Thought you lot might want to see this ADHD article

[cornsilk]

here
before someone posts it triumphantly on the main board - get ready it won't be long

oh lordy. What a pile of doo da.
Am off to hide. Can't handle the lynch mob today.

Oh dear.

Sadly, in some cases, this is true (I know of one such case where a pregnant mother was wishing ADHD on her unborn child so she would get more benefits). However, my dd has a diagnosis of AD/HD. She is neither violent nor disruptive, but rather is impulsive and has terrible difficulty with concentration and she also has associated learning difficulties. I do not work - I could not work at the moment because of all the difficulty having a child with this condition brings (and another one with AS). We claim nothing and this type of article is unhelpful (despite the fact that this does actually happen in what I hope would be a very small minority of cases) and makes light of our dd's difficulties and what we go through on a daily basis as a family. She is currently not medicated because of the side effects which were unwanted and unpleasant and although it certainly helps with focus, does not help with her learning difficulties. We can manage her behaviour un-medicated and we feel school should be able to educate her using strategies which do not involve medication. To make sweeping generalisations about parents whose children suffer this condition is wholly wrong though. Our paed was very thorough imo and school were consulted and the SENCO attended at least two consultations with us because of school's concerns about dd's progress.

Well said Aero - it will be on the main board fairly soon though - get ready folks because a fair number will be telling us we are shit parents with badly behaved kids and sponge off the State,

This is so unfair that in the crusade for cuts they turn on desparate exhausted parents of disabled children. Where are those non-medicated therapies?we were fighting for 4 years. We only got some support via the statement which we had because of ASD. Without ASD diagnosis we were just hanging out there to dry. If they offered all necessary therapies and support, if there was free childcare for SEN children and jobs to go to ...

I guess different PCTs do these things differently. But locally diagnosis is done by CAMHS and you don't get through their door unless school have returned their questionnaire. So if it does happen like this (and increasingly I don't believe anything I read in the papers ) then it's only in specific places where the process allows it.

But it only takes one PCT to diagnose badly and one parent to rig diagnosis, for the tabloids to be full of "ADHD is a benefits scam" headlines.

I'm sure there are a few disgusting individuals who may be doing this. But in general, I'd say there were more teachers 'pushing' for unnecessary diagnosis due to a rigid, target driven, Victorian education system. Cramming our immature kids into over crowded classrooms and wanting them to all fit neatly into little round peg holes .... and then wondering why they behave like they do. As Albert Einstein said "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education"

What people are genuinely obtaining a diagnosis and medication and then getting DLA awards, really easily when their kids haven't even got ADHD?

I guess a lot of parents whose kids really do have something up are doing it all wrong.

Now 'scuse me while I go fetch my eyes before they roll right out of the door.

r3dh3d has most likely hit the nail on the head. School were consulted and DS1 was observed at school as part of his diagnostic process - as with ASD, the symptoms have to present in more than one setting.

Speechless- is there no end to the parent-bashing of disabled kids?