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mumofsix
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| Posted: May 17 2005 at 9:16pm | IP Logged
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My ds 17 was having a conversation with his high school English teacher today: she used to teach children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and said that she saw many of the symptoms in him, such as an inability to sit still for any length of time, hand and eye flicking, etc. She believes it would be worth while for him to be tested for this, with a view to remediation. He actually asked me to post here for advice! 
I have often wondered about this myself, but held off on formal testing, since I believed that the standard practice of prescribing Ritalin would be something I would never do. However, the English teacher said that there were many alternative treatments and approaches that could help also.
So, does anyone have any wisdom on this? If you have a child with ADHD, what has helped him/her?
Jane.
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ALmom
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| Posted: May 23 2005 at 4:05pm | IP Logged
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Jane,
I had a daughter with all the symptoms of ADD (not hyperactivity). We struggled through a few years of school - trying everything from strictly hands-on learning to more discipline trying to come to a solution. She would literally fall out of her chair from wiggling so much and our school day was fantastic if she managed to concentrate for 5 minutes, literally.
I guess I was forced to pursue something or we never would have progressed in learning, plus the frustration for both of us was very hard. I was like you, determined not to use Ritalin so I wasn't sure it was worth going to anyone - plus the medical people in our town tend to be unimpressive. Before pursuing a specialist, I decided to investigate what made things better and what made things worse. After all, we were homeschooling and we could adjust what we did to accomodate her needs. In the process, I ended up with 2 1/2 pages of things - even that she couldn't do jumping jacks. I noted every little thing, whether it seemed relevant or not. Some of these things were so subtle that we would never have noticed them normally and it gave us more clues than anything any of the doctors ever did. I really diagnosed the general problem first - then it was a matter of finding someone who would see what we had and give us a more precise explanation. The observation list was the best thing I ever did as I saw things no one else did and things we had never noticed before and even though most medical folks wouldn't listen to me, I knew when to be unimpressed with the direction they were headed. When they wanted to say ADD, I wanted to know why they thought this, how it explained her symptoms and did it explain the coordination problems(which were very subtle and I hadn't noticed until we started our list). I wanted to know what they were basing their diagnosis on - they dropped ADD as soon as I asked a question - almost like it was their way of saying "I don't know" without saying it. ADD seems to be used as a catch all diagnosis. The next idea was appraxia (lack of coordination not due to sensory deprivation). We respectfully listened and asked questions and found out that appraxia was associated with language difficulties - well, that didn't fit and though we had to jump through a few hoops to get them to agree, we were able to be our child's advocate.
The list of symptoms really kept us on top of things in terms of finding a diagnosis. Perhaps your child can tell you different things - our daughter told us about getting dizzy when she ran which she had never mentioned in 9 years of life. We often found ADD or appraxia as the initial suspected diagnosis, but it didn't explain all her symptoms and the specialists really were basing their suggestion on one thing - lack of concentration and nothing else to explain the difficulty. They also didn't offer us any real hope of a solution - just coping techniques. I have heard of other people who have found allergies, used biofeedback, and behaviour modification when ADD was suggested so perhaps someone else can give you more information along those lines. I'm not claiming that ADD isn't a real thing - just that, at least in our town, it is overused without much investigation so you have to be your own investigator.
Our instinct just said, "No" and somewhere in the observation process, I saw my daughter's eyes drift. I insisted (in fear and trembling as every eye doctor said her eyes were fine) that it was some sort of vision thing. We did find a doctor 3 hours away(C.O.V.D. fellow) who did find her problem and it was vision. We found out that a lot of children with diagnosed ADD really have an undetected vision problem. We learned that often the medical community doesn't communicate well among themselves and there is a SOP to follow. If you meet the symptom list and mom and teacher are asking, you'll probably get one of these catch all diagnosis. Sometimes, that is really what it is, but often it is inaccurate.
What I am trying to get at is that it is worth pursuing answers, but be your own child's advocate and follow your instincts as well. I would recommend finding an optometrist that specializes in vision devolopment (C.O.V.D. fellow is best)and make sure that this is not the problem first. There are a number of vision problems that interfere with learning to various degrees and the child has no acuity problem (our daughter's sight was 20/20 but she still couldn't see properly). For example, if a child has difficulty bringing the eyes in (converging), he may be able to do it OK for a while but the eyes tire out and then you cannot concentrate. You'll may notice eye rubbing. Often the child never complains of vision because they think everyone sees the same way they do - they don't know they don't see well and think everyone sees this way. The good news, if it is vision, is that it is correctable with therapy - a lot of hard work and unfortunately also costly - but worth every penny. Our daughter has not had any recurring problems since therapy.
If you want more detailed information on this, and some of the various things that can be wrong, we have experienced a lot of them and would be happy to PM you more information. Just let us know.
Janet
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ALmom
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| Posted: May 23 2005 at 4:26pm | IP Logged
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Oops - me again. I forgot to mention that we did do vision therapy with a teenager as well. I did not know until therapy that she got sick to her stomach every time she read more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time. No wonder she seemed so stressed by school.
According to our optometrist (3 hours away), it is never too late to correct the eyes. He helped a high schooler with amblyopia get into West Point when they wouldn't even take you with glasses. It's never too late.
One thing you may want to look for is jerky eye movements. That is a big clue! You can use a pencil at the appropriate distance and move it in gentle circles and watch the eyes as they try to track. Also, ask a silly question like what is 1 + 1 while the eyes are tracking and watch what happens. Our children that needed therapy had jerky eye movements and it would get even worse if they had to answer a question or think about something else at the same time.
Hope this helps.
Janet
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mumofsix
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| Posted: June 03 2005 at 10:21pm | IP Logged
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Thanks very much for your reply. I have decided to go for testing with a developmental optometrist and to look into diet a little more. Ds himself reports hyper behaviour after eating certain kinds of coloured sweets!
Jane.
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4Real Forums : Special Blessings
Topic: ADHD.
