To ask who gets final say on medicating child if parents disagree?

[ShowerOfMonsters]

Split decision parents.
Recommendation from professional.
Paediatrician not convinced it's necessary.
No official diagnosis, just a high probability.
Child is 8.

As the person carrying out psychometric testing an educational psychologist is the perfect person to pick up the features of ADHD-inattentive type. ADHD/ASD feature often overlap and and can frequently co-exist.

If the ADHD features are adversely affecting your child’s learning, behaviour and/or self-esteem then I’d trial medication. It can be stopped if it doesn’t work.

so your child has adhd (inattentive rather than hyperactivity) I was told that for this type medication is less effective & they give another medication instead- can I ask if your child has been checked for epilepsy? some of our asd dc have subclinical seizures or mild absences. they can give the appearance of add (not technical term but less of a mouth full than above) ask if your child can be checked - seriously - many children within the spectrum are more likely to have epilepsy. (own dc experience)

under DD has a diagnosis of ASD, ADD, anxiety, oppositional defiance and social communication disorder. She is in an ABA class in 2nd grade working on 4th grade work. We have NYU managing her care with specialists from CHOP and Cornell Weil center for autism. We then have the NJ state agency involved too. The team we have in place is world class. They know what they are doing and have been very clear about options available to us. We also have been fortunate to have the money to try approaches not covered by insurance.

show I remember your posts from a while ago. You need to get your child infront of what they call here in the Us a developmental paediatrician. A paediatrician does not have the specialized training to decipher nuances which determine a diagnosis, comorbidity of diagnosis and the best treatment plan for your child.

mumsastudent very true what you say. DS has a learned pain response. His pediatric neurologist has told us he thinks DS has epilepsy which has caused the issue.

OP I don't have a link sorry. My eldest has been medicated now for 8 years and so was telling me at the last 6 month review that we needed to use extreme caution before upping the dose due to the risk factor for stroke in the future...scary! He is an excellent Paeds consultant and very very experienced using ADHD meds.
My younger child has been medicated now for 6 years.
We continue knowing the risk - and the side effects - because neither of my children could manage school - or school them - without the benefits - huge benefits that ritialin type meds bring.
They are more attentive, can concentrate better, are less impulsive, fidget less, talk a little less!, and on the whole are able to learn. When we have a meds break the difference is phenomenal. However, their appetites are suppressed, one of them has a BP through the roof (hence the stroke risk), and the monthly BP/heart rate, weight monitoring is tedious at best.

You must have a lot of chronic difficult issues going on to get all these assessments.
Personally I'd want to trial the meds. Because something needs to be very different.

My son is 20, and has been taking ADHD meds for the past 15 years. I was very reluctant to go for medication, but agreed to a trial. The day he started meds I had the first conversation with him I had ever had. (Obviously he talked to me before, and I talked to him. But he had never before seemed to actually respond and take part in a conversation. It was just talking.

That said, I would be pushing for a qualified professional to make a proper diagnosis before considering meds.

mumsastudent - what do you mean checked for epilepsy? He has seen two (independent) neurologists, neither mentioned anything about it, so I assume it's not a concern. There was some talk (after assessment No2) of him having to have a brain scan before he could get a definite asd diagnosis but this was decided against as it wouldn't bring him anything extra in terms of help etc.

DH is against yet another assessment as he thinks it's not fair on DS. This is what would happen if we were referred to a psychiatrist because I'm so pissed off with the school and ed psych that I don't want them to have access to his medical records.

Hi OP

I'm sorry that you are you going through this and it sounds like some of the professionals involved have not been very useful to you!

I'm an educational psychologist and there is no way that they should have recommended medication. Sometimes following a diagnosis an EP might speak with parents about their options in which they may ask parents if the paediatrician has recommended medication and what parents think but generally most steer clear as we are not doctors and this seems inappropriate

I agree with other posters about trying to pin down or wait for a proper diagnosis and discuss with paediatrician and medically trained staff the medication options

Is there someone else within the school that you can speak to about support within the school? If not the teacher or SENCo maybe a family liaison officer or someone similar?

Has the EP discussed strategies and support for your child with you and teacher and worked with the school to help them put adhd friendly teaching strategies in place to help with daily tasks?

Sorry if this isn't coherent, I am feeling sleep deprived today

Also should say, medication can be very helpful for some children but I think that this advice needs to come from doctors and the people who will be prescribing/reviewing it.

Sorry if I've missed this but why was the paediatrician not recommnending it?

If both parents have PR, and they can't agree, then ultimately the onus is on the pro-treatment parent to get a court order on the subject. Whether or not the court is likely to order treatment depends on all kinds of factors.

Personally, having seen how devastating untreated ADHD can be, I'd agree to trialling medication if behavioural interventions haven't worked.

Yes, I had a meeting with the school yesterday. But I was told I can't expect the teachers to change their teaching style for one child ( I had suggested bullet point like summary after an explanation. So after "Right, children, today we're going to look at your workbook on the jungle again. We had just finished looking at this. Today I want you to read page X to yourself and then start on the questions and colour in the picture" a recap: "Get out your workbook. Read page x. Answer the questions. Colour in the picture". And asked if they can make sure the instructions they give are direct rather than implied.)

Changing school is not an option, for various reasons, at the moment. We would consider it as an absolutely last resort but it's not there yet, and would probably cause more problems that it solves.

Anyway the point is, I was against medication unless we knew the school were doing all they can to help him and it still doesn't work. After yesterday, DH said the school aren't going to change or make any more effort than what they are already (hollow laugh) doing. Which makes me think that for DS's sake we should give it a try. But how to convince DH?!?

You really do need to push for proper diagnosis. The process will also help identify how best to support

Without knowing where you are it is hard to advise but schools absolutely should be modifying their teaching to take into account any additional needs, many strategies would probably help the other students too!

Can you telephone and speak to your schools SEN officer (within the local authority) or the general SEN team to ask for advice on this? That's an awful attitude for a school to have-not inclusive at all!

Sorry this doesn't help with the medication query but definitely the school need to be changing things, medication can be great but alongside understanding and supportive teachers and necessary adaptations in the class

“Yes, I had a meeting with the school yesterday. But I was told I can't expect the teachers to change their teaching style for one child”

^That attitude by the school is completely unacceptable. The school are legally bound to make reasonable asjustments to ensure that your child is not disadvantaged as a result of his additional needs (arguably a disability). The bullet pointing you requested is not only reasonable but actual good practice that will help all the children jn the class! I am shocked your EP hasn’t supported you wih this.
If the school are not willing to make reasonable adjustments that is discriminatory towards your child and I think this should be pointed out to them!

Ds1 has ADHD, I was more in favour of meds than DH, I am a sahm so do all school runs deal with after school issues /phone calls to the school. Dh is out of house 7-6 mon-fri so only really saw D's for a few hours a day.
It took school excluding D's twice in one week for DH to agree to trial the meds .
They have made a massive difference in his school life, he is calmer and can engage with class teacher and the other children. Meds are 8hours do are out of his system when DH gets home and he dosn't have them on weekends (weight issues).

Overall it has been a huge change for the better for us, as a family

Would a trial work to see how the child feels taking the meds?

If the school are refusing to make reasonable adjustments, start there. They are contravening the DDA.

Is the school State or Private?

Are you in the UK.

The school are legally bound to make reasonable asjustments to ensure that your child is not disadvantaged as a result of his additional needs (arguably a disability).

Who gets to decide what are reasonable adjustments though? I thoughtI was being reasonable, the school clearly think they are unreasonable. Who gets the final say?

If you're split, I suspect it would be worth trying other things first (apologies if you already have / not possible etc). I seem to remember reading an article suggesting that half an hour of physical exercise outside everyday had been found to be as beneficial as medication for children with ADHD. Can't find that article, but this would seem to support it: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3724411/

Ultimately, an SEN tribunal would decide, if you take that route. But it really shouldn’t need to go that far because from the information given here the school are being petty over very simple adjustments and that is the very least they should be doing to help a child wth ADHD. An official diagnosis would certainly help your case, though good practice is to ensure ALL children’s learning needs are met regardless of whether they have a diagnosed medical condition.

In order to qualify for reasonable adjustments, you need to be able to prove that your child has a disability under the Equality Act 2010 (not the DDA). Without a diagnosis, that may be difficult, and you should be looking at SEN policies etc. With a disability, the school would have to prove objectively that the adjustment is not reasonable. The onus is on them to make the adjustment if at all possible and this can be done by preferential treatment of the child. Ie it is not good enough for the School to say that they can’t give “special treatment”. Given that many schools are perfectly capable of adjusting their teaching style to make things more inclusive, this would certainly be reasonable if your child has a disability.

Crosspost with Stream. Yes, they should absolutely accommodate your child’s needs whether or not they have a disability. Is this Children and Family’s Act and/or SEN code of practice? Can’t remember off the top of my head.

SEN code of practice I think? Although I hasten to add I am not a legal expert (and now I think about it am not sure if it would be an SEN tribunal or a court tribunal, in the case of a discrimination claim?) but I have known many families fight these sorts of cases successfully and many schools who do farrr more to support their pupils withtout the threat of legal action.

We are going through a potential diagnosis for my DS for ADD (inattentiveness). The school try, but tbh in a class of 31 children they can't give him the attention he needs in order for him to stay on track, and I seriously doubt that even if he is diagnosed he will be considered severe enough to get additional support funded. So I take him to tutoring twice a week. He is covering the Maths and English curriculum, and is (surprisingly) ahead in English to what they are covering right now at school. Whereas at school he is considered to be behind.

I'm doing my bit, he won't fall behind in the core subjects (and the English core skills will help with history, geography etc), and it's up to the school to help him 'learn how to learn' in a classroom environment. (I still provide assistance with homework though). Can't do much more without a formal diagnosis which will take ages as far as I can see.

The tutoring has set my mind at ease, and that makes it easier to help my DS as I'm not over reacting to the situation.