to ask what your 9/10ish year old with ADHD is like?

[georgieforgie]

I'm utterly exhausted by my nine year old. I've always wondered about ADHD but haven't ever met a child diagnosed with it to compare. I appreciate every child diagnosed with it will present differently, but if you would be willing to share your experience of a child around this age with ADHD I would really appreciate it

I have a 7 year old DS, suspected of ADD /ADHD since the age of 4 (I knew he was different to my other DC at 18 months). I'm watching with interest but wondering why your son's school aren't saying anything?

I get regular reports of my DS being unable to follow basic instructions as he can't focus and easily gets distracted.

My 10 yo has the inattentive type, so he's not particularly hyperactive. He does find it hard to sit still though - he kind of stands at the table, never sits properly. He can't sit and watch tv, he fidgets the whole time, rolling around etc. He also doesn't have the attention span for tv or films - I can think of 3 films he's actually ever watched properly! His attention span and concentration is the main problem, he's so easily distracted, he finds it hard to sit down and do work (I home educate him now after the school not understanding that keeping him every break and lunchtime for not concentrating actually made his concentration worse. That and the lack of help I'd been begging for for 3 years, and the bullying)

He never stops talking, even when he's asleep!

He doesn't go to sleep until around 10.30-11pm, just can't shut down. He said his brain can't make his legs keep still.

He also has ASD too, so we have lots of repetitive and obsessive behaviours/topics of conversation and all the associated stuff to do with that diagnosis.

She's a girl, Lana, so I think it may present differently and be overlooked.

The above sounds familiar namechange. DD stands at the table or sits like a frog and sometimes falls off her chair. She hoovers up her food so she can move on, is very loud at the table and constantly interrupting conversations. She cannot take turns or share and flips out if her younger sibling enters her room or touches her things. She's up from 7 am yet still rarely settles before 11 pm. She heads straight for the trampoline after school and is on it for hours screaming and shouting and talking to herself. She talks incessantly at bedtime and is reluctant to say goodnight. She's extremely needy and clingy and very over emotional.

At school she didn't speak for the first few years and was isolated. Her attainment is average but she just can't grasp spelling at all and her writing repeats itself and uses different spelling for the same words.

I think I'm going to struggle as she's ok at school but hard work out of it. She's lovely but so immature, competitive, self centred and draining.

Anyone else? I don't know whether to push things further or whether I'm overreacting.

What do you mean by 'She's ok at school'?
Does she listen, and do as she is asked? Get along with other kids?
Or do you mean academically?

She has friends and is well behaved.

My dd is under diagnosis for asd. I strongly suspect dyspraxia and adhd too.

This is an interesting read for how girls can present at school -
go down the page until you reach girls and autism: flying under the radar www.nasen.org.uk/resources

Also some adhd stuff on there