ADD & ADHD

I know this is kind of a strange topic for a poker/gambling site but I would like all the information I can obtain and I thought I would tap this site since I come here often and usually post under the "other gambling games". Some of you may be familiar with my "Shoe In of the week" during football season.


Anyway, I have a 7 year old son in the second grade. The school suspects he may have ADD or ADHD. They are going to screen him and provide me with the results in a month or so. I am doing some research on ADD and ADHD via the internet but I would appreciate any comments from those who are familiar with these conditions, have children who have been diagnosed with this, and any other thoughts you have that you would like to share regarding ADD and ADHD based on your knowledge or personal experience with this condition. Thank you, I appreciate it very much.--Alec (aka Big Al)--

you better research this very good before you put your kid on psychotropic medication.


RANT ON

its a total scam. this is a made up thing that didnt exist 20 years ago.your little boy is not acting like a little girl and so a bunch of administrators are going to zone him out. note that no doctors are involved. maybe some kind of psychologist or therapist, but nobody qualified to make a medical diagnosis.

RANT OFF


seriously, if he has a medical condition, then ask to see the test results that indicate it. in other words, you can diagnose a diabetic because of high blood sugar or sugar in urine, etc. demand a concrete diagnostic test before you allow them to permanently alter your kids brain chemistry. a good fallback position would be to agree to counseling (talk therapy). since your probably not poor they probably wont try to force the issue by claiming that youre abusing your child by withholding what they claim is necessary medical treatment, but theres an outside chance they might. (you might want to take your kid in for a checkup with your doctor to get him a clean bill of health, just in case).


as an aside, ask to see the lesson plan for teaching him how to read. if it has anything like whole word recognition or anything (basically they just guess) then thats the problem. if it has prefix, suffix, root word, spelling lists and tests every week, then probably not. (you can look up on the internet all these wacky new theories some educators have about teaching kids to read -- whole word recognition or something, i cant really remember).


bottom line. all medication has side effects. (stunted growth is an acknowledged side effect of ritalin) even if your kid has a real learning disability, and he goes to a good school with a good academic program (meaning its not the schools fault) , hes young enough where hard work (does he even have homework?) can get him up to speed.


brad

I know very little about this, but I would be very careful before letting my kid take amphetamines. I would be very skeptical of the school's ability to adequately diagnose or offer treatment options. Do as much research as you can. My hunch is that the condition is real, but over-diagnosed. (My exposure to the subject comes only from reviewing psych reports or questioning mental health types in cases involving the small percentage of people who commit crimes and either have or claim to have the condition. So what I see is not representative and can lead to a skewed view.)

You said take him to a doctor. Make shure you take him to a specialist in this. I know too many people who have been on ritlin or worse thier entire lives because they went to pediatrician who just gave thier parents something so they would be happy.


I think brads right about the possibility of the educational system failing to teach your child.


Another possibility is this. I was an extreemly gifted child. Is your son? I was a consistant behavior problem in elementary school, untill 5th grade, when I changed schools. The teacher at my new school immediately recognized my problem was boredom. Not because I had some disorder. But I had grasped the material on the first presentation. Since most of the students needed further reinforcement. I would get bored while she went over it again for the other students. This was simply solved by placing me next to the encyclopedia rack, and not bothering me. As long as my classwork was done I was free to do as I wished, as long as I didn't disturb the others in the class. Thus my energy was transfered into things that benifited me, solved the discipline problem, and alleivated my boredom. Make shure this isnt the problem before you take a rising star, and dope it into submission. I know too many smart people who were diagnosed based on one teachers recommendation, who later were shown not to have ADD. I know there is a correlation between ADD and intelligence. This is why I think it is there.

Its interesting, they are saying my son is very bright (I think he is but I know I could be biased). He reads very well (above grade level according to them) is an excellent speller, and is also outstanding at math. His one weak area academically is writing, he just doesnt want to do a lot of it. I have to admit, I am confused and concerned as to what to do if they come back and say he had ADD or ADHD.--Alec--

well, i think you should have him practice printing and cursive at home. personally i think its a pain too.


as for dealing with the teacher and school nurse, if they start pushing drugs on your kid, you need to stand up for him.


the best thing to do would probably be to go to an m.d. and get him to sign off that your kid does *not* have ADD.


a talk with the principal might help, too. but depending on the person, it might not.


this is one of those situations with a tremendous possible downside. if you can afford it you might consider consulting an attorney, because if child protective services gets involved a lot of bad things can happen.


brad

there is no doubt in my mind that there is a condition adhd...and i have personally prescribed medications including ritalin and amphetimines which have had remarkable positive effects on the patient, usually , but not always a child, and usually behavior and/or school performance is the reason they receive psychiatric assessment...


it is true that often the school wants a problem taken care of:i.e. disruptive behavior; and sometimes they are the cause of the acting out of the client. so my advice, not as a physician to a patient, but as a knowlegeable observor, is to get a good evaluation from a reasonable child/adolescent psychiatrist, and consider the risk/benefits as presented by this expert physician. the decision will be yours. make sure you know what your child is thinking/feeling...good luck...


a child who really needs treatment and does not receive it, will operate with a huge handicap, both emotionally, academically, and sicially..gl

There are some children who have physiologically based hyperactivity and impaired attention and who benefit from medication. However, most children who behave "badly" do not fall into this category. Some teachers tend to want to label oppositional children with ADD in hope that the children will become more compliant with medication.


Hopefully, your child will be evaluated by a competent school psychologist who will only diagnose ADD after obtaining multiple sources of evidence (e.g., teacher ratings, behavioral observations in classroom, cognitive testing...). Children with true ADD will usually exhibit the symptoms in most settings (an exception is often when they are watching TV or playing videogames) and their cognitive test results will also provide evidence of an attention deficit.


If you have reason to doubt the school's evaluation results, I would recommend that you seek an independent evaluation by a child psychologist or neuropsychologist with experience in this area.


Regards,


Mike

While you fully and completely absorb the cutting edge information that are presented in the link below, notice which two or three of the ideas discussed would be most the most useful in taking your child's development to a whole new level. Good luck.

First of all, I think someone would be crazy not to take your advice. :-)


Why does speed work to slow some people down? I have never understood this, but know either prescriptions or illegal self-medication can help some function.


As I mentioned above, the people I come across tend to have other problems going, like various mental disorders, polysubstace abuse, etc... I don't think this is true of most who have ADHD, i.e. they don't have personality disorders like conduct disorder, other conditions, etc... Is there any general information about why these conditions may simultaneously occur (or not) in some people? And if someone has a treatable condition like ADHD, how does treating it affect a not so easy to fix condition like conduct disorder or oppositional defiant disorder? Can insufficiently treated ADHD lead to such problems?

I would like to add that medication is not the only treatment for ADD, nor is it always even necessary. Children with ADD will respond to varying degrees to environmental manipulation (i.e., reducing distractions) and behavior modification (i.e., a systematic reward system for on-task behavior). Many ADD children also have emotional issues which can be helped through individual and/or family counseling.

Just wanted to thank everyone for their thoughtful comments. I appreciate it very much. I have a lot of research to do and your comments have helped provide me with some insights and things to think about. --Alec--

Alec,


I will add my comments as the father of two children with ADD. Our eldest daughter was clinicaly diagnosed with ADD, and also as a gifted learner. This test cost us a lot of money but gave us some excellent strategies for dealing with the condition. She excelled at most cognitive tasks, but really struggled with things like copying things from the blackboard nto a book, or from a text book into a work book. The solution was very simple, don't make her do it. The teachers worked with us to eliminate those tasks and test her more verbally. She is in high school now and is an A student.


My oldest son (I have 4 children, the 2 youngest show no signs of ADD), was a more serious case. In grade one his teachers and principals expressed concern that he was ADD and urged us to try Ritalin. We refused, and they could offer us no other solutions. He is not ADHD (The hyperactivity component) and our research told us Ritalin was much more effective for ADHD. My son is not as fortunate as his sister in that learning is not easy for him, so it was much more important that we develop a strategy for him. We read everything we could and I would urge you to read a book called Right Brained Children in a left brained world, unlocking the potential of your ADD child, by Jefferey Freed. It is fantastic and allowed us to understand his learning style and how to proceed.


We changed schools to a program that was more willing to work with us (For both he and his sister), and he is making progress. He will never be a great student, but he is a wonderfully creative and talented artist who has high self esteem, I think because we got him out of an environment where they were trying to label him. I am so glad we didn't give in and take the drug route.


Having said all that, there are definately cases where Ritalin is called for, I just urge you to use caution regarding medication....and read the book. It helped me understand and that gave me peace of mind, because I always thought he was just being lazy etc and was very hard on him.


Hope this helps.

It does very much, thank you.

1st off..to brad...yes it wasthere 20+years ago. i had it diagnosed around kindergarten or first grade. that was around 1976.


2nd ...stay in close touch with your doc. if any changes occur that dont seem right, call him. if your kid is zoned and the doc says "thats normal" get another doc. the drugs used are way overprescribed nowadays. make sure the dr. is working with you. not a here's a drug now leave type.


they estimated how long i was to be on it. and hit it almost to a T. i believe i was around 12 when i was off of it. also,, if they prescribe anything, my family primarily used medication during school. not in summer.


just some ideas...to watch for...


hope this helps a little...


b


ps...yes i was one of those kids who could almost literally bounce off the walls. /images/smile.gif now im mellow. heh heh heh

'the drugs used are way overprescribed nowadays.'


the new plan is for these drugs to be administered prenatally. (oregon governor, who is also a physician or something, said this)


obviously the potential for abuse has been met.


brad

i also hold the parents responsible for not reporting certain changes back to their doctors. they tend to just take the dr word for it even though there is a significant negative change in your kid.


yes, he IS the dr, but that kid is YOUR kid. if one doctor is easily dismissive about it, id find another one and make sure were both on the same field. what's best for the kid. not the ease for the dr.


b