher called and raised her concerns with me and I called my sons pediatrition. In a meeting with him he said that it sounded like adhd but that we were going to have him assesed by a psychologist just to be sure.
So we took him off for that.
it was four meetings.
The first was basically a talk where the psyc asked me and dh a bunch of questions and then talked to my son.
They sent the Connors tests with us
One for me one for dh and one for Ds's teacher.
The next two appointments were assesment and testing.
Where they did a complete psycological work up to make sure that we werent dealing with anything bigger.
They then added all the Connors scores together and the testings and then on the forth appointment it was just Me in there recieving the results.
They are trying to be alot more careful in diagnosing adhd these days, as sooo many children are diagnosed with ADHD, when its a situation where the teacher has too many students to handle and wants to medicate any one who dosnt just sit there quietly.
Usualy minor problems.
So they are making sure now a days to do a complete work up and make sure there is a problem before putting a child on medications.
I work in mental health and you would be surpised at the amount of people who come in here wanting thier kids to be dxed with adhd and get angry with us when we do 6 hours worth of testing and cant find anything outside of the normal spectrum.
And in the same respect some people are here for no other reason than thier school wantes th child assesed and they get mad at us when we tell them "Well yeah Little Johnny DEFINITALY falls in the ADHD spectrum because they REFUSE to beleive there is a problem with thier child.
Any how good luck!

 

[aussiettc]

Hi your son slound a lot like my son. He was 10 in May this year.
After a few years at school last year the teacher asked us to get him assessed for ADHD. So we did, i know he has always been a busy kid but didn't think it was that bad. Anyway it came back that he could be boarderline ADHD but the councilor wanted to test his IQ before making his final diagnosis. So they did the IQ test and he was really restless as the IQ test take 4 hours, he also had to stay inside when all the other kids were playing outside the room he was in. Anyway he came back that he has a slightly above average IQ but they think he could do a lot better cause he was very distracted.

Annyway to cut a long story short we changed schools this year due to bullying, he got a new teacher who is very caring and noticed that he wasn't being challenged in classes. He got swapped into a high class and has excelled so much that its almost unbeliveable. he is a different kid.

Anyway another thing that sets my son's behaviour off is food additives and some of the natural chemicals in food. If you go to the fed up website (www.fedup.com.au) it explains alot about it. When he has to many additives he goes backwards into the 5 year old he used to be. I hope this helps you. feel free to PM for more info or to chat.

 

[Mom23monkies]

my son scored above average on the IQ as well. But the Psychologist told me that part of the ADHD diagnosis was due to the fact he kept getting distracted from the test.
As a matter of fact he retook the IQ first thing in the morning while his meds were good and kicked in and he scored a 125!!!!
Unfortunatly at his age they really dont have any advanced type classes to put him in so he just has to muddle thru until high school.

 

[hypnorm]

Thanks for all the info, nice to hear others experience.
I'm starting to get a bit annoyed with the school as i can guarantee that at least once a weeek his teacher comes out and says can I have a word with Ewan he is not sitting still in class and just walking around, she has described him as a ferret!
Yesterday she said the usual 'have a word' but also addedd that if he can't keep still for the school christmas nativity they will have to take him out of it, which i thought was a bit harsh, he is 5, excited about chrismas.
I have started giving him omega 3 fish oil high in epa which seems to help.
He is doing well with reading and has got 6/6 for his spelling for the past few weeks, so i am starting to wonder if he is bored. He is in a class of 30 wth a high boy to girl ratio, often they don't have an extra teaching assistant, which i think i silly.
So we are having to pubish him when he gets home from school, if he has been disuptive, which means hes not getting alot of postive praise at all.

 

[louisechippy]

the problem you have is that with adhd children any attention is attention wether it be good or bad attention. i have always been told to kinda praise all his good behaviour and ignore the bad eventually he will get bored and realise that he gets more attention when he is a good boy. you would have thought his teacher would know that bieng a teacher and having to train to deal with children who have difficatlys

 

[hypnorm]

I did ask the teacher if i should see the doctor about the possibility of ADHD and she said 'i don't know don't think i've ever had to deal with that'