Daily Mail take on ADHD - 'badly behaved boys need discipline not drugs'

[tortoiseshell]

Article here - I'm posting the link a little tentatively, as it is not a good article - typical DM bile I think!

Doesn't work for me dotto

The swimmer Mike Phelps has an ADHD diagnosis.

But I'm sure it's all just made up.

He just needed to swim even more - as if that were possible.

PMSL expat DS absolutely loved hearing about Mike Phelps. He now wants to represent the UK in the 2016 olympics doing karate

ADHVSFD

Attention deficit hyperactivity very swimmy fishy disorder

You know I may have had the same opinion as daftpunk had I not seen what my friend has gone through with her son. His condition (Beckwith Weiderman) has similarities to others so although he was assessed as having adhd she thinks he may have autism and the doctors are considering that but because of his underlying condition it isn't as clear cut.

She hates giving her 4 1/2 year old medicine, but believe me, as the mother of dts I know the difference between kids needing to let off steam and what happens when he kicks off. It is a necessary evil. Yesterday she phoned nearly in tears because she had heard this on the radio while driving home and worried that people would think she was drugging him for a quiet life.

I suppose she could let him run off and climb trees etc. but chances are he would then run straight onto the road or decide to jump off the tree when he got to the top. If I didn't know her and her son then I would be thinking it was just naughty kids and bad parents too. There is such a big difference. I bless every day that I have healthy sons and so should everyone on here who does not have to deal with this.

Please remember that ADHD affects girls too. I am a sufferer (undiagnosed) who had a miserable childhood and still experiences many problems to this day.

It's taken me 40 years of suffering to work out what was wrong with me. Don't let this happen to your daughters on the assumption that it only affects boys. The symptoms may be more subtle in girls - less obvious hyperactivity for example. - (although I do seem to remember my parents being called to the school because I spent the lessons rocking backwards and forwards on a chair!)

Now, I must take a lie down (writing that took a lot of concentration)

@ Pagwatch.

Thank you daftpunk My daughter has just been flagged for assessment because pre-school feel she needs 1:1 during free play. She is 2.9. Reading the signs and symptoms, I am readying myself for the possibility that they will tell me that she has ADHD. I want to thank you sincerely for making clear the prejudice both she and I will be faced with if this is the case.

Your opinions are quite frankly exactly what I had told myself I was paranoid to think

I can't wait to be judged along with all the other parents out there. I bet you are just filled with that you don't have this experience.

Don't worry Lou, they issues the bell and 'Leper' sign with the dx now

(hugs to Lou reall, its a worrying time)

Oh, peachy! I always wanted a bell!!! Not so sure about the sign, though. Is it colour co-ordinated?

In all serious, thanks for the hug, I need one right now. My special girl. Just a shock to go somewhere more formal and have them confirm what has been niggling.

Grr to links. If you type 'Ecologist ADHD' into Google, you'll get to the "School Uniformity" article. It's long, but is very good!

lou031205

if a teacher at my childs preschool told me that my child at 2.9 years was being "flagged" as having behaviour problems, i would thank them very much for their opinion..but take my child out of that pre-school.

i may not be a professor of adhd...but i'm a mother of 4 children, 2 girls and 2 boys..i know how children behave...and to be labelling a child at just 2.9 years is quite frankly ridiculous.... imo of course!

"..i know how children behave..."

and some children are outside the norms. I suspected my son was autistic at 17 months. He was diagnosed at 3 and age 9 is severely autistic.

A 'label' guides those who dish out (paltry) services a little.

i'm so glad DD1's developmental delays were spotted so early.

thanks to ongoing assessments she's been having since 8 months old, and dx at 4, she's getting the extra help she needs and stands a chance of having a positive school experience and hopefully learning to read and write better than her father, whose learning difficulties were dismissed at school.

Usually ADHD would not be diagnosed at such a young age - although it can be useful to be in the system. I have a friend whose eldest son was flagged from about 2. DX was held off until about 6, but he was still able to access support.

It would have been a pretty miserable 4 years for the family if there hadn't been tentative labels bandied about and support given.

er..am i reading this wrong, i thought this thread was about adhd not autism?

Gosh
DS2 was diagnosed at just turned 3 years.
He did not have any symptoms at first but had HUGE symtoms develop between 18 and 22 months
WE were so concerned that WE pursued a private diagnosis to find out what the hell had happened.
Diagnosed with severe ASD at three. Actually three years and 3 months - but we had had to wait 6 months for specialist appointment.It enabled us to get into a special nursery for ASD - which had very few places left.

DS was at nursery at the time.
I was very greatful when nursery staff talked with me. I had thought i was loosing my mind.

many children with ADHD also have autism. same with dyspraxia.

I've always known something was different about DD. I used to blame it on her being left-handed or premature. One or the other was normally perfectly good to cover it.
Why isn't she crawling? She was prem
Why is she so messy? Left-handed
And even "Why does she not ever kick off?" I'm a good parent (in reality her emotions just aren't the same as other people's)

At 2.9 if someone told me something they suspected and I took her out of that pre-school only to find out now, at 8, that they were right I would have felt terrible.

oh I'm sure you could swap the terms daftpunk- plenty of twats people think that autistic kids just need a good slap (it's even been suggested to my face as something we should consider - that'll get him talking won't it!). And drugs like risperidone are used with autism.

Much like ADHD. Often the 2 are co-morbid anyway. There are pretty big overlaps.

Although I think parents of ADHD kids get a harder time for the twatish public.

oh I'm sure you could swap the terms daftpunk- plenty of twats people think that autistic kids just need a good slap (it's even been suggested to my face as something we should consider - that'll get him talking won't it!). And drugs like risperidone are used with autism.

Much like ADHD. Often the 2 are co-morbid anyway. There are pretty big overlaps.

Although I think parents of ADHD kids get a harder time from the twatish public.

I think early intervention is really important and can make all the difference. DS first school were so crap that things with ds reached crisis point within about 5 weeks of him starting there. The upside of this is that he became an urgent case for referral for statementing, CAMHS, paeds etc and got lots of help very quickly. This support has been invaluable to him and to us and his behaviour would undoubtably be far worse today if he hadn't had support since he was just 4.

You have given daftpunk such a hard time for basically saying exactly what I heard on the news yesterday.

I was interested in annoyingdevil's post about having ADHD and no treatment or diagnosis. What happens if these children have no diagnosis and no drugs. There must have been many in the past before the condition was acknowledged.

How were you as a teen annoyingdevil?

I think you are right about people and ADHD jimjams. There is a great deal more understanding now about ASDs than there used to be and most people seem to accept its a real condition. I really think the media has a lot to answer for when it comes to how the public view disorders like this. Every year one of the papers will lead with an article about how some eminent psychologist / teacher or whatever has decided that ADHD doesn't exist and that its just bad parenting. I haven't noticed this with ASDs.

jimjam...get over calling me a twat..ok, most people on this thread dropped that hours ago.

i know absolutely zero about autism, i admit that...but i do know (a little bit) about adhd, and from what iv'e seen and read, it's more about controlling behaviour than treating a medical condition. you might think my views come straight out of the daily mail, that's fair enough, but i'm not the complete idiot you think i am.

iv'e said all i'm going to say on this.