I am a teacher and have seen things from the other side. I can sympathize with your teachers and with you. I have ADD myself. Some of my children show symptoms but not enough to get them into trouble at school. I think people handle ADD in different ways.
Some of the students in my classes have ADD or ADHD. I can tell. I live with them all year long. There are differences in students. Your child is blurting out, interrupting, standing up, blocking the way for others and disrupting the class. No matter how often he is reminded he will repeat the same actions. I can see the dispair in the eyes of these children when over and over I remind them to sit down, to raise their hands, to be quiet. It is frustrating for them and for me. I have seen students who began the year with no medication and go on medication during the year. It has made big difference in their ability to finish work and to stay focused on the assignment and to stay in their seats.
I know how medication can affect you. I don't think anyone LIKES the medication and the complications it brings. But it is a blessing, mostly to the person taking it. Finally, finally I could see what I couldn't see before. It helped me so much. Then it wore off and I needed a bigger dose, then that wore off. I tried herbs which seems to work and then wore off, I'm probably going to try medication again.
Another idea I have read about is in a book called "Stopping ADHD." It is written by two women who have PHD's in learning disabilities. They have a clinic that treats people with ADD and ADHD. They have a very different theory as to what ADD is. I know a lot of people disagree with their methods, but in the book is an experiment that they conducted at a school. The results of that experiment made me think that they might have something to the theory. The teachers wanted the control group to try the exercises these women use because they helped the group of students who used them so much. To me that is worth looking into. The teachers are the ones who have to deal with the students in a situation in which they struggle so much. it is hard for these little ones to stay in a chair!
I feel for you. And I feel for the class. It is sooo hard to try to run an traditional classroom with students that suffer from ADHD. You might be able to homeschool him more effectively or to get him tutored or find a private school that teaches with Mulitiple Intelligences in mind. These types of teaching methods cater to the child that learns in different ways, visually, musically, verbally, etc.
I hope some of this helps.
It felt like deja vu when I read your message. My heart goes out to you, as I went through hell during my now 15 year old's elementary school years. He was on three different meds, and I finally took him off of them because they altered his personality, mood, and appetite. He lost so much weight, and he didn't have it to lose in the first place. Before he started the meds we tried some things which were recommended to me in a book--I think it was called The Myth of the ADD Child (your doctor may know the name. I'll look it up for you if you are interested). One example was eliminating food dye from his diet. Most "juices" have tons of dye in them that can affect a child's behavior. I started giving my kids only Capri Sun because it is all natural (no dye). I saw a big difference from when they drank Kool-Aid, etc. Also, the book suggests playing classical music in the background while they are doing homework, and several other great ideas. These helped for me, but my son was close to failing second grade, and we were desperate, so I reluctantly gave him the meds. I know that many children (and adults--I have ADD myself) benefit from the meds and truly need them. I just think that some educators want a quick fix and don't hesitate to give you a nudge in that direction. In a way, I can't say that I blame them. My heart goes out to teachers! From what I have read and researched, boys are more likely to have difficulty focusing and hyper tendencies. Maybe it's a "boy" issue and not necessarily ADD. Does that make sense? I hope so. If your son is doing well academically, it seems to me that his teachers just need to be made aware of the issue at the beginning of the school year and they need to be coached as how to handle these kids. Sometimes these children need a different teaching method. One method doesn't necessarily work for all kids. My son has always been a "hands on" kind of kid, and I think many of them are. I could go on forever about this, but I'll stop here, however please keep me posted and let me know if you'd like me to look up the name of that book. Good luck and take care. Oh, I just remembered one great suggestion in the book--make sure they are eating a good breakfast. Not something super sugary. The need to eat some protein with their carbs to balance it out. This greatly affects their learning for the first part of the day!Teacher with ADD-What a wonderful post! It is so nice to see a teacher who can understand what is going on with the ADHD child. I went through this same situation with my son several years ago. At age 5 I entered him into kindergarten. I knew he was hyper activity but had no idea how bad it would get. He was being followed by his pediatrician regularly. At that time I question the pediatrician why my son seemed to getting more and more hyper. He told me that ADHD peaks around age 5. After several meetings with the school I received a call requesting I remove him from the school. At that time the teacher did not understand ADHD at all-her opion was he was too immature for school-especially since he was a June baby. Neither the teacher or the pricipal took the time to understand what was going on concerning the ADHD. Although, the both knew we were going through the process of testing out different meds. for ADHD. As requested in February-during the valentines day party-I came to the school and picked him up. I remember sitting in the meeting that day-my son running in circles around the room-like a non-stop bullet. I signed the papers to remove him from kindergarten. At that time I had no idea what rights I had concerning his education. For the remainder of the year I put him in a preschool program at a montisouri (sp?) school-it was a smaller setting so he did a little better. We finally tried him on Ritalin and things began to fall into place. The following year I started him back in kindergarten in a public school-different school system-we experienced no issues that year. The following year I was able to get him approved for an IEP-at that point I learned my rights as a parent of a child with behavior/learning problems. Over the years I have not had too many issues-the school system has been fairly good with the situation. My son is now 13-I thought middle school would be awful, however, the teachers have been really great. Even contacting me when they saw an issue with homework. He is now in his 2nd year of middle school and doing wonderful due to the IEP and teachers understanding.
Three cheers for teachers who understand the situation with ADHD children!
Beth
Can you talk to his Pediatrician? I am sure they are familiar with the challenges you are having. Good luck.i HAVE A 6 YEAR OLD WITH ADHD. WE MET WITH THE SCHOOL AND I FELT AMBUSHED ALSO. THEY WANT HIM TO REPEAT KINDERGARTEN. I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO TO HELP HIM. HE EATS SO LITTLE WHEN HE IS ON MEDICATION. i KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GOING THROUGH. FEEL FREE TO WRITE BACK.