my daughter is 4 and she was recently diagosed with adhd it has been very challenging and im up for suggestions bout school activities and making friends
Welcome! I've only been on this board a few months but I love to read the topics and suggestions everyone has.
My suggestion is to be sure to meet the teacher before school. Introduce yourself and your daughter and explain the situation. Teachers are great at helping out with telling how things have gone for the day/week. If you put her on medication, the teacher should know and can tell you if the child seems too sleepy during the day or other issues that happen as side effects that will help you know to adjust the medication.
At my son's school (he's entering 4th grade and is 8) the counselor is a huge help. She has counseling sessions with kids with ADHD and other "issues." She also has groups to help kids learn how to be a friend and to make friends. I have cried on her shoulder a lot and she's always there with a big hug and a smile and great advice.
The other thing is to be sure to meet with your school and have a 502 plan created for your daughter. The 502 (I think that's what it's called, I can't remember - summer's been too long!
) will establish things necessary to help your daughter learn. My son gets pulled out during testing for math and he goes to the special ed teacher to be tested with a small group of students. She needs to read the directions to him and even do an example of the equations he is to do on the test. They can establish all kinds of things to help your daughter. I've heard it's easiest to do in elementary school but once they hit Jr. High and High school it's really a challenge. I've found having the right teacher makes all the difference. She looks out for him and he really enjoys her. He is having the same teacher this year as he had last year (she moved up to teach the next grade.) She asked to have him in the class because she was worried about another teacher having him and not understanding him.
I just realized that your daughter is 4 so she is not in the school system yet, sorry. But, these are all things to keep in mind. I'd say that you should get your daughter involved in activities she enjoys and hopefully she'll make friends doing things she enjoys.
See if your school district has anything for your daughter even though she's not in kindergarten yet. In Arizona they had a thing for kids with hearing problems, physical problems, etc and they get education 4 days a week for a few hours a day. Now, at that time my son wasn't diagnosed ADHD but he had sensory integration dysfucntion and hearing problems because of too many ear infections so he qualified for this program until he was 5. Boy was it great!
Anyway, that is all I can think of at this point. Good luck - and be sure to look through old posts on this site, as there may be some suggestions in another post.
My ds is 8 and was diagnosed ADHD at 5. We started on meds and he is
doing much better. In terms of friends, I can tell you what we did. Make
playdates for her and have one friend over at a time. Keep the playdate
short 1-2 hours and have an activity planned or keep is somewhat
structured. If she has a favorite toy that would cause sharing problems,
put it away before the playdate.
Sports are tricky at a young age. My ds had issues with always wanting to
win, always going first, etc. Even preschool gym class was hard. I guess
it depends on what your dd is interested in. Swimming is always good, or
another sport where individual effort is rewarded and you are still part of
the team (tennis, gymnastics, etc).
Don't be afraid to try things and pull out of it if it gets too stressful, etc. I
wouldn't normally say that, but when ds wasn't medicated, his attention
just wasn't there for soccer, etc. The group of kids turned out to be too
much stimulation and/or the "coach" wasn't able to handle any kids that
wasn't following instructions to a "T", etc.
Art class or dance may be good options as well. Again, check out the
classes before you sign up and talk to the instructor about his/her
expectations of the students.
Hope this helps. Hang in there, you will figure out what works.I've heard good things about karate. I think I'm going to sign my son up for it this fall. I've got to see about the schedule first.
sometimes these kids do better with individual sports rather than group or team things, like corrina suggests karate, or swimming or gymnastics, they are quite physical. Scouts seems to be popular for social interactions, my girls dont do scouts so I cannot advise, but the friends I knw who do enjoy it
I have found the best thing to help develop social skills are one on one playdates in conjunction with the group things. even if no one reciprocates, keep inviting.
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