ADHD - should I raise it with school now I’m lockdown?

[HollsLolls]

My 7yr old (Yr 3) daughter is showing textbook symptoms of ADHD and it’s becoming very difficult to manage her home learning in the lockdown. We’ve had so many tears and tantrums. But her school has no idea and I don’t know whether I should tell them now over the phone or wait until I can meet them in person whenever that might be.

I’ve suspected for a while she might have it, and doing homework has always been such a pullaver, like extracting teeth. But she’s so well behaved in school and is achieving her ‘expected level’ in all her subjects so I’ve been afraid to mention it. Her teachers wouldn’t recognise her at home and I really don’t want to damage her reputation with her teachers. But the poor girl is really suffering now with home learning. Two days ago the school started asking for evidence of her work at home and the pressure to produce something has had us all in tears!

Will the school think I’m mad or making excuses for not working?

Her dad has textbook adhd too

I should say at home she’s constantly on the move, never sits still, is always changing position, standing up, twirling round and I don’t think she realises she’s doing it. Her play is very physical and involves hitting and being quite rough. She’s always touching us or getting in our personal space. She blurts out noises all the time. She’s never quiet. She finds it very hard to fall asleep, she’ll move constantly for anything up to an hour before she goes off to sleep. She’s bey impulsive, and seems surprised when she’s told off for being naughty. She finds it very hard to focus unless it’s Roblox. She seems to speed read books but when she read out loud to me I realised she was skimming over the words she doesn’t know and mot understanding a lot of the text. She finds it hard to copy out text accurately. She’ll miss out letters when she’s writing and not finish off words. She hates writing and will spend hours writing a few lines, with lots of procrastinating and tantrums along the way. Her handwriting can be a mess. Her toys and drawers are a disaster zone! She never remembers to brush her teeth or go to the toilet in the morning. She interrupts conversations and can’t wait whenever you say she can have something in the near future, like a particular snack. She has to have it instantly. Does this sound like ADHD?

Sorry for all the typos!

I think (as a teacher) you should email the school and ask for a time to call (if you prefer that to emails) I am thinking similarly about my dc and although they can't do much regarding any assessment during lockdown, it gets it in mind iyswim.
Send it to the office fao the head of support for learning. I think it's a lot to expect evidence from a 7 year old tbh!

It would be useful to discuss with the school initially but the route to a diagnosis is via your GP.

Thank you, I really appreciate these replies. It’s been hard these last few weeks

"asking for evidence of her work at home"

I am absolutely astonished at this.

In our case, although we are doing some work with our child, it is very little.

Schools are full well aware that come September (or whenever schools eventually re-open properly) that the lost time will have to be made up and more or less everyone will be in the same boat.

Home is home and school is school and therein lies the difference.

From your second post above, I think an EP assessment might be helpful.

As a measure now, can you involve her in discussing and making a timetable for her? Perhaps a bit of work at a time and build up? Work in playtime etc.?

Routine is so disrupted nowadays that it will clearly have an effect on children.

A quick google search found me the following link:

www.additudemag.com/adhd-symptoms-test-children/

However the risk with "googling" is that it can throw you off track - there is no substitute for a competent / experienced expert assessment.

Hi @HollsLolls did you follow up with your school? I’m going to be having a similar conversation with my DDs teacher and feel it will go a similar way, my DD sounds just like your description of yours. She also is not disruptive at school a floats along just about meeting expectations, she loses focus and goes into her own little world and this could easily be missed in a busy classroom.

Hi @Marsis, yes I went to our GP, who referred my daughter for an ADHD assessment. I understand it’ll be a lengthy process but it feels good to have it underway. It was very easy. In the meantime, I also spoke to the school SENCo and he said the school would try some of the strategies they use with children with ADHD, regardless of where we’ve reached with my daughter’s assessment. If she’s having problems with homework, that’s enough of a reason to try a different approach. He also said it’s possible for children with ADHD to spend all their energy trying to concentrate and hold it together in school, and when they come home they’re exhausted, which is why you might see more obvious signs of ADHD at home than in school.
I’m interested in whether DD is meeting her potential rather than whether she’s meeting a minimum national standard.
It’s going to take a few meetings with the school to get across everything we’ve observed at home. But at least our school is willing to listen and take the process seriously.
I also believe my husband has ADHD, which is helpful for me when I get so frustrated with him, and helpful for our DD’s assessment too.

Thank you good to hear you are being listened to, I hope you get support to help you DD achieve her potential. I think I will get in touch with our GP regardless of how the school meeting goes.

Hi, just wondering how you are getting along with the assessment, as you have basically described my daughter to at! We have raised it with the school and assessment will start when she is back.

@HollsLolls, so I forgot to tag you above with my question x

All the best with your daughter's assessment. We're half way through the process so no diagnosis yet. But fingers crossed it'll be a worthwhile process in the end. I've been surprised at how long it's taken