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Here you'll find advice from parents and teachers on special needs education.

ADHD diagnosis at 10?

3 replies

Jank8 · 27/10/2023 10:48

Hi I fear this maybe a long and garbled post as I'm really not sure what to ask and am totally overwhelmed.
My son is 10 and he now feels he may "be the same" as others in his class with additional needs. He talks about his brain being full and mushed and not able to cope with his thoughts. He has friends with ADHD and autism and has started comparing himself to them and saying his the same.
Since reception we've had what's described as low level behaviour issues. Fidgeting, talking, distracting others, shouting out answers (this seems to be better as he's got older).
He's achieving academically so school don't see it as a problem (we've not had a proper chat about it though).
He's always been an early riser (bed at 9 up between 5 and 6) and I've certainly noticed certain traits, figgeting etc.
I can't ignore what he says and how he feels but I have no idea where or how I get help. Also whether this is more than just 10 year old behaviour or is additional needs. I'm really sorry if I've got terminology wrong, I'm just so lost on how to help him.
Any help or reassurance would be very welcome x

OP posts:
YellowRosesWithRedTips · 27/10/2023 12:57

In some areas you can self refer, if you can’t the GP &/or school will be able to. Have you spoken to the SENCO at school?

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 27/10/2023 14:14

Have a 14 year old DD with ADHD.

To be honest there was no real question over whether she was or not - it was incredibly obvious since the age of about 5, and I was tearing my hair out and exhausted by the time we got the Dx done.

She's better at school than out of school, so they weren't pushing for us to see anyone, but also didn't say we were being ridiculous - and now she's medicated they can all suddenly see a huge difference.

I think the things to bear in mind are:

Will you medicate? Probably not much point in pursuing a Dx if you don't want to go down that route as you can implement all the strategies yourself with a book otherwise (only thing that worked for us was huge amounts of tech for alarms, calendars etc and me taking over all life admin and regarding DD as being at least 2 years younger than she is).

The waiting lists are horrendous - 2-3 years on NHS in my area, and if you don't score high enough on the assessment questionnaires from both parents and school, you don't get into the system at all.

Private is quicker - about a 3 month wait, but expensive. We have been paying out over £100 a month for DD's meds. If I add up assessment, follow ups, meds etc, it's north of £2k for the first year, and around £600 a year once we move to shared care.

For us, we chose to go for the Dx in the end due to DD's achievements (or lack of) at school being totally out of synch with her ability and her rising anxiety levels.

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 27/10/2023 14:18

FWIW, DD scored high enough on the assessments that NHS accepted, but we wanted to start her on medication well before GCSEs and so GP strongly advised us to go the private route if we could.

We saw a very senior psychiatrist who previously ran a big NHS adolescent mental health unit, and assessments were in person and extensive.

Book I can highly recommend is The Parent's Guide to ADHD Medication, which is amazingly helpful and covers everything.

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