Adhd, dyspraxia, or something else?

[elliejjtiny]

I have 5 dc, 4 of whom have sn. 7 year old (the one without sn) has asthma, glue ear and hypermobility. I've wondered for a while if there was maybe something not quite right with him. He really struggled with going into year 1. His handwriting is terrible and he writes really slowly (he is left handed which may be the cause of this. He talks constantly and seems to have no filter at all. He struggles to concentrate when he is doing his homework but he can play chess really well for his age and he loves playing board games. At the moment he is in 2nd place in the school chess competition for year 5 and under which is brilliant considering he is only in year 2.

Anyway my friend who is a teacher said she thought he might have adhd. I'm not sure, I would have thought he would be more fidgety if he had adhd. Tbh with 4 of my dc having sn i'm not sure what's normal anymore.

I would have a word with his class teacher and senco see what they think.

Ds is a lefty which has made the problems with his writing harder to pin down at first but with a lot of Ot input we are slowly getting there.

The concentration thing ds is very much the same and can concentrate on his “thing” for ages but for general things it’s non existent.

As you are well aware everyone will present different so lack of fidgeting doesn’t necessarily rule out adhd and there is a varient of it without the hyperactivity.

Ds has both diagnosises amongst his ever expanding catalogue of diagnoses so not much help in trying to narrow down but probably well worth asking for a second opinion.

Thankyou. I'll talk to the teacher and the senco. I thought all his problems at school were because of his glue ear but now I don't know. A lot of the conditions like adhd , dyspraxia, dyslexia and autism share symptoms which make it really confusing.

Could be both - I know they're semi-looking at DD2 for inattentive ADHD - but to be honest I think her issues are more linked to dyspraxia (which we do have a diagnosis of) and associated levels of sensory wonkiness.

With ADHD you can hyper focus on something you are really interested in while struggling to concentrate on everything else, so don't rule it out. Also I remember mentioning to someone that our DS with dyspraxia was left handed as well, which didn't help, and being told being left handed was probably linked to the dyspraxia.

It certainly sounds like your DS has something going on. I would have a word with the SENCO in the first instance.