getting ready for kindergarten | ADHD Information

It is against the law to get involved with your child's medical status. The can request you have him evaluated by your doctor, but can't push medications on you (I am a teacher.) I can see it both ways. By spending the summer adjusting meds, you wouldn't impact his first quarter of school going through this. However, behavior at school is typically different than at home and I preferred to send my son to school first and then start meds and adjust them when we could see concrete results in school and it wasn't only my observations. Either way, it is a challenging thing to go through.

Neither our ped or our psych has diagnosed my son yet and he is to start kindergarten this fall. We are putting him in a 1/2 day church kindergarten program and then the following year doing full day somewhere else so he won't feel left behind. Our Parents as Teachers rep suggested a ped neurologist. Asked ped for referral and she said all neuro would do is put son on meds now. She said she doesn't like to put kids on meds until 3rd grade, when it is clearly a necessity. She said that because of the drastic side effects, she prefers to wait and see if school work is actually suffering because of it. Since I'm not too hip on meds, I like her approach. Hopefully, she will stand by me when/if the school tries to tell us differently. She did suggest we hold him back a year, which we are doing.

myjeffrey39175.3649652778[QUOTE=4myson]

It is definitely your choice. I chose to medicate because I wanted my son to feel success before he started school. I like most parents don't want to medicate our children, however, I had to overlook my own desires. My son was the ultimate reason we went with a low dosage of med. at the age of 4. I didn't want to see him struggle in kinder or future grades. I didn't want him to lose friends because of his ad/hd being unattended, but most importantly I didn't want him to feel daily pain because he didn't understand what was going on with him.

If you do decide to medicate and you feel confident you have the right doctor for your child then the doctor will sit down with you and determine the right course of action. Our doctor chose low med and nutritional diet as well as recommending play therapy. (we already had therapy in place prior to meds)

I am also an educator and I'll be honest with you, we can't tell you to place your child on meds, but we can share our observations with you. Quite honestly we work with children daily that are struggling daily . If I could only tell you the tears that have come my way over the years. Kids wanting help and not understanding what is going on with them. These kids don't need to struggle. There is way to much out there to help. Medication isn't necessary for every child, but it does help many.

Many parents refuse to medicate because of their own fears. I was very fearful in the beginning. I think it is sometimes our own comfort zone that we have to surpass. I did decide to allow my child the opportunity to take meds. I can honestly say that I feel the right decision was made with my ds. He is a happy child now and he is now able to cope with life in a productive manner due to low med, nutritional diet, and therapy.

Take care!

[/QUOTE] what does your child's nutritional diet consist of, for my son is such a picky eater is it like the feingold diet

Quite honestly the nutritionalist that the doctor had us work with told us to stay simple and not overdue it. She said to put him on a high protein, low carb diet as much as we could. She recommended that before eating fruits that we provide a protein because many of the fruits contain sugar. ds still needs fruit in diet but protein should accompany. If we go to M's for lunch, provide hamburger over nuggets. She said it was a better choice due to the way the foods were cooked and I believe she said that the nugget was not a good of choice for protein. Also we eat spaghetti at home that is 100% wheat and full of omega. Barilla brand I believe. I only buy bread that are 100% whoe wheat. The nutritionist said that by changing the type of bread and sphagetti products this could make a difference.

The n said that if we just watched the carbs that this would help tremendously. My son vary rarely eats fries. He usually passes on them to get yogurt parfaits or apples instead. He ate fries all the time when he was younger. Not his fav. any longer. I even catch him looking at the label at the grocery store to see if there is too many sugars or carbs. He is only 5 but I showed him once how to read these as he asked what I was doing. You have to be careful when getting yogurt. There is a low carb yogurt that we get and he doesn't seem to mind the taste or consistency. (me that is a different story...)I also buy juice that is low sugar and use to add water but he drinks less juice now than before. He prefers 2% milk and water over juice these days.

He still eats cake but sparingly. He really never has been a real sweet eater. On occasion he'll want candy. I'm lucky there. He loves ice cream but I found a local place that serves some healthier (still not the best) ice cream that he adores. We do splurge on ice cream on occasion.

I just found after doing something for a while that it just became natural for him. So when we do sway (and we do) from the routine it doesn't seem to mess up the good we have done. We are not perfect but we do try.

We try to eat the vegies... but he is like most kids when it comes to these. He will eat carrots with ranch. He'll eat corn. Although corn isn't the best choice. He eats brocolli with ranch. He'll eat lettuce at times. I'm working on other vegies but this isn't easy as I am not big on vegies. I use to be able to get him to eat green beans but I think his school over does the gb thing and he won't eat those for me now.

Hope this helps some... I highly recommend a nutritionist. They can give you some child friendly suggestions. I think I paid her to work with us .

I didn't medicate my son til he was in kindergarten. I knew he was going to need something to help him there. If you wanted to you could wait to see how he does there first. But it also may be helpful to medicate beforehand so you can see if he has the right medicine and the right dosage at home. They are not suppose to even mention medcating your son to you at school. His teacher at the time mentioned upping his dosage and at a team meeting when I said she did you should have seen her deny it in front of the other school faculty.

Take care!

My ds started kindergarten this year and to was in a program to help with his weakness's. We made an appt with with the pshyc but we couldn't get until a week after school started. When I called the teacher at the end of the week to see how it went...what a story she had to tell me about how the week went. Now we are on meds and things have gotten much better. We are still on the journey to find out the best type of meds as it is a journey. Additionally with having the ADHHHHD type he struggled with nap time. It is entirely your choice, but kindergarten is a LONG day. Here they have nap time, but it is constant go..go..go, with a lot of transitions. My ds could have never made it without meds, but you need to do what is best for your family. I disagree waiting to third grade for medication in all situations. All children are different and waiting until third grade may put your child through too much stress and may encourage other kids to stay away from your child. Children don't forgive and forget easily sometimes. My son punched a kid in kindergarten (before we put him on meds) and that kid still reminds him of it and they are in sixth grade now![QUOTE=lganio]I disagree waiting to third grade for medication in all situations. All children are different and waiting until third grade may put your child through too much stress and may encourage other kids to stay away from your child. Children don't forgive and forget easily sometimes. My son punched a kid in kindergarten (before we put him on meds) and that kid still reminds him of it and they are in sixth grade now![/QUOTE] my son is in a ba classroom with 10 kids where they work on his weakness but he still has problems following directions and with his impulsiveness so in your regard after working with a child through a school year what would be your opinion with a child who still has not learned to control these behaviors when going to kindergarten next year since you do this every day.its like a no win situation for you want your son to start off in the right directions but you don't want him labeled through the whole school for i know teachers talk one on one about their students for from a private daycare he definitely left his mark for teachers and moms that i didn't even think they knew my child knew his first name and i'm like who are you. then the meds can make behaviors worse if not the right ones. but i will always wonder how he would do if i didn't medicatemy 5 yr old son has been diagnosed with adhd, and been in a small structured pre-k class to work with his weaknesses. which has helped alot but when i went to iep meeting the teacher asked if i thought about meds for next year since it will be alot different and will start in a regular class. i have a appointment with his nero doctor in sept to see how the transition goes before meds. but the school would like for him to be on meds when he starts so he will start off on the right foot which makes sense but how would we know if he would do fine without them? what are your opinions

JMHO, but it is none of the schools, or teachers business whther or not you choose to medicate your child.Actually, if you look it up you will find that it violates federal law for them to even suggest meds to a parent.I would ask them when and where they got their medical degrees?

It is up to you whether or not you medicate, and it is a very personal choice, some do( I do) some don't, but DO NOT let anyone pressure you into it.5 is still very young, and at this age a diagnosis of ADHD is questionable. Has he seen a psychiatrist?

yes been at 2 different psychiatrist and they both saw adhdi feel like he don't have a chance even before he sets foot into the classroom

You could try meds, but it isn't a must, what else have you tried?

I have to say, and this is JMO, my dd uses Daytrana and we are happy with it. Meds changed her life for the better.

It has been our experience that doctors start kids on a low dose of medication, especially for the little ones. They then gradually increase the dose until the parent and teacher seem satisfied with the child's attention span and behavior.
This can be a long process, especially if the first type of medication doesn't show improvement and the doctor switches to another type. This process can also be lengthy because kids often have trouble learning how to swallow a pill.
IMHO, start the process now.

I am a mom of a 5 1/2 y/o in kindergarten (who is medicated). As others have said before, it is YOUR choice. Before my son was officially diagnosed, I did as much reading as could and went to every site I could find to help with my decision on medicating. You know your child better than those at the school. It did take a year to finally get a dose that worked for him.

In my experience it has helped so much, although he still has his moments (mostly aggression), he is doing great and I just went in to see his teacher and she said he was def. ready for 1st grade.

BL Moretti, interesting you mentioned your son coming home from school and saying his brain overreacted and he couldn't control it. My son at the age of 3 1/2-4 did the same thing. He of course didn't use those exact words but none the less said it. This is one of the other reasons I elected to go to the docs and see what was going on with my ds. When we learned for sure that he did indeed have ad/hd, I didn't hesitate to go along with the low med dosage. If it was going to help then I wanted that for my son. It is very sad to hear your child voice those concerns. Your heart just breaks.

4myson39179.2687037037I don't think that you should be discussing the decision to medicate or not medicate your child with school personnel. It is illegal for them to bring the topic up in my state. Of course they want him medicated before he starts K, it would make life much easier for the teacher. So what. IMHO this invalidates their opinion on the topic of meds. They have a competing agenda -- an easier day. The question is, will your child benefit at this point. I would put him in K unmedicated and see how he does. K is not demanding and it is not a long day. It is not very academic. You could observe him and see how he is doing and make a decision based on your observations, how he feels about school, how he feels about himself, etc. Stear the car yourself, don't let them do it for you.

notellin in all respect... kinder is all day in most places and they don't receive naps any longer. Kinder is no longer play time.

The students have a lot more at stake. In our district/for that matter kinder students need to be able to read by a level DRA level 3-6 by the end of the school year as well as write. They also have many other state objectives that must be met (math related as well as science and social studies etc.). Due to "No Child Left Behind" students are being asked to do much more today than in the past. We are even going to Pre-K being all day next year. This is the case in many districts across the state of Texas. Whether it is right or not ,it is reality. Surprisingly though I have found that most kids do quite well when expecatations are set higher regardless of the age. My son for one is doing quite well and is not even in public school yet. Won't be until next fall. His private K teacher has him doing things that typically are not considered age appropriate in the old school of thought. He and his friends will be so prepared for kinder next year in public school and I have to say this gives me a bit of relief since I'm aware of the public school expecations in Texas. (and my son has ad/hd)

Whether she medicates or not is definitely her choice for her child and I sincerely hope that she does make that decision on what she feels is the best for her child and not what others think. However please don't misguide her as to kinder not being very academic. This just isn't the case anymore.

4myson39180.6798958333in georgia they are also reading by the end of the school year in kindergarten and writing words and are expected to follow directions and do what they are told. one thing that stays in my mind is a child that can't sit still has a hard time learning. i work with a friend who didn't want to medicate her daughter either but this year the 7 yr old came home saying she had no friends that no one liked her. so she decided to go with the meds and now she has friends and likes school again. i don't want to hurt my son's self esteem. he is very smart if he was mature enough to control his behavior for if he gets stressed out it gets worse hopefully i can get into his doctor to talk with her in july. i just want the best for my son and to make his life as normal and comfortable as possible even with meds or not , i have to think of his well being. some of it seems like a no win situation. if you do its side effects if you don't it could hurt his attitude by having a tougher time with teachers and peersMy choice to medicate had nothing to do with what the teacher wanted. My son came home from first grade and told me he hated himself. He said his brain overreacted and he couldn't control it. My heart broke and I called his psychologist and pediatritian.
The first day he came home screaming and ranting. I called the Dr's and they upped the dose. The second day was golden. No card pulls and all a's. He was so pleased with himself.
I have never seen that dull look some kids on meds get, the only side effect we have is no appetite. Get over the icecream thing if there is not a problem with milk go with big milkshakes! Get good icecream with cane juice instead of corn syrup but get lots. Add butter to oatmeal. Find ways to make everything more fattening! We use tofutti ice cream and slice bananas on top.
There is a rebound effect he is more hyper in the evenings but we get everything done before that. Bathing is very calming. 4myson-- your post really shocked me. 95% of the K programs in my area are 4 hrs. I had to search hard for a full day K for my son. The one that I found included nap time, and lots of other play activities. My son did not start learning to write in K, except writing his name and writing letters. There weren't even any specific reading requirements that were conveyed to the parents. I did that on my own. I guess we are behind (in this major city LOL). My son had to take a test! He was supposed to recognize numbers up to 10 and upper and lower case letters, colors, shapes and be able to write his name, some letters and numbers. This is a private Christian school.
I read a study in one of Sally Goddard's books that said kids pushed to learn to read at a young age read more quickly but do not enjoy or like it as well as those who start later. I think kindergarten and first grade should be all about glitter and music and making friends.
When did we get like this as a society? If my kids are reading at second grade level in second grade that is great by me! If a kid happens to want to read earlier that is great too! One of my sons was in third grade readers in Kindergarten. It was him! Not me or anything I did! However he hit a point where he stopped progressing and everyone else caught up with him. Now he is a good reader but does not love it like my kid who struggled untill 4th grade and then shot to the front of the class.
My point is they all have their time and place! We should just be there to guide and support. My other son goes to a very old established private school and you should see the parents wringing their hands and sweating the grades. My son is adopted and my point of view is there are lots of more important things. Of course I want him to have a good education but it he gets a C in third grade math I think that is great! In the whole scheme of things being attached, learning english, learning to be part of a family, learning to be kind and respectful are way more important skills.
The really bad thing is that in private schools it is all about the numbers. If you child does not hold up his end of the SAT scores you can be uninvited to attend. They are so proud of their statistics. Most people do not realize they eliminate the kids who need to go a little slower!

[QUOTE=BL Moretti]My son had to take a test! [/QUOTE] BL - i am going to start stalking you on this forum. your post made me cry reading it. so true.

thank you for all of your beautiful posts. are you an educator, by any chance?

lesnathan,

You are correct in that it seems like a no win situation. However, keep in mind that not all children have side effects from the drugs. My son is one of those thus far. We have been fortunate for over a year and 1/2 now.

I agree it is extremely scarey either way you look at it. In my case my son was having difficult times in that he would easily get angered if someone took something from him etc. Now I see someone that the kids all want to play with because he is finally able to express his feelings using words and he is very thoughtful towards others. He was actually always thoughtful it just wasn't as evident because he didn't know how to express his feelings when others were taking things from him etc. Does this make sense?

I also credit play therapy temendously to his progress. We still have moments but nothing near what we were dealing with over a year and 1/2 ago. Quite honestly his moments are primarily at home. I can be a little soft due to the fact I feel guilty he doesn't have his mom and dad living together. I know that I made the right decision for safety/health reasons. I also know that I have to be consistent and keep things together for both him and I.

Goodluck lesnathan in whatever route you decide. Just know that you are not alone. Our kids deserve the best and that is all any of us on this forum are trying to do for our children regardless if we chose to medicate or not medicate.

No, just a mom, but getting smarter by the day with my sons third grade curriculum!!!
Actually I have 4 sons and a daughter so I have been a mom for 30 years! My kids are 30, 17, 13, 9, and 5. The last two are adopted from a little orphanage in siberia. Since I put my 9 year old son on meds when he was in the first grade I have read and searched for an alternative that will work. Still looking for magic!

NoTellin ,yep, school is a changing daily at least in the state of Texas in some of the larger school districts. When we first went to full day kinder 10 years or so ago I thought my district was nuts. I, of course, am a firm believer in what my district is doing now as I see so many high level things going on. Sorry if I came across too strong in my earlier post. I just have a passion for what I do in life. Teaching has been part of me for over 20 years. Now I have a son starting to enter school and I hope that I can keep the love of learning in his heart. I want him to be a life long learner.

BL Moretti , I agree that kids need to be kids. I however, think that it is important to educate our children through the use of reading, math, and sciences. Reading is a life long skill. I have read some of Sally Goodard's work and am not sure I agree with her. I think we as adults, teachers, parents have to find ways to encourage reading and help kids enjoy and retain a love for reading. Sadly some teachers and parents squash this love by overdoing, but I think there can be a healthy balance.

Oh, by the way I agree with you that kids need exposure to music and the arts. But don't you think it should be in conjunction with the other? I find with some of my parents at school that they go to one extreme or the other. Interested in hearing your views on this.

Oh yes I think the letters should be glued to bright paper in glitter! There is an old curriculum that was called Land of the Letter People. The kid sang M songs and ate M foods and made M puppet. They marched an M shape across the floor! So much fun! And... M was ingrained in their little brains!!!
Math concepts can be fun too. My son is a little behind and I think it is because he did not learn the ABC song till he was nearly 4 and just learning English. Now we sing the power letter song (aeiou) and I bet when he gets to that in reading it will come easy for him. How much easier is it to remember the days of the week or seasons then with a song!
At first it is just fun and then... it starts to have real meaning.
Here it is!

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten
by Robert Fulghum

Most of what I really need to know about how to live
and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten.
Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain,
but there in the sand pile at Sunday school. These are the things I learned:

Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life�learn some and think some and
draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.

I know that when we push our kindergarten children to read and learn math, many of them can do it. I know my son really wanted to read very early and I think it would have been wrong to withhold it!! (Funny image here! Jon Put that book down and get over here and watch TV!!!) (Have you been in the books again??!!)
What I cannot help but wonder is... what would they have been learning if we waited a year to push the reading?
When they put in that much time and effort into actual reading, is there really a benefit in learning it at 5 rather than 6? I sort of think we need a system of following the childs lead. When a child is ready it comes so fast. A 6 year old can cover the material in way less time than a 5 year old.
If we waited to push the reading then work on personality and ethics and social skills might really be life changing for a whole generation of kids. There is so much more to being successful in life than academics.
Anyone remember the kindergarten rules?
I can't remember them my self but some of them were things like hold hands and stay together when you go out in the world. I would really like more concern for our kids souls and the same academics just at a slower pace to allow whole complete people to graduate into society.
I have a 30 year old and so I have a first had view of how education has changed in 25 years. Some of the changes are good! Some are just too much to fast in my opinion. Should I be dissapointed when my 5 year old is not already reading up to 20 words before he starts kindergarten when his 4.0 College grad accountant sister did not even start to read until she was 6 1/2?
Sorry if I am on my soap box. When I ask in my pre-k class why there is such and emphasis on early reading the teachers tell me the parents want it!

I live in a small town in Ohio, and our district went to all day kindergarten (no naps) 2 years ago...I thought we were behind the times.....and my granddaughter was reading and writing and doing simple math at the end of the year of kindergarten. This year in first grade she can read simple chapter books (junie b. jones, babysitters club, etc). She is in the top reading group, but I think all students are expected to read independently in first grade.

When my daughter (age 26) was in kindergarten, they were only taught a few sight words.....

The times, they are a changin......

I knew Chase had issues even in preschool, but did not want to face it. Finally in 4th grade all of my interventions and the teacher positive reinforcements were no longer enough to stop the downward slide of his grades, and his self esteem was suffering, so we went to meds....

It is a personal decision that needs to be based on the individual child's unique issues and what behavior therapy and academic accommodations are made for the child in the school....

I am having a hard time with the same decision. Meds or no meds. My little guy is 5 and we went through almost an entire year of all day Kindergarten before we knew what was wrong with him. I have known for 3 days now he has ADHD. I can say right now he is struggling. They go to school all day long, no naps either. So here is my experince from the school year which is why we are thinking meds could help. His teacher calls me on a regular basis to tell me he is crawling under his desk, just gets up and walks around the room for no reason, pays no attention sometimes, constatly says he doesn't understand or didn't hear her. His teacher kept telling me that he really didn't seem to be able to control himself, and seemed like he was trying to do the right thing but couldn't. At first everyone assumed his age due to being at least one year younger than all other kids in his class. About the middle of the school year I became very concerned, and called and asked for guidance counsler and school psy to go in and observe him. They once again told me it was just his age. Then he started coming home about 1 1/2 months later telling me how stupid he was and that he couldn't do it. It seems like the problems have just gotten even worse. Now he will not do any work unless the teacher sets with him and now she is doing work with him outside at recess (when he needs to run). I just became more concerened and called his doctor and they helped me from there. We had many people help with information that needed filled out to make sure everything was correct. Second oponion confirmed ADHD. I have been doing behavior modification at home which is working better than I thought it would actually. I am trying to get the school to help me some with this but so far they have not been much help. They have told me he isn't struggling enough for them to help him. I don't know what more they want. He doesn't sit at his desk, becomes very frustrated, has already dropped down to a lower reading group and is still struggling, writing has also went down hill. Like I said I understand the choice and I think it is my fear more than anything. We have an appt next week to discuss meds for my little guy. What made us think about it was when the dr called us to see how things were going and I said we were really confused. They did make me understand he could be on meds only during the school day to help him focus, and that he wouldn't have to be on them at night if we didn't want or during the summer. This was something I hadn't realized before they made this comment. I thought it was something we would have to continue once started. I wish you the best of luck in your jorney.