MaryTerese just popping in to ask whether I know why the meds appear to held DDs low tone. I don't think they do exactly, I think they help her slow down, think, pay attention and better integrate her mind and body.
When she had her last OT eval (a year ago at 5.5) the OTs advice was that her neurological functioning (in so far as OTs assess it, so I guess applying to controlling her body) was inline with her IQ (3SDs above) and was the only reason her significant low tone and hypermobility were not more obvious. He was astonished by some of the things she could do (monkey bars for example), which he said should not be physically possible, and put it down to a) determination and b) exceptional ability to control her body with her mind despite her physical deficit. And certainly she exhibited this extreme determination to achieve things with her body from 2-3 months old and would work and work and work until she could do what she wanted to do. From my perspective the ADHD medication helps her apply this level of attention to physical tasks that are not fun, engaging or interesting to her and thus bring her ability to control her body while handwriting or having her hair brushed in line with her control when doing monkey bars... Or that's my personal theory anyway...
That said, I am part of a gifted / learning delayed group and I know many many parents find their child's other co-morbid issues are vastly improved (sometimes to the point of being undetectable) by medication for the ADHD. Our paed is certainly of the opinion that a lot of conditions often see with ADHD are symptoms of that global neuro-developmental delay, more than standalone conditions, and does expect them to improve with treatment of ADHD. CAPD in particular is one that every paed I have spoken to does not consider to be a standalone but merely a symptom that should either disappear or radically reduce with medication. DD still chooses to wear her glasses on medication and they do help so clearly her visual integration is not completely improved by medication.
