I read the above book also - when DS6 was 4 and always in trouble at Montessori. The County Counsellor we worked with evaluated him as highly spirited - again - lots of correlation with highly spirited kids and ADHD kids - and when they are younger than 6 or 8 - really hard to diagnose them accurately as ADHD.
Even the nurse at the Opthamologist's last week told me "if you put him on drugs - he will be like this "did zombie impression of passive child". That was despite the fact that we went through another 3 hours of hell waiting and transitioning between waiting room with play room, first computer test, exam room, - he wanted to touch every instrument, lense, door knob, light swtich, swivel in the chair, raise the other chair up and down, pretend the equipment was a Periscope (gotta had it to the kid - it sure looks like a periscope). Even 1, 2, 3, discipline, threats, treats, holding him down - didn't work! And he screamed blue murder when they were dumb enough to tilt him backwards and put "stingy drops" in his eye only to tell me afterwards that next time they'd do the "no stingy drop" eye test. 3 of us were holding him down - before I really realized their plan I was in a nightmare. He can't abide bright light and refused to let them look in his eyes anyway. I don't think they've successfully seen the back of his eyes in 3 years and they are Pediatric Opthamolgoists !!
All this to illustrate my point - that if a nurse that sees thousands of kids says don't jump to medicate after going through that type of appointment with my child - who would be easier to cope with drugged ....I figure she knows what she's talking about. But this isn't the same type of behavior as the Mom's on the board who really have had to use medication with success report.
I also hope it illustrates that there are many kids with severe sensory issues - or just like DS6 - particular hatred of certain enviromental stimulae. He acts up a lot in class too - and I still don't know if we've ignored a deeper sensory issue. But it all seems tied together with their brain
development/sluggishness & immaturity in certain areas - and giftedness or intelligence/advancedness in others.
