Hello,
I’m wondering if some more experienced Mum’s and Dad’s could help me please?
DS (6) is struggling at school (not academically, his teacher says he’s very bright) but emotionally and behaviourally. He’s an April born boy, and school have raised the question of him having mild ADHD, and have had the SENCO do an informal couple of checks on him.
He struggles to sit still and focus in lessons which he likes less than in the subjects he enjoys, and is wearing ear defenders a lot as he’s finding the noise in his year 1 classroom a lot to manage. While he struggles to focus sometimes, on other occasions he can be transfixed if he’s interested in the subject and stimulated.
SENCO thinks if he has ADHD it’s mild, but that it could just be a case of immaturity and needing to continue to grow up a bit. We’re very happy to have him properly assessed and aren’t frightened of a diagnosis of anything. He doesn’t seem to have ASD traits but can get very frustrated and have meltdowns still when he’s tired or safely at home from school and things aren’t going according to plan. (DH also has form for this so it may be genetic or learned behaviour).
I just can’t work out if he’s exhausted at the end of a long term or has anything more going on. School aren’t sure there’s anything out of the ordinary that would show up in an assessment. I’m happy to watch and wait but equally don’t want to let him down. He was crying in school the other day and really doesn’t seem to cope well with loud noise or tiredness (we make bedtime as early and consistent as we can).
I’m sure he’d benefit from smaller class sizes but we can’t comfortably afford private school.
I wondered if any of you have boys with mild ADHD or similar type symptoms do you have any good reading material you’d recommend or coping mechanisms you employ? I’m feeling my way in the dark a bit but don’t want to let my DS down. With grateful thanks for any help.