Think we are looking at ADD/ADHD with my DS

[Mollyd]

Bit of a background. The twins were born at 29 weeks, spent 78 days in the NICU. Dh was diagnosed with ADD when he was in 3rd grade. His twin sister has already been diagnosed with ADHD/OCD and depression. The kids are now in 2nd grade. HE get plenty of exercise, is involved in alot of activities, and eats anything under the sun.

In looking at the issues that DS is having with just his homework, where is seems that he can't focus for more then 10 seconds on it. His handwriting is somewhere sloppier then the cats would be. He often doesn't pay attention to what or where is writing. Telling me that he can't start writing by the red line because he forgets to. He hates to read. I mean with an absolute passion that he screams and cries and throws things when asked to read. (he doesn't have that reaction in school... but I also know that he will sit there and look like he is reading when he is just looking at the book). The ped has even mentioned ADD as contibuting to the reading issues he has had in the past. Whether or not it means anything he was very speech delayed until he was 4-5 years old.

Of course like DD he has the ability to concentrate on what he likes, and wants to do. He is very smart and is much more of a learner. These issues have been going on in one form or another since kindergarten.

I am woren out by dealing with DD every day this is about to do me in sometimes. Dh just effin' sits there and doesn't say anything and just lets DS yell and scream at me as much as he wants to. So ther is no help or support from him.

[BC-MAV]

Did the Dr. suggest your DS have ADHD.... or is the ADHD a formal diagnosis from battery of tests and those questionaires they give to you and the teachers? I really like the book Late, Lost, and Unprepared to help understand what's going on with our kiddos.

Everthing you said I can sympathize although older DS loves reading. I can see that kids with ADHD might have trouble sitting still and concentratin for reading. You might want to use a key hole type book marker to help him keep his place when reading. Anythin he reads at this point is better than reading nothing. Also for the writing in the early years DS used lined paper, even past the point that they quit using lined paper. It helped him to not write off the page, to keep his letters uniform, etc.... DS had a precocious vocabulary as a toddler and he has ADHD so I don't know if early or delayed speech has antying to do with it. Writing, dressing, grooming, showering, do not hold much interest for DS so it takes a lot of concentration and repetiion and redirection for him to be able to do these things. Computers, reading, builiding, no problem.

[JoanneNY]

Have you had any official screenings done? Generally, the behaviors must be evident and documented in more than one setting and observed by more than one person for an official diagnosis to be be made.
You might want to ask the school to do an evaluation...or at the very least, have them fill our evaluations to bring to your ped.

Sorry things are challenging right now- be sure to keep us updated on how things are going! And stick around for as much support as you need .

[spring]

There's obviously a strong family history of ADHD in your family so I am sure it's a strong possibility, but fwiw, the behaviors you described could also occur in a child with dyslexia/dysgraphia - symptoms of learning disabilities can overlap with symptoms of ADHD - so since your ds has been struggling with reading all through school and seems to be fighting writing, I'd suggest you pursue a neuropsych eval if you can, not just an ADHD screening (the neuropscyh educational can include an ADHD screening).



spring

[JAG&JIV]

Just wanted to offer a hug. Please get an evaluation and see what they can find out. My DD has ADHD and it is a challenge every day but knowing that she can't control certain behaviors helps to cope with them and working with a therapist to teacher her how to gain control at this age (same as your DS) will hopefully benefit you and your child in the long run. Please keep us posted.

[Mollyd]

We go see the ped on Wednesday, for their 8 year check up, so I will start there.

I totally trust the ped with and ADHD/ADD evaluation. He is the ped in the area that other ped will send their patients to for evaluations. And one of the local hospitals will send students to him to learn diagnosis for ADHD/ADD.

[BC-MAV]

Pediatricians here dont diganosis ADHD. They refer patients to psychiatrists or psychologsts who do the tests. The diagnosis required that the teachers AND parents do those Conners questionaires to make sure the ADHD is happening across the board.

[JAG&JIV]

Pediatricians here dont diganosis ADHD. They refer patients to psychiatrists or psychologsts who do the tests. The diagnosis required that the teachers AND parents do those Conners questionaires to make sure the ADHD is happening across the board.

Same here.

[spring]

Our pediatrician will diagnose ADHD (he bases the diagnosis on parent/teacher surveys and parent/child interviews) *however* he also will not diagnose ADHD until ruling out other things that may look like ADHD in young children. If symptoms/behaviors are similar to symptoms/behaviors of children with learning disabilities he will insist on a referral for a neuropsych eval first. In our experience (with two of our children) the neuropsych assessment was so very important, and revealed important pieces of information about our children that we can't get from medical doctors. Our older ds' teacher was convinced he had inattentive type ADHD, but the neuropsych eval revealed he has developmental coordination disorder. That sounds like something a pediatrician would have caught somewhere along the way, but had never been noticed because it took the broad type of look at developmental history and testing that a neuropsychologist does to see the big picture of what was impacting our ds at school. Every doctor who ever met our dd thought she was ADHD because of the way she bounced off the walls at drs offices, and to be honest, we thought she might be ADHD too based on her behavior at home and she had teachers at school telling us she couldn't sit still and focus. The neuropsychologists' eval revealed she had vision issues - and once we tackled those, her inability to focus and sit still improved almost overnight (she still bounces off the walls at drs offices but that's because she doesn't like being there lol!).

So fwiw, if your ped looks at parent and teacher input plus takes a detailed history etc, I imagine he will have a good idea re ADHD. I would *still* ask for a referral for a neuropsych eval - so much of what you describe might be due to learning challenges that are independent of ADHD.

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[julieshindel]

Is anyone still on this board? I want to share but wanted to check first.