Parents of boys with ADHD….advice please

[Reebok42]

Can I ask for those with boy with ADHD only, how did it present? I’ve often considered that my 7 year old may have ADHD. Now at 7 a lot of how he presents seems a lot like ‘bad’ behaviour- poor listening, forgetting the rules, running and climbing when he shouldn’t and many other things too.
did your child show these things mainly or what made you think there may be more to it?
I get regular calls from school about him but when I’ve pressed them on whether the think it may be a neurodiversity they said they aren’t allowed to comment.
its causing me a lot of worry

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My son is 7 and diagnosed with autism and ADHD. I thought mine had ADHD from about 1, he never listened couldn't be left a second without getting into trouble/hurt until 3ish. He still has very poor listening skills like yours he's always up to something he shouldn't be. My son's school called me in after his first week as they could see he had send.

Yes mine (now 12) showed all that. I fought for years to get him diagnosed/school to listen.

He was always in trouble for not listening, talking in class from reception on, It ruined his self confidence.

If you look at the Vanderbilt assessment scale and fill it in for your son you will get a rough idea.
It’s split into hyperactivity and attention so he could be more one than the other. I’ll add a link, hope it’s useful.

deleted now the link is working.

My son’s traits were dismissed as immaturity (August birthday ) and not taken seriously because it didn’t affect his school work or making friends.

He’s now an older teen and I can be talking to him in a quiet room but his eyes and concentration are sometimes anywhere but on my face so I can tell that he’s not listening at all. As he’s older I can text reminders or he’ll reply to a question over text. That way there’s “proof” that I’ve acted on instructions.

School have always told me that his friends are “great boys” so I suspect that many of them have helped keep him on track at his weak points so he didn’t get in trouble as much as someone without friends.

Teachers at secondary often told me that he’s very chatty but they overlook that because he does his work and was clearly learning . I get the impression from him that the only trouble he was in at secondary was for chatting which he accepted and wasn’t bothered about. He passed his GCSEs despite not revising so was able to move onto a college course that’s up his street. Academically he’s flying on this college course which is great.

He has 2 older siblings and it took me longer to teach him skills like getting up and leaving for school under his own steam. He has reached those milestones and would be fine living alone if he had to but suspect that he’d have to rely on shortcuts like Deliveroo to deliver forgotten items at the supermarket.

Ar age 7 he couldn’t sit through a whole film at the cinema and he used to game with accuracy while jumping up and down. I suspect that school playtimes were a welcome relief for him and he reported playing running and chasing games until he left in year 6. (Year 7 boys played basketball at his secondary)

Thanks for this. My son definitely can concentrate for some things he enjoys (like Lego) but generally his behaviour has always stood out amongst his peers- poor attention and listening, can’t follow rules, run, climbs, jumps, is always where he isn’t meant to be etc
do you think this is worth perusing?
and yes like a previous poster said- it’s starting to affect his self confidence and view of himself as being ‘bad’

My 9 year old is is both adhd and asd. To be honest I assumed it was just boys being active . It was the school that noticed, mainly his concentration and not being able to sit still.. as he got older it became more apparent, esp the asd stuff.

My DS was diagnosed at 7. We started on a round of medication until we found the best one for him. It made a massive improvement in every way--home, school, friends, self-confidence, everything. If my kid had diabetes, I would give him insulin every day; same with his ADHD medication. He took it every day and still does as an adult. The side effects of the meds were something we managed. It was much much easier and better for him than the terrible effects of his ADHD.