Attention deficit yr 1 boy

[Araminta49]

Hi all , I'm concerned about my DGS , started yr 1 last Sept at 5yrs 1month. It is getting more and more difficult to get him to listen and pay attention at school , at home also - especially if he is engrossed in something , like role play , drawing , writing - all his favourite things .
He is performing at school just at the expected level in most subjects, below the expected level in Maths , really struggles with even adding 1 and 2 to numbers , better if he sees sums visually , say 4 coins add 2 coins , but at school has to know the answers very quickly , which he finds difficult .
He goes to football training for 90 minutes at the weekend , which he enjoys , for Year R and Yr 1 , he is often lost in his own world- twirling around , poking the mud and rarely watching the ball - vaguely following the other boys and the ball or listening to commands . He seems happy though!

Has anyone experienced this ? Or has any comments ? His hearing seems ok , but maybe should get this tested . Can this sort of bevaviour be normal in a 5 year old ? Really getting worried about him now .....

Thanks for all responses.

Nellooo , good to hear that you have confidence in your son' s school , hope they help him .

And I hope things improve for your little guy too x

I'm not trying to start an argument Green but totally disagree that EPs are part of a "more enlightened" pathway.

Oh ok

Well we get a lots of potential ADHD cases referred from health professionals where the child is described as one way in clinic but then a school observation and consultation shows something completely different, and can offer different accounts of behaviour. I think it is a more enlightened approach for a more holistic view to be taken of the child before something as serious as ADHD is prescribed. It's important to look at the child's behaviour in a number of contexts as per the guidelines for diagnosis.

I think it's more enlightened for a clinical psychologist (who is a specialist in this area) to conduct observations at home and school.

In my son's case his CPN (who knew him well) carried out school observations ...much more holistic than a one off short visit by an EP.

Just come back to this thread, the teachers have asked for him to be referred to the school SENCO as they would like him to be observed.

They told me that, to do any written work he has to sit with the classroom assistant and be watched to ensure he is writing, otherwise he won't do it (but is capable).

They were interested/surprised to hear that he can concentrate when playing with his toys.

They also mentioned that he seemed very tired most days and were amazed when I said that he sleeps for about 11 hours a night.

Hi again , Scrivette , hope the SENCO referral is useful for yor son , and helps him .
Does he concentrate at school if he finds it interesting , I wonder . Could his 'tiredness ' be boredom ? My little chap definitely concentrates more when interested , at home and school , I believe.

Did anyone at his school mention poor attention skills , or what it could be? Ie ADD/ADHD

Our paediatrician said that not being able to concentrate on things you aren't interested in is a clear sign of attention problems. Most kids will obviously pay attention when they are self directing; when they "have" to learn something they aren't good at or don't enjoy a task is when problems occur.

Most children fail to concentrate on things that don't interest them

He does concentrate on things that interests him, but only out of school!

I asked them outright if they thought it could be ADD and they just reiterated that they thought it was best he was observed by the SENCO.

We shall see!

Yes, but most children will be able to self regulate to the degree where they^^ can work to complete tasks they aren't interested in if they try hard enough, whereas children with attention problems will find certain tasks and certain learning situations almost impossible.

If that were the case every young child I've met has ADHD which is clearly not the case.

My son could focus for hours on building Lego but would flit from toy to toy even things he liked and clearly enjoyed doing and was interested in.

Firstly I know very little about ADHD but this info may be of interest; Prior to meeting me, my husband spent 10 years in the social system working with difficult and disadvantaged children age 7-14 classified as having ADHD who were removed from their home environment for 1-3 months at a time. For 80% (not all but most) as soon as he had them on a good diet with no processed food or sugar (and living under his rules) their symptoms disappeared. The biggest problem when they eventually went back to their home environment was that the carers, parents or foster parents often felt this was too extreme to manage.

My son was on an exclusion diet under the direction of a paediatrician and hospital dietician ...the triggers for his hyperactivity were things I'd imagine you would consider "healthy" all dairy foods, cereal, citrus fruit, many vegetables (peas, beans sweet corn etc) bread. At one point he could only eat broccoli rice and chicken and drink water and new foods gradually introduced. You would probably be surprised to find they recommended certain fizzy drinks

mrz, your ds' diet sounds like my ds who has severe food allergy. I suspect my ds has traits of adhd/asd, but it doesn't seem to become worse because of his extremely limited diet, I wonder?

I am positive my yr3 dd has ADD. Daydreams, constantly moving something (fingers, knees, whole body) even when doing things she loves. She has had an IQ test and also has poor working memory and slow processing speed. I'm wondering if her attention problems are causing/contributing towards her poor memory and processing speed BUT we cannot get her assessed, unless private which we cannot afford. She's got a high 'general' IQ but is over a year behind at school.

Out of interest how do you work out which foods were OK and which weren't?

My son was put on an exclusion diet by his paediatrician (I wouldn't recommend anyone do this without medical supervision). He could only eat plain chicken, boiled rice or rice cakes and broccoli for two months. As he had no reaction to these other foods were gradually introduced over a period of months with weekly hospital visits . We kept a diary of what he ate and how he slept and how he acted/reacted.

We noticed he craved things like bread or cornflakes and would eat the whole loaf/box if no one noticed and this would be followed by extreme hyperactivity.