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Could my DS have ADHD? Or something else? Or is just what kids are like?

4 replies

CroccyWoccy · 01/09/2022 19:01

DS is 9 and increasingly obviously a bit “quirky”. I think I might have ADHD myself and increasingly recognise elements of what I was like as a child in DS, though I don’t know if I am projecting.

What do you think?

Not physically hyperactive, behaviour in school generally very good, well liked by teachers.

Noted that he can seem very daydreamy in class, doesn’t always seem to be listening, and can take encouragement to settle into a task, but once he starts the quality of his work is good.

At home he can be engrossed in made-up imaginative games for hours and hours at a time, making up scenarios with Lego figures etc.

Really hard to get him to settle into homework - if I turn my back for 5 mins he has drifted off and started doing something else. He is quite bright and enjoys his work but just can’t hold focus.

Similarly tends to wander off during meal times - if I leave him he doesn’t eat, he’s either just sat there daydreaming or has started reading a book.

Doesn’t seem to get social boundaries - will talk to anyone, any time (people on public transport etc).

OP posts:
HotPenguin · 01/09/2022 23:35

Could be ADD or possibly ASD? He sounds a bit like my son who is diagnosed with ASD and we are looking into ADD at the moment. Homework can be difficult or impossible for children with ASD.

CroccyWoccy · 02/09/2022 11:34

Thanks for the reply - I perhaps have a blinkered view of how ASD presents. One of his good friends has an ASD diagnosis and struggles in more obvious ways with behaviour in school and is easily over stimulated.

OP posts:
Whatafustercluck · 08/09/2022 11:04

Sounds very much like my nephew. He was first diagnosed with ADD and latterly ASD.

LightTripper · 08/09/2022 12:10

I have friends whose kid have inattentive type ADHD who present in similar ways to what you describe. I also wouldn't rule out autism though - it can be very different to the images most of us have in our heads until we get some real-world exposure!

The more I learn the more I doubt that the current dividing lines we have between ADHD and autism will hold in the long term anyway. So I'd definitely investigate ADHD, but maybe just start to learn a bit more about autism (e.g. maybe Abigail Balfe's book is a good place to start to get an alternative view to the stereotyped "Sheldon Cooper" version) and just keep an open mind as he gets older.

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