Does ADHD get harder to deal with as kids get older?

[teabycandlelight]

Sorry if this is the wrong subject area as it’s actually about my DS (10). I’m hoping ND MNs will have some good advice.

DS10 is a bright child and has ADHD. He used to do really well at school, but he is just getting worse and the standard of his work is declining a lot.

He is also much more reluctant to do homework and it often results in arguments and tantrums.

Does ADHD get harder to deal with as kids get older?

Anyone?

Think you probably need to seperate out three things:

1. ADHD/developing executive functions.
2. Puberty.
3. Increasing environmental pressures/demands/expectations.

Your ADHDer's executive functions are likely to be improving all the time (but still lagging behind their peers).

Puberty is horrendous generally, but there is also an ADHD/hormonal link.

Environmental demands/pressures make be increasing at a faster rate than your ADHDers developmental capacity, which will make life feel harder for them. Demands in some UK schools are off the scale restrictive/punitive, which will feel particularly intolerable for some ADHDers, who will need respite at home. (I don't think I would've coped with mainstream secondary as it is so regimented/rote learning-based these days. Not a happy match with my active learning style).

*may be not make be.

If DC is only 10, can your agree a reasonable adjustment with school that he doesn't do homework, so that he can relax and recharge in the evenings?

The evidence base on the value of primary stage homework is weak, even for NT kids. Perhaps going forward you are going to have to take a holistic view with DC and school as to whether it causes more harm than good, given DC's need for downtime and wellbeing?

@Traverseedubosphore thanks for this. I think the hormonal changes may be making things even more difficult!

I will speak to the school to see what they suggest.