I worried a lot about DS (now 8) being ADHD when he was in preschool. He woke up wide awake and never stopped. Jumped from thing to thing often, and didn't seem to focus to me. Luckily, I have an entire family of in-laws in elementary education, and one is a special ed. specialist with a masters and Ph.D. credits and years and years of classroom experience. She said there was no way he was ADHD, just very energetic and sometimes bored. Her reasoning - he would sit still for activities he enjoyed (legos, stories, etc. and could also focus on activities like model building, etc. that can get frustrating), and he could control his bahavior most of the time (in circle unless it was v. long, etc).

Then in 1st grade my DS's teacher (who really "got" him)mentioned that maybe he was on the hyperactive spectrum (he was excelling in school BTW). I started to get defensive until she said, "but of course, it is no where near where you would want to do meds, and he does great in school most of the time, so it is really just a matter of keeping it in mind and making some changes for him so that school is easier for him." She meant doing things like letting him walk around the class as long as he didn't disturb anyone. And now, no problems at all, and he can manage to not move for 3 hours at all while reading Harry Potter.

And then it hit me, I had the exact same experience in 2nd grade. My mom was told I was "hyper" but meds were not so common then, and what was worked out was exactly the same - I was allowed to move around the classroom as long as I didn't talk to anyone.

Personally, I think at least half of all boys fall into today's diagnose of ADHD and it is because we expect 6 and 7 year olds to sit at a desk for hours at a time, and many parents sugar their kids up with soda and sweets (this is not to minimize the fact that there are some kids who truly have a challenge in this area regardless of diet and environment).

Cat

Last edited by Catalana; 08/12/10 05:27 AM.