Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional ADHD and test taking skills

Sounds great Nik!

Once you had the ADHD-inattentive dx, did your family doctor decide which medication and dose to use? Did the neuropsych. or psych. who did the assessment have any input? Asking just out of curiosity, as we may be going down this road after my DS's neuropsych. assessment (unfortunately not until May).

Anyway, congratulations on a good start!

Thanks for the heads up about headaches Mich, so far it was just the one, but I'll be monitoring that.

She is actually sleeping more consistently than I can ever remember, albeit only 6 hours a night (1am til 7am) but she falls asleep and stays asleep on a schedule that is functional, so - added benefit! We are going to try melatonin to help her get to sleep a little bit earlier.

Verona, the diagnostician raved about adderal xr that her DD22 was taking, so I assumed we would get that but they aren't the ones to write the prescription. My DD had an annual check up scheduled with her Dr. the day after we got the report, so I brought it just to discuss, and before I knew what was happening, I had a prescription in hand. We got a generic for Ritalin, probably because our Dr knows I have a terribly high deductible insurance plan that wont pay for meds. Apparently, the generic has less side effects too so - bonus! So if we stick with these, it's only $20.00/month, much less than I had feared.

Honestly though, I really wish I could go back in time (to when my DD was younger and had more faith in my judgment) and really give the fish oil a chance. I would do an experiment: test DD with the number recall exercises and record her responses, then give her 2 Nordic Naturals Omega-3 fish oil gels daily for a week and then re-test and see if there was a significant improvement.

I have been taking the fish oil pills for a couple weeks and I feel great, happy and energetic, could be placebo effect, but I have the pills and they are good for the heart so I figured why waste them.

Thanks Nik for the information.

DS11 and I both started melatonin about 4 days ago (I also have insomnia -- the apple doesn't fall far from the tree) after discussing it with the pediatrician. I'm a convert! We both fall asleep within 15 minutes. Waking up during the night is still an issue though. DS has been waking up around 4-5 am (and standing spectre-like at the side of my bed until I wake up too) but is able to get back to sleep for while before the alarm goes off.

My DS does seem happier and more together lately with the new regime (500mg DHA supplements, tea in the morning, melatonin at night, nutured heart approach all the time), but not enough to make me cancel the neuropsych. evaluation or stop looking for a different school placement for next year.

Hi Nik

I am 31 years old and was just diagnosed with ADD myself...I have always been a top student even if I was a huge procrastinator and was consistently disorganized. I found ways to compensate. If your child is gifted she can too.

You can be both ADD and gifted. I highly recommend reading Different Minds by Deidre Lovecky.

I love that book 'Different Minds' - but I hate to admit how many times I had to try reading it before I could even get 3/4 through it. ((red face))
Love and More Love,
Grinity

LOL! I have a whole shelf full of books that I recently purchased on ADD/ADHD, AS, EFs and parenting...so far the only one I have been able to get through in one sitting was Aspergirls. You would think someone would realize that most parents of ADD kids probably have some attention issues themselves and make the books more "short attention span friendly"

Exhausted, I know it can be done but I think there are varying levels of impairment and related difficulties, if you were always a top student then I don't think you were dealing with the same level of challenge as my DD, either that or your educational fit was much better than what she has been dealing with.

I feel fairly certain that my DD would be successful at her dream college even without the meds due to the excellent educational fit, but I guess I am too chicken to gamble with that kind of money and I think it comes down to a quality of life thing, why suffer/struggle so much more than you have to. With the meds, she can focus more on building the skills and habits that will hopefully eventually make the meds unnecessary. At least that's my hope.

Verona, I am so glad to hear your DS is happier and I definitely wouldn't give up looking for a better school situation. The neurospych eval will be helpful for understanding what is going on and how to help him use his strengths to bolster the weak areas etc, regardless of whether or not you end up trying the meds. We are going to try the melatonin over spring break (in case it works too well :-)).

Ha! Yes, I did have trouble getting DS out of bed for school this morning. But he's probably getting 1-2 more hours of sleep per night than before the melatonin, and he looks so much better too -- no dark circles under his eyes.

The fact that he responded so well to the the melatonin makes me think even more that maybe a neurological issue like ADHD is at play, since I read that kids with ADHD or ASD often have low or no melatonin production. Does anyone have an opinion about this? The melatonin is helping me sleep too (and I don't have ADHD, just insomnia!) but not so dramatically as DS.

Here's a link regarding Melatonin and ADHD.
http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com...lp-adhd-sleep-problems-in-children.shtml

I know plenty of kids with sleep problems that Melatonin didn't help, but it was wonderful for my son, who is 2E: PG and ADD. We started when he was 8 years old, and it was remarkable, the first time I had ever seen him in a drowsy state in his entire 8 years. Even as a toddler, he would get 'wound up' instead of sleepy. He loved not laying in bed waiting hours for sleep to arrive. He is also a very light sleeper, woken up by the slightest noise, and able to be instantly alert even when breathing deeply and regularly for 30 minutes.

I've also heard that kids who get even an hour less sleep than average per night tend to act like children a grade or two younger in terms of ADHD-like behaviors. So there must be a few kids who have ADHD behavior merely from lack of sleep. Once my son started taking stimulants for his ADD, he didn't seem to need the Melatonin anymore. Of course that was around the time that he started being allowed to stay up later than us, so it's hard to tell.

Verona, I'm glad to hear that your son has no more dark circles! Try making the bedtime, and the administration of melatonin time even earlier - see what happens!

Love and More love,
Grinity

This is my DS too. Never got "sleepy", just more and more wound up even as a newborn. I think I committed the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" to memory by the time he was a year old. He has a white noise machine that seemed to help a bit, but the melatonin is a real miracle so far! I've been trying to push the bedtime a bit earlier, but he is pretty rigid about 9 pm being the moment to turn out the light (not, say, 8:58 pm).

I wouldn't say that the extra sleep makes his attention and organization issues disappear, but he is certainly more compliant (that's a relative term mind you) when he's not over-tired.

So the stimulants didn't cause sleep problems for your DS?

one test that my son was given, among many, was a computer based test of concentration, where the child is required to concentrate on something pretty boring. He is very VERY active. He has trouble listening, but can focus when things are of interest (his interest, not mine, of course). He did 'average' on this test, and this helped confirm, along with other information, that he does not have adhd (although many strangers have kindly suggested it!
Just mention it in case your testing did, or did not, include this test...I can did up the name if you like.

I also don't get 'medicine or homeschool' as the only options; doesn't adhd usually mean a child can't function well anywhere? if they are only having issues at school, isn't that a red flag that something at school is an issue?

(The phrase 'well they definitely qualify for medicine' is a very odd way to put that too, imo)

Hang in there! It does take time to process all of the info from one of these assessments, so give yourself time to do so.