mom2ryan - I'm an SLP too!
I am an SLP in a school and I fully understand where you are coming from. I did not want to medicate either but the battle and had been constant since he entered Kindergarten and this year in third grade he was starting to get frustrated with not being able to finish his work, and when he knew we had studied so hard for particular tests his grades were up and down like a roller coaster. I guess my best advice is to go with what you know. Line up all the facts, and make your decision. I was the last one to really see that my son needed a little help. With the help of Straterra he is still the same happy, fun loving little boy he can just focus.
Chase happened to start his meds on the first day of a new grading period last year. so, in 9 weeks time he went from low C's in all classes, to all A's and B's , and his first time ever on the honor roll! He was immediately able to focus and stay on task better, and it just got better as time went on and his self esteem improved.
I would say that 7 weeks is definitely plenty of time to see a change for the better.
Thanks for the input. It's just so hard to know what to do. I work in a school, and have talked to over a dozen different educators about this in the last week, and have gotten a dozen different opinions! Didn't know there could be that many! I just am frustrated - it stinks that I feel like we have to medicate our child just so she can tolerate school. I don't think it's supposed to be like this. It does help to hear the success stories. Thanks!Stimulant treatment will give results as soon as the right dose is found. The med starts working quickly and is out of the system in 3-12 hours depending on the delivery form you use. You start low and work your way up to the point of max benefit with minimum (or no) side effects. I would try it before school is out so you can plan on next year. Our doc has the kids take a break each year to see if maturity has lessened or eliminated the need for meds.
My oldest is inattentive and when not on meds was an above average student. She would do well on tests but lose her homework and not complete assignments. We worked with organizational skills for years with no luck. After going through the diagnosis and successful treatment of the younger child, I recognized that the oldest could benefit with treatment. Since starting treatment, she can get school work done easily and can "hear" the teacher's instructions better. She is now a straight A student and is testing for honors classes for next year. I could have let her struggle to get good grades but wanted her to reach her full potential. I also know that there may be a time when the challenges at school might have overwhelmed her ability to compensate due to her intelligence. After watching the youngest fall into depression and anxiety with her struggles, I knew I had the chance of avoiding this with the older sister.
We've been struggling with the "medicate or not" dillema. We have about 7 weeks of school, and just got done with a comprehensive eval for dd that said there are no learning or intellectual problems that would be causing her to have so much trouble finishing her work at school. Instead, it seems to be all attention. They also tell us she is gifted. I thought before she was average or a little above, and functioning fine. Now I wonder if meds would help her reach her potential? We had not wanted to do meds before this, but now I wonder if we should give it a trial? Makes more sense to do it now, where we can clearly see the before and after. Other alternatives would be wait until the beginning of next year, but then we can't tell if she just matured. Or wait until we do a trial a few weeks or months next year, but then we've started off on the wrong foot.
Is six-seven weeks long enough to make a difference? Unless we see a BIG difference, we're not going to keep her on it.
ham I agree with vickie ....you can give the meds a try for the remainder of the year ( just to see if they have any effect on school performance) and then give her the summer off. Your daughter will know within an hour of taking the med if they are working or not. Good luckWe struggled with the same decision recently and decided to go ahead with putting our son on Straterra. We started it over spring break. Within two weeks his innattentiveness and ability to complete his tasks at school in a timely manner were very much improved. He has even brought grades up on math tests and tests that are several pages long. He was doing homework the other evening and he said to me " momma can you believe that I can get things done so fast now?" He had the biggest grin on his face. The medication has been a lifesaver and the last few weeks of school have been enjoyable.