Nan, I wouldn't guarantee that something that worked for me would work for you, but you can print it out if you want to.
For a short period of time, I was given ritalin. My grandma who raised me didn't like what it did apparently, but I forgot what it did exactly, since it was so long ago. Ever since then, I protested medications. My mom was schizophrenic and she took medications, so I didn't want to admit there was something that I should take medications for. I didn't start taking medications until I mentally broke down as an adult.
I don't know what my views on medications is really. It's great for me now and sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I was medicated with something when younger, but I can't relive my life. I've heard both great and bad things about medicating children. I probably should have been on something as a kid, but would it have decreased my intelligence? Currently, I have noticed my brain is foggy on my meds and I have lost some of my brightness, but nowadays I would rather have that state than to be in a state of mind where I have lost touch with reality completely. But on the other hand, I was told that if I wasn't severely emotionally impaired, they would have let me skip grades and I could have done better. I did have attention deficit, and I read in reports that they thought that I would have scored higher on IQ test if I would have payed attention more, I was in the gifted range, but not genius according to those tests.
But as I said, I can't relive my life. All I can do is know that I'm on the correct medication now even though my mind is a bit foggy, and I can work on my science stuff and getting into graduate school finally.
And I would love to state there is hope! My mental illness and childhood problems have set me back, but I'm moving forward little by little. That's all I can do.
More advice, don't ever say something to a kid about how they are not normal. Say they are different and that's great, especially saying their giftedness is great. But please just don't use the words not normal or abnormal, those hurt a lot for some reason. I even hear as an adult stuff like "I thought you were a normal person when I first got to know you, but later on I started to suspect you had some sort of mental disorder" and yes, that is a direct quote I got from someone a few months ago, I don't talk to her anymore. Now if she said something like "I noticed you were kinda different in some areas and that is interesting!" then I appreciate that better, I hear stuff like that from some people too and those are the people I keep as friends. The friends I made later on in school said nothing about my illness at all and treated me like everyone else.
And I would say the thing I appreciated the most growing up was that I was supported with what I liked. People would indeed think a little girl that carried around a bird book everywhere she went was strange... but at the same time they thought it was great I could remember so many bird facts, and with encouragement I turned it into a career goal. But it has to be balance out with learning about other stuff too. I read some great advice, if your kid especially like something, try to connect what the kid is learning with their favorite thing. That draws their attention better. I did this myself as a kid, if it was a report I had to do, I turned it into a bird report. If it was an art project, it would turn into something about birds... I wouldn't discourage that. I don't know how I feel about a kid that likes knives though.... I think there is some sort of line somewhere...
That's about it for now.
