ADHD

[Hotdogsarevile]

I have had concerns about my DD (5) for a while now. She finds it really hard to concentrate on anything. She has a twin sister who is doing amazing with her reading & spelling etc - whenever I’ve raised this as an issue I’ve always been met with “well just because they’re twins doesn’t mean they are the same”

of course I absolutely know this. But when one child is reading a full phonics book on their own and the other one you have to sound out every single word it’s quite a stark difference. Whilst in Reception I raised this quite a few times but were met with we just aren’t concerned about her at all.

She started year 1 in September and the new teacher is taking things a lot more seriously. I’ve just been sent a video of her reading some words whilst wearing ear defenders, she did amazingly well.

I’ve always suspected she has ADHD but does anyone else have the same experience? Did your child read better after blocking out all other noise and distraction?

TIA

My daughter has ADHD and is the poster child for combined type. We had quite a battle to get a diagnosis but there are a lot of facets to it - she has SPD, dyspraxia too. Huge meltdowns etc However it was only in secondary school that she suffered academically, she was always ahead in primary. But she was like Tigger during lockdown, could not stop moving even when asleep, masked a lot, watched TV upside down, fidgets constantly etc

With ADHD I think it's hard to tell at 5 what is personality, behaviour or anything thing else. If she's struggling to read it might be dyslexia for example.

The ear defenders having an immediate positive effect sounds like it could be SPD (which often co-exists with ADHD and other conditions). Have you noticed other areas in which she is easily distracted by sensory overload?

eg, as a baby, we couldn't take DS into a coffee shop - the sound of the machines sent him into a complete state. Similarly, clearly no hand dryers, ever. He hated having clothes pulled on or off over his head. If he was out and about, he wouldn't have his bottle unless it was somewhere very quiet and nothing was in his peripheral vision (I was the parent whose kid was sat in their pram, in a restaurant, facing the wall, with the sides and top up while squeezing the bottle around to feed him!). Clothes... don't even get me started but I will tell you that our lives changed when we discoverd seamless bamboo socks. In the meantime, I was the parent people stared at becuase it would be snowing and DS was wearing a pair of cotton trousers and long sleeve tshirts. Hats... hahahahahaha and, age 14, he still mostly refuses to wear jeans.... The list is endless.

These are just a few of OUR examples.