Awaiting ADHD assessment. Worried about teacher contribution.

[despondentatwork]

My almost 7yo son displays a lot of ADHD possible ASD behaviours at home/in various family settings. I've always felt there's been an issue, his behaviour has been different to any of his many siblings or cousins. My issue is that don't think his teacher will agree. He's not a problematic child & he's super bright. I l know there are two or three other boys who are more obviously concerning, and whilst I do feel they know he's different, they're more likely to see it as 'eccentricity'. How do I get around this? I know that the behaviour needs to be obvious in more than the home setting for diagnosis. Yet, it's often missed at school until kids are older & therefore intervention is delayed. It's not uncommon.

@tttigress

Sounds like you are wanting a specific diagnosis, rather than wanting an assessment.

It didn't read like that to me at all. What benefit would OP gain from getting an inaccurate diagnosis. She's noticed behaviours which she feels are masked at school and wants an assessment.

[quote catnoir1]@Phineyj this is part of the problem - if you've met one child with adhd, you've met one child with adhd. They're all so different. For example, not everyone who has the hyperactivity component is bouncing off the walls. Hyperactivity can be speed reading, excessive talking, out of their seat a lot, fidgeting with anything.

Do you feel there should be more information about adhd for teachers? [/quote]
I don't think so, not necessarily - you might as well call for teachers to know more about ASD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, epilepsy, diabetes, brain disorders, vision problems, ODD, PDA, allergies, attachment disorder, cerebral palsy, trauma, etc etc with no end ... it's simply not practical to hold a detailed understanding of every possible condition a child in class might have, and for the most part, not especially relevant or helpful.

Teachers should be allowed to focus their energies on being experts at teaching/their subject and engaging the class, maybe a general awareness that SEN are not just the sterotypes and that one child with ASD/ADHD/etc will likely present differently from another child would be helpful, but other than that no I don't think teachers need more information about any specific condition.

Yes, as a parent of an ADHD child, it is frustrating when people display basic ignorance, but ultimately the teacher doesn't need to be an expert on ADHD to help my child, they just need to be open to communicating with parents/SENCO/etc.

@BertieBotts

I do think teachers need to be trained in recognising ADHD and ASD because just as some kids only display signs at home not at school others will be the other way round - they'll cope in the quiet, safe enviornment at home but not at school. A teacher is never going to be able to make a diagnosis but they should be aware of more than the stereotypical signs.

They do take into account parents view. It's hard when you have to rely on others input.
My D's teacher s told me there was nothing wrong, however after diagnosis they could clearly see there were issues. My D's wasn't "misbehaving" so never stood out. But he has several other diagnosis too, which would never have been spotted without his add diagnosis - that's as they look at the whole picture and not just one aspect. Good luck, it's a hard slog, but worth it for the extra support you should get X

I think the point that I'm trying to make is that it isn't really relevant whether the teacher thinks there is a problem or not. By filling in the form, which is designed for a layperson to complete, the trained professionals can see from that info whether there are behaviours which are consistent with a disorder. It's not like the form asks the teacher to assess whether they think the child has ADHD. It just asks whether the teacher has noticed certain behaviours or not.

If anything maybe parents need more info that teachers are not in a position to point out/diagnose SEN - I know I assumed that was how it worked when DS1 was younger.

I agree that teachers should be better trained to recognise signs of ASD and ADHD but at the same time if you've noticed signs the assessor won't be looking to the teacher for their opinion on whether or not the child has ADHD - they're not qualified to make an assessment. They'll simply be asking for their observations. Almost every child which eventually recieved a diagnosis will have encountered teachers, family members and other adults who insisted there wasn't a problem so it won't be an unusual situation.

The key we found was asking for specific questions of teachers. So the first response from his teacher was that ds2 was "fine" and had friends but on closer questioning she could not name a single friend, revealed he was often left without a partner, shouted out answers in class, made inappropriate comments etc etc. For some reason the one that most annoys me was ds1's teachers written response to a SALT questionnaire was that he did understand idioms and was only pretending he didn't to be clever. Anyway both did end up with an ASC diagnosis.

Every time I've been asked this, there's been a standard form, they're not interested in any free text response. Over the years the bar for a diagnosis seems to have got higher and higher, too.

school were adament that dd is not autistic and it was all a parenting issue. however, the assessor said they had written stuff on their half of the form that should have caused them to be concerned. thankfully, dd was full on autistic in the assessment and there was no doubt she is autistic. did not even have to go to ADOS.

My oldest has Autism and ADHD but is very quirky and school were keen re: assessment.

My middle child shows almost none of his behaviour at school and despite the awful issues at home I put off asking for an assessment via the school while we sorted my oldest’s assessments and I did a couple of parenting class - to try and get help with the daily ‘behind the doors’ grind.
I finally approached the SENCO last year about requesting an assessment and they’re putting it through as ‘behaviour only seen outside of school, backed up with non school evidence’. Their teacher will probably put down ‘very bright, rigid, perfectionist, very sensitive’.

I'm a primary school TA and a parent of DC with ASD. There are often children in the class who don't have any obvious issues with behaviour but who still display certain traits. It's often not enough to trigger any particular intervention but if the teacher or SENCO received a questionnaire to fill in about them, it might be enough to provide another piece of the jigsaw for any assessments.

DS1's teachers kept telling us he couldn't possibly have ADHD because he wasn't like ADHD kids they'd had before/he could stay in a chair

I had this with DS2. His teacher had also taught DS1 the year before, and had filled out the forms thinking they were for DS1, then crossed out the answers, then faxed them over - they were unreadable. The pediatrician watched DS bounce acround the room, press all the buttons he could find, interrupt etc then read our forms and we had a Dx.

School had not supported DS1 through the process either, at all. He had the same teacher in Yr2 and Yr6. She couldn't see it in Yr2, although she did struggle with him - by Yr6 she could see. But we went through a different pathway and he had a full ADOS and they couldn't really argue with that, their forms (and indeed ours) were a very small part compared to the hours spent with him and the testing they did.

Depends on the teacher. At DS’s parents evening in November, he class teacher was bewildered when I mentioned how he was struggling without the usual (pre-covid) support for his SEN. He didn’t even know he was on the register.

Thx for all these replies folks. I know that teachers can only provide evidence about what they see...and it is possibly the playground & not the classroom that some behaviours are more clearly displayed. I do think this reliance on the poor teachers adds to their already huge workload & I think the assessment requirements need to broaden their acceptance from other sources. All of the above info is very very helpful; I'll use some of it to guide a discussion with the teacher next week.

tttigress, don't understand your comment at all.