[otilidi]

I just wanted to chime in here to the parents of school aged ADHD children about some of the things I have learned along the way. I hope some of it can be useful. My oldest son, who is now 17 and a senior in HS, was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 8 after the school suggested he be tested. He also has difficulties with learning, retaining information, test taking, his social skills and fine motor skills. All of these have made school life difficult throughout the years, not only on him but on me as well. He also gets “overstimulated” easily. His behavior at school is never an issue, however when he gets home he vents it all out. However, as he ages it gets better. He has been on Ritalin LA since his diagnosis and has always had great success with it. In fact he chooses to take it in the summer to help him focus and control his impulses.

What I was going to suggest to all the parents out there who have had their children diagnosed with ADHD or LD by a doctor, is to go to their childs school and speak with the special education teacher about filling out the paper work for a Section 504 program based on your child’s needs. The accomodations can have amazing results on their school work and frusteration. For instance my son has certain accomodations that state that he can type or dictate his work, reduced assignments and extra time to turn them in, oral testing and extra time to complete tests. You sometimes have to stay on the teachers about following these, but once a routine is established it should smooth out.

Another HUGE thing that I wish I had discovered when my son was much younger, is his lack of social skills. He has a real hard time “reading” people’s body language, or their sarcasm, etc. This has made it difficult for the other kids to accept him fully. If I had it to do over again, I would have looked through magazine ads with people and had him tell me what he thinks those people are feeling based on their expressions and body language. Or watched movies that express a lot of emotion and discussed them with him. Help him obtain a better understanding of human emotion and behavior. Society calls it common sense, but for people with ADHD this is easily overlooked. I believe this would have helped my son with developing healthy relationships, whether it be through peers, dating, employers, teachers and family. We view them as selfish, but that is not the case. They are just simply living in the moment, in their heads. Help them learn to think outside their bubble and play the tape forward before they say or do……or don’t say or don’t do!

I hope this helps. I know I have so many other thoughts, but I will put those aside for now. Maybe save them for another post. 🙂

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