~Help Please~New Here | ADHD Information
Hi everyone!
I am so glad to have found this forum! Any advice you all have would be so very appreciated. Here is my story...
My daughter who is 9 and in the 4th grade has always had issues in school. She has a hard time concentrating and is disorganized. She always wants to leave class to go to the bathroom or the nurse. She is not having social problems as she has alot of friends but she does have problems with waiting for her turn, ect. She gets frustrated very easy when asked to do her schoolwork. Last year the teacher would make her stay in at recess if she did not complete a class assignment. But the funny thing is that she would then complete the work within minutes what took the class a good half hour to complete so she could run off and play. And the work is always 100 percent correct. She is very bright, some teachers tell me she is brilliant. Hey that is great and all but I know there is something not right, she cannot pay attention. I totally think she has ADHD and it is breaking my heart.
Last year they thought maybe she wasnt being challenged enough and perhaps she was bored. They gave her advanced work on top of her regular work which she did no problem but it frustrated her that she had to do more than everyone else. And again the issue of her losing focus, blah blah blah always came up and still does to this day.
My husband and I had a parent teacher conference last night with her new teacher this year, same problems as always, she is not focused, always asking to leave class, disorganized ect.
Last year the school had her on a plan where the teacher sent me a checksheet home daily so I would know how she focused in the morning and afternoon. I rewarded her based on this list if she did what she was suppose to do. She did wonderful with this method and by the end of the year the child study team at school said they did not think she needed it anymore. I thought things were better in school till the teacher dropped the bomb on us last night.
I want to help her to be more focused. I am afraid that soon she will fall behind at school is she cannot stay focused, but I also wonder how is this child pulling all A's if she is not concentrating? That is what baffles me. She MUST be paying some attention. But I do see all the signs of ADHD, I could check off nearly every symptom on a checksheet. :(
I am so against medication. I feel this will only mask the problems, I want to teach her to concentrate on her own. Has anyone dealt with a child like this without medication successfully?
Thanks for listening to me whine and please any feedback would be appreciated!! Have a great day everyone!
First step is a proper diagnosis. Start with a visit to your pediatrician. Then ask for a referral to a child psychiatrist. I strongly recommend academic testing also. You can request this through the school, but your best option would be with a private neuropsychologist. You cant really think about solutions until you know what the problem is. If it is ADHD then you can go from there. Try not to be too closed minded about medication, it can make all the difference in the world. Research it and look at all your options and take things one step at a time.
Welcome liz,
An intelligent child will be able to compensate for issues like mild learning disabilities and ADHD until the point the school challenges overcome the compensation skills the child has developed. They kind of self teach the things that they miss in the teacher's instructions. ADHD in my oldest was only recognized because I recognized the issues she was having after educating my self to deal with the problems my youngest was having (much more severe). She would start having problems losing work towards the end of each school year and had always been disorganized but did well in school (except the last trimester). The problems would start earlier each year despite lots of effort and help with organizational skills. Her grades were getting worse and she started feeling bad about herself. We gave meds a try to see if there was any benefit. With treatment, she is not so scattered and is working at her full potential. She likes the meds because they allow her to "hear" the instruction in class and she gets her work done quickly. It turned out that the "lost" homework was her way of not doing work that she had not gotten instruction on. She is in honors math and gets mostly As.
My suggestion is to bring up your observations with the pediatrician and ask if he/she can do evaluations to see if there is any medical issues (thyroid, anemia, etc). Ask the doc and the school for contact info for an educational psychologist. You would talk to this doc with your concerns so he/she can set up the appropriate battery of tests for your daughter. The testing can be long (my kids each had 2 days of 3 hours each) and may not be covered by insurance. The psychologis can do IQ, achievement, connors forms and other testing to see if there are learning disorders and can observe for ADHD tendencies. This can be a long process, but with a comprehensive evaluation, you can be more confident in the diagnosis and start a treatment plan that is appropriate. This will also allow you time to really educate yourself on the disorder and potential treatment options, explore alternatives (see the alternatives board for some good help) and work into a plan that fits your child's needs and your beliefs.
Well, Diane and I think alike. she is just not so wordy and her post hit first.
Hi everyone!
I am so glad to have found this forum! Any advice you all have would be so very appreciated. Here is my story...
My daughter who is 9 and in the 4th grade has always had issues in school. She has a hard time concentrating and is disorganized. She always wants to leave class to go to the bathroom or the nurse. She is not having social problems as she has alot of friends but she does have problems with waiting for her turn, ect. She gets frustrated very easy when asked to do her schoolwork. Last year the teacher would make her stay in at recess if she did not complete a class assignment. But the funny thing is that she would then complete the work within minutes what took the class a good half hour to complete so she could run off and play. And the work is always 100 percent correct. She is very bright, some teachers tell me she is brilliant. Hey that is great and all but I know there is something not right, she cannot pay attention. I totally think she has ADHD and it is breaking my heart. 
Get a full mental health evaluation.
Last year they thought maybe she wasnt being challenged enough and perhaps she was bored. They gave her advanced work on top of her regular work which she did no problem but it frustrated her that she had to do more than everyone else. And again the issue of her losing focus, blah blah blah always came up and still does to this day.
She may well be brilliant and bored. And ADHD too. I have been able to overcompensate unmedicated and cover it up for many years even though I was diagnosed as a child. Many here, do.
My husband and I had a parent teacher conference last night with her new teacher this year, same problems as always, she is not focused, always asking to leave class, disorganized ect.
Last year the school had her on a plan where the teacher sent me a checksheet home daily so I would know how she focused in the morning and afternoon. I rewarded her based on this list if she did what she was suppose to do. She did wonderful with this method and by the end of the year the child study team at school said they did not think she needed it anymore.
That was an obvious error. Children, ADHD or not, all have their drawbacks and if this was working, I fail to see what would make someone want to stop a successful plan?
I thought things were better in school till the teacher dropped the bomb on us last night.
I want to help her to be more focused. I am afraid that soon she will fall behind at school is she cannot stay focused, but I also wonder how is this child pulling all A's if she is not concentrating? That is what baffles me. She MUST be paying some attention. But I do see all the signs of ADHD, I could check off nearly every symptom on a checksheet. :(
Hahaha--I made the honour lists a number of times. Some of us seem to learn by osmosis. Others THINK we're not listening because we were doing something weird [like playing a video game or humming] but subconsciously we took it all in. The problem comes later when we HAVE to focus on the problem at hand.
I am so against medication. I feel this will only mask the problems, I want to teach her to concentrate on her own. Has anyone dealt with a child like this without medication successfully?
First, go through the assessing process. And yes, I had a wildly ADHD foster teen and he made great progress and refused to medicate. I've been unmedicated most of my life. It's not for everyone but some people can manage. Also, I've medicated sometimes. For me, the ADHD is always there but depending on other life circumstances, sometimes I can manage it, sometimes not. So you may choose medication for a "tough patch" and use behavioural techniques and skills at easier stretches.
Thanks for listening to me whine and please any feedback would be appreciated!!
You're not "whining"--you're explaining the circumstances. Wouldn't be much of a conversation if we didn't know what you were talking about would it?
Have a great day everyone!
I'm tryin' I'm tryin'
[/QUOTE]Do a little research on Gifted Children. Many people think if a school classifies a child as "Gifted/Talented", then that child is almost perfect. But that's not true. Many AD/HD kids are gifted in various ways, and need special attention in order to succeed. Gifted kids have trouble in school because they easily get bored. Our son is this way because he's above grade level, and often bored. He always says that he already knows everything that is being taught.
Maybe your dd is the same way? If so, talk to your school officials about the gifted programs in your school system (hopefuly they have a program!). We did with our ds and although our school system tends to wait until a child is in the 4th grade before they start to do something, we are on the road to getting our son better help in order to keep him challenged and interested in school.
By the way...metisrebel...you're insight is wonderful! I'd love to meet you someday. Too bad we live so far apart.
edited for type-o'sDad in Akron39404.2709837963I was unmedicated and somehow made it. My son 9, choses to be unmedicated and is in the gifted program at school. He is flying by on his testing but produces no work. They think this is ok. He is on a 504 to make it easier on him and has accomodations. I am worried about middle school coming up. I think this will be too much pressure on him and he will blow up. We will see. I worry alot. There are a lot of gifted ADHD kids at our school.
Kids with ADHD - ADD innatentive are often quite smart.
Get your daughter tested. My son is failing 8th grade yet historically does well in social studies - it's a lecture course - he is able to absorb enough info just sitting there to pass tests. He can write on a high school level - when he wants to. He never wants to.
My son is a gifted trumpet player that made the jazz band in 6th grade and blows jazz solos like a pro. he is a great artist (although he won't admit it) and has a memory that is amazing. Ask him to do his homework and he'd rather tantrum on the floor.
People with ADD can focus on things they are interested in if they are not disstracted. It just is amazing what my son can do on the computer when left alone for hours on end. Give him a simple math problem to do and forget it.
I wouldn't even think about medication yet.
Hi everyone, thank you ALL so much for your replies, I appreciate them all! As of right now we have only 3 days of school this week and they are all half days. She is a dream child on half days, she seems to focus just fine when she is leaving early, 
so I don't anticipate any trouble this week :)
My husband and I again had a talk with her, actually several talks with her over the weekend. I said maybe we will put you back on the program like we did last year (when her teacher lets me know daily how she did). My daughter said "That is babyish mom, I will pay attention, I promise." Do I beleive her? I believe she believes it when she says it but I dont know if she will or can pull it off. Last year they dropped the chart that let me know how she was doing as the teacher said she was focusing fine and didn't need it anymore. ( I promised to buy her a kitten if she paid attention last year and low and behold she did) So that confuses the whole situation even more.
I will keep you posted and again thank you so much!!