Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I've spent eleven hardcore years studying it. There's no easy answers and not enough space on here to explain it all. Here's basics.
It is NOT a disease nor should be treated like one.
It is NOT a form of retardation.
It can range from extreme shyness to all out rowdiness.
Be your child or spouses or whomevers biggest advocate.
Do not allow employers or teachers mainstream an ADD person...EVER!
There ARE alternatives to prescription drugs! Explore them. (natural) ATTEND,Focus & others.
Employ a high protien LOW SUGAR Diet.
Schedules & daily routines make a HUGE difference!
Bill of Right for Children with Add
HELP ME TO FOCUS?
Please teach me through my sense of touch.
I need ?hands-on?and body movement.
I NEED TO KNOW WHAT COMES NEXT?
Please give me a structured environment where
There is a dependable routine.Give me an
Advance warning if there will be changes.
WAIT FOR ME,I?M STILL THINKING?
Please allow me to go at my own pace.
If I?m rushed,I get confused and upset.
I?M STUCK,I CAN?T DO IT!?
Please offer me options fpr problem solving.
If the road is blocked,I need to know the detours.
IS IT RIGHT?I NEED TO KNOW NOW?
Please give me rich and immediate feedback
On how I?m doing.
I DIDN?T KNOW I WASN?T IN MY SEAT!?
Please remind me to stop,think,and act.
AM I ALMOST DONE??
Please give me short work periods with short-term goals.
WHAT??
Please don?t say ?I already told you that.?
Tell me again,in different words.
Give me a signal.Draw me a symbol.
I KNOW IT?S ALL WRONG,ISN?T IT??
Please give me praise for partial success.
Reward me for self-improvement,not just perfection.
BUT WHY DO I ALWAYS GET YELLED AT??
Please catch me doing something right and
Praise me for the specific positive behavior.
Remind me--and yourself--about my good points
When I?m having a bad day.
sometimes kids are tossed into the catagory of add/adhd because they dont want to bother to find out the real problem.. the kid should be taken to a tutor, or a scholll that can test for things like dislexia, they should look into the home situation, they should see if the kid may actually be at a higher learning level and is simply not challenged,. there are many factors, and yes, some kids do need meds, but personaly i think ALL other avenues should be checked before tossing any kid into a simple catagory to shut the parent up
Exactly......... They want everyone to act the same way,think the SAME WAY... Be easy to manage,etc.....
They do not like it when someone like ME comes along who has my OWN MIND and "Peer pressure" cant take hold.......
When I was younger my parents didnt like some of the stuff I did and thought "Peer pressure" will get to him... It thankfully didnt... I am my own person. Always have been and I am grateful for that!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coyote_Blond
Do not allow employers or teachers mainstream an ADD person...EVER!
There ARE alternatives to prescription drugs!
I was givine Ritalin when I was younger and let me tell you. IT MESSES WITH YOU BIG TIME!!!!!! -- It messes up your natural thinking pattern,etc..........
I think sometimes it is over diagnosed, especially with parents who have just downright...bad (lack of a better word) children and want to blame it on something. Being a teacher, I have seen children with actual ADD/ADHD and how they behave without meds, and then children who are just little terrors because they haven't been taught better-but they are not ADD/ADHD. There is a difference.
I have two sons. My youngest (6 years old) is going through the process right now of finding out if he has ADHD. Ever since he was 11 months old even his peditrician said that I had my hands full. The behaviors he exhibits are actually not at home-they are in enviroments that are very active with a lot of stimilu, and in those environments, he just is a different child. Even teachers who have seen him going to town at school, and then seen him in a home environment (he goes to my school and my friends are the teachers) say that he is so different. At all environments (home, school, basketball) he is fidigty with his hands (has to be twirling a pencil, a fork...something to keep him busy and not bored), and watching a movie he has to constantly switch his positions. But in school...he is constantly out of his seat, can't concentrate with the noise, always has to be hands-on (not hitting other kids, just goofing touching), doesn't finish his work, jumping around, making noises, calling out...and forget it if it's PE (physical education) or music time when they have to be up and about and active. At basketball while standing in line waiting his turn he has to do karate moves, or spin or be playing with another kid in line, or crouching...he always wants to be the one to speak out, run screaming....
He has been seeing a counselor for a couple of months and he hasn't been diagnosed with ADHD because he is not like this at home. We will shortly be seeing why he has to go overboard in active environments. I don't want to medicate. At all. I don't want a zombie, not when I have a child right now who is so intelligient and witty and the kind of kid that is memorable and not for bad behavior. But, I have tried everything. I am very structured and organized. We have done every consequence and reward under the sun and have even involved family members into the rewards. But when he does something at school wrong, he sometimes can't even tell me why he did it because it just happened. Even the officials at school-counselor, vice-principal and his home counselor have said to stop punishing him for school behavior. If it's behavior that he can't help...the school will enforce punishment, they will give him consquences for school behavior. But if he is punished at home too for school behavior, and then of course for whatever he does wrong at home (like every child), his self-confidence may take a blow, he may feel he is always in trouble, and it could ruin him. And I have already seen that by pictures he has drawn on his own.
My son is very bright. Right now in first grade he is reading almost at a third grade level, and I see by the end of first grade he will be. He was tested for gifted but did not pass, and they are wondering if he was just distracted, and couldn't really focus 100% and just didn't want to be there.
I don't want to not try medicine when it is what he needs. Since everything else has been tried, I will do it. Only for school though. And then see what happens. I will not let him be a zombie. but I want to see if it opens doors for him, let's him slow down and concentrate better...and perhaps excel even more. Maybe his behavior is holding him back.
You can't "medicate him just for school". You have an active and intelligent kid- be happy! Can you at least wait a couple of years to see if it's a phase and if he grows and matures in his behavior? This is what good parents have always done. Quit agonizing over every aspect of his behavior and let him grow up at his own pace.
You can't "medicate him just for school". You have an active and intelligent kid- be happy! Can you at least wait a couple of years to see if it's a phase and if he grows and matures in his behavior? This is what good parents have always done. Quit agonizing over every aspect of his behavior and let him grow up at his own pace.
It's easy to say that when you don't have a kid failing EVERY SUBJECT for two years because they can't focus enough to do the classwork, can't remember what it was that they "learned" earlier in the day because there was so much going on that they weren't able to process what was explained, and have to be led through their homework each night because it's all new information for them now that they're in a quiet environment with few distractions. According to schools, homework at the elementary level isn't supposed to take more than 45 minutes. Until our daughter began to take medicine for ADHD, homework was three or four hours EVERY NIGHT. There were tears and frustration on all sides because we couldn't figure out what was going on. Here was this bright kid who could draw above her age level and create anything out of clay, but she couldn't do rote memorization of single digit addition and subtraction without hours of coaching, couldn't remember how to spell vocabulary words she had been SPEAKING (and using correctly) for years, and couldn't remember which direction "b" and "d" were supposed to go or even how to write more than her name. This was in SECOND GRADE. After a barrage of tests, she came out with an IQ of 115, plenty smart enough to "get it", no dyslexia issues, but severe ADD (which is now just lumped into ADHD).
Cue the medicine, behavioral therapy, and expensive tutoring. She learned to read. She learned math, although she's usually a few months "behind" in understanding because the way they teach here is that the homework goes over classroom lessons from two weeks previous, not that day, so she gets confused and distracted trying to remember what the heck is going on. Now five grades later, we have hope that she'll at least graduate high school and not be a complete drag on society, which in second grade we weren't sure was ever going to happen. She's still on medicine, and we're getting her back into behavioral therapy and tutoring because we think the hormones of adolescence are messing up all the progress we've made so far.
Oh, and let's not forget that for all the insipid "kids have to grow and mature at their own pace" BS that's thrown out there, schools aren't willing to hold kids back in grade even if they are FAILING because it might "psychologically harm them," and parents aren't listened to even when they BEG. Schools don't recognize that kids learn at different paces, so parents are forced to find any method necessary to force their kids to keep up as much as possible even when it's not in the best interests of the child. And home schooling isn't always an option financially or temperamentally.
I believe I have ADD, now known as Adhd-PI. Since I was a child, I would daydream all the time in school and out of school. Now as an adult, it's difficult for me to concentrate as I go from one thing to another. I can get a job but can't hold onto it and sometimes I won't even go in after getting the job.
I'm going to see a doctor or psychiatrist and hopefully they won't think I'm just trying to get medication to abuse or sell.. that's my biggest worry.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
