To think my eight-year-old DS has Attention Deficit Disorder?

[doingthisthing]

Shamelessly posting for traffic...

Just did an online test and am pretty sure my eight year old son has ADD (without the hyperactivity). It's such a relief!

It totally explains so many things - he has such difficultly sticking to a task, finds it so hard to follow multiple/sequential instructions, zones out a lot, finds it really hard to listen / it's really hard to get his attention, he gets super angry for sustained periods at seemingly minor things, he loses things all the time... Apologies if some of this isn't strictly ADD, I'm new to it all.

His school work is generally really good although I'm worried that it may decline as his differences are more pronounced with age, and teaching methods change. His teacher this year has already picked up that he misses chunks of teaching in the classroom as he's not listening. (My son says his mind is blank when he's zoning out, it's not that he's been thinking about anything specific or that anything has particularly distracted him.)

Just really wondering what to do next?
The SEN coordinator at his school is infamously ineffective, what other avenues are there?
Are there any brilliant online resources to start with?
What strategies have you found helpful with your children?

Be great to hear about your experiences, thank you!

Anyone around? Would really appreciate some pointers?

Firstly you will need an official diagnosis. The symptoms you describe could equally be dyspraxia, dyslexia, ASD or ADHD, depending on severity/context. To be ADHD his behaviour needs to be difficult in more than one setting, ie home and school. You need to ask your GP for referral for assessment. Can't do paragraphs (aarrgghh) so will start a new post.

Zoning out could be epilepsy, so should be checked out.

The only strategy I'm aware that we use is to tell them one thing at a time, and not a string of instructions. The difficulty is that every child with ADD/ASD/whatever it is will have different triggers and respond differently. There is no one size fits all.

3 of our 5 DC have between them ASD/ADHD/dyspraxia/dyslexia/sensory processing difficulties but all 3 present differently. The strategies that work with one don't help the other 2.

Thank you lots Weasel.

How important do you think formal diagnosis is? Is there merit in trying out strategies without a diagnosis?

I tried the single instructions thing tonight at bedtime and it worked so well! Thing is, how do you then teach them to do multiple instructions - as that's so necessary at school / other contexts?

I had a meeting with a doctor regarding the possibility of ADHD with DS1 today.

I was referred by the school, it might be worth asking the SENCO to refer you anyway.

The doctor has recommended I self refer myself onto a Parenting Course for children with ADHD which is run by the local Children's Centre, to give me ideas of how to deal with his behaviour and to meet other parents and share strategies with them. If you look on your local Borough website it may have information on any courses available to you.

Thanks Scrivette I'll have a look. Good luck with your DS

There are always merits in trying out different strategies, but obviouslly it helps if you know exactly what you are dealing with. Before DD2 was dx we spent a lot of time explaining to various people that she had issues without being able to articulate why, and she got a lot of grief from activity teachers by not acting like everyone else.

There are always doctors near me merits in trying out different strategies, but obviouslly it helps if you know exactly what you are dealing with.

It could be a range of things as has already been pointed out. Is his learning being impacted?