wtf, really?? i have been following on all your adhd posts...and do not think i had adhd but i was *always* zoned out by teachers for not paying attention, zoning out, being off on another planet (usually drawing, doing plasticine...you remember...) ANYTHING but pay attention...and i STILL do that...at work EVERYDAY...it's not good...but how do u tell the difference between someone who has adhd and who doesnt at such a young age?
my mom is a teacher and she has told me that it is very difficult to get a diagnosis before grade 1 or 2. if a child daydreams in kindergarten or displays any sort of behaviour that might not be the norm they usually aren't sent for psycho-ed evaluation until later... sometimes as late as grade 3. the reason for this (as explained by my mom) is that when a child comes to kindergarten you have to take into consideration what the child has been doing or not doing for the first 4 years of their life. if they have trouble writing or picking up on letters and sounds it could be they have a learning issue or that they come from a home where these things aren't emphasized. many children don't get read to enough and thus have a hard time learning to read. it presents a problem when early diagnosis of adhd is critical to a child's success... as this article implies... but with a public school system where it costs $$$ every time a child is sent for psycho-ed evaluations it becomes a bit of a waiting game to see if the child will catch up or if
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Yeah, I can see why that early on, it would be hard to distinguish ADHD from normal/environmentally caused lags in development. I guess that problem is an argument in favour of junior kindergarten and subsidized preschool/daycare. It's sad, though, that kids are often not even referred for evaluation until grade 3--an awful lot of emotional damage as well as educational damage can be done during that time, especially if the child is on a waiting list until grade 5 or 6.
Serena, it's not always easy to tell. On the other hand, the ADHD diagnostic criteria specify that a person has to show impairment in two different settings to qualify for the diagnosis, so a competent ADHD assessor will check for that and thus not diagnose kids whose only issue is that they're bored in school. Serena, I don't know whether you have ADHD, but I'd judge whether to get assessed based on whether this is something that shows up in multiple settings and causes you problems in life, or whether it's not that consistent or problematic (say, if it only shows up in settings where you're supposed to be trying to please an authority figure).
interesting. thanks for posting. i really wish i had a time machine and could go back and see myself in kindergarten. i have no idea if i was a "daydreamy kid" or not. it's the one thing that bugs me about being diagnosed with adhd at age 28. i will always wonder if i really have the disorder because it was never picked up on in grade school. but i'm not too worried now as the proof is in the treatment (for me.) i take ritalin... i can do math. i don't take ritalin... i can't do math.
i think the reason my adhd wasn't picked up early in grade school was because for years (until about grade 7) i was so far ahead of my peers that it seemed normal that i would look "bored" and "day dream." i mean... when you go into kindergarten reading novels (like Ramona Quimby novels or the Babysitter's Club) it is expected that you'll day dream when the other children are learning the alphabet! i'm just sort of thinking as i type here... sorry. no real need for this additional comment. it all just makes me wonder what i was like when i was little. i wish i could study my young self objectively. :-P
This, though I wasn't reading Ramona in kindergarten. I was still ahead and was definitely reading novels by grade three (and my mother's parenting books by age 11). I was an excellent student until grade ten. Then everything went kablooey. I was still a good student overall, but I stopped pulling straight A's on first report and then steadily declining over the course of the year. (I wonder if that's ever been studied? Are ADHDers more likely to start out the year or the term strongly and then, as everything ceases to be new and exciting, their interest wanes and their grades go down? That sentence was very poorly constructed, but do you know what I'm getting at?)
I think I usually started the year enthusiastic and then burned out, too. I don't know if that's common for ADHD people, but I know it is common for us to do well in school for awhile and then eventually conk out when the executive functioning demands become too much for us.
And I totally read my mom's parenting books, too :D.
I think there is a huge difference between "leaving well enough alone" and "neglecting your kid". Having been diagnosed with and treated for ADD at age 10 I absolutely promise you I would have been much better of if they had left me the fuck alone. I started performing better in my fifth grade classes because the meds they had me on gave me OCD. I stopped actually caring about really learning anything, and fell (temporarily) into the performance-is-everything mode. It was all downhill from there. Left to my own devices, I was a brilliant, curious little kid. It might have taken me a little longer to commit myself to learning something, but that was (and still is!) because I know that once I want to learn something badly enough, it is going to take up a TON of my energy until I REALLY feel like I understand it.
The difference is that leaving well enough alone needs to also mean giving a kid the space to learn their way, not your way or the school's way or some other idea of what the "right" way to learn is. It is really harmful to
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I got the OCD thing when I tried Adderall XR, only I'm already OCD about/hyperfocused on the Internet, so the Adderall pushed me into crystal meth addict territory. I spent 32 hours straight on the computer and ate one meal.
On a more serious note, though: A responsible mental health practitioner will not diagnose a kid with ADHD if the only problem is low grades, and the symptoms are not causing overall quality of life issues. Granted, not all mental health practitioners are responsible. And I think it's really important, with psych meds for kids to actually ask the child how the meds make them feel, and to only keep the kid on meds if those meds make them happier and healthier, not just more compliant.
To a doped-up 10-year-old who feels like, for the first time in their life, someone is actually listening to anything they have to say..."happier and healthier" is virtually indistinguishable from "more compliant".
Honestly, it's not just that I don't think mental health practitioners are responsible (although, frankly, most aren't). I think the "responsible" discernment that would theoretically take place is impossible, at least in most cases.
What would you do with the kids who are really really not functioning well and appear to have problems which are likely to be treatable with medication, then? I'm really wary of just not medicating kids at all, given how damaging the effects of disorders like ADHD going untreated can be. However, I do think psychiatric treatment for minors should pretty much always involve family therapy, unless that would prevent the minor from getting treatment, because in my experience, the parents are usually contributing in some way to the problem.
Well, the school systems are all designed around stereotypes. They don't take into account differences in the person, much less things like ADD. If you don't think their way, you're automatically stupid in their eyes
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I've never bought into the idea that 'grade-level enrichment' was adequate education for gifted kids. If a kid's intellectual development is several grades ahead of normal, they're not going to truly feel challenged until they're given material at or near the grade level they're intellectually ready for, even if they haven't had a chance to learn all the less advanced background material yet. I know that from my experience as a gifted kid. Sometimes you just have to accelerate the kid, as inconvenient as that might be, if you're going to get them not bored anymore.
And as I've said elsewhere, bullying is abuse as serious as any other type. It's sad that society has only realized this in the last fifteen years.
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And I totally read my mom's parenting books, too :D.
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The difference is that leaving well enough alone needs to also mean giving a kid the space to learn their way, not your way or the school's way or some other idea of what the "right" way to learn is. It is really harmful to ( ... )
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On a more serious note, though: A responsible mental health practitioner will not diagnose a kid with ADHD if the only problem is low grades, and the symptoms are not causing overall quality of life issues. Granted, not all mental health practitioners are responsible. And I think it's really important, with psych meds for kids to actually ask the child how the meds make them feel, and to only keep the kid on meds if those meds make them happier and healthier, not just more compliant.
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Honestly, it's not just that I don't think mental health practitioners are responsible (although, frankly, most aren't). I think the "responsible" discernment that would theoretically take place is impossible, at least in most cases.
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And as I've said elsewhere, bullying is abuse as serious as any other type. It's sad that society has only realized this in the last fifteen years.
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