breakthrough with my son

[Manuel de Vol]

Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.

My son spent his first 6 years in 4 schools in 2 separate school systems.

1st 3 years in the British system, in an excellent school where he did fairly well. (Brits are not particularly interested in 'grades' - their children don't #graduate' from anything until they've been to university.)

2nd 2 years in a small DoDDs (Department of Defense Dependents' school) where the class sizes were ideal, but where there was far too much emphasis placed on 'ADHD' and too little on 'bad behaviour'.

Next year in another DoDDS school which had 4 (yes FOUR classes in his grade. Each with 40 children. He was just another number.

Then I put him back into the British system.

He didn't have 'ADHD' or any other 'amazing new discovery'. He was a boy and from time to time he misbehaved (like many millions of boys had done before him.)

I didn't allow any school to dope him (I wasn't planning on training him to be a racing cyclist ) and things went pretty well.

Until he was about 13.

When he was 13, I was suddenly stricken with some unknown disease which caused me to change from 'the fount of wisdom who knows everything, takes me everywhere, the guy I can always rely on' into 'a retard who really shouldn't be allowed out on his own.'

I understand this had something to do with 'hormones' (but I thought I'd gotten over major hormonal problems when I stopped getting zits.)

It wasn't a terminal disease. I made a miraculous recovery about 8 years later and my son is now a very good friend.

You too will probably by infected by this strange disease, but if you sit on your hands (and try to keep your lips zipped) you will probably recover.

If it's any consolation, you can remember what my mother said to me when I was much younger:

"When you grow up, my son, I hope you have a son who is just like you."

[Razz2525]

I posted this elsewhere but after several months of working with a counselor and a school psychologist, Asperger's has been ruled out (unless it's really high functioning) in favor of ADHD and medication has been recommended. He took a blood test and we're awaiting the results so that the pedi can get a baseline and make sure his liver functions ok before putting him on meds. I'm kind of surprised at the lack of a AS diagnosis because he definitely has moments of monologuing and temper tantrums that seems to come out of nowhere, but it was determined that he was "too social" and "physically average" to have AS. Huh. So I guess now we really have a breakthrough for our son, but we'll see how it goes on medication. At this point, we're just waiting for this difficult year to be over.

Now, it's just what to do about summer camp. I definitely feel that this year has taken its toll on his love of math so we're considering a math camp but then again maybe he needs a break and just needs to be a kid. He feels a lot less confident since another student in his gifted class supposedly does more complex subtraction. DS cried to me in the car about the teacher is always impressed by that kid and never impressed by him. Again, this came out of nowhere so I think a little more is operating than just ADHD. I was told by someone who works in neurofeedback that it's very difficult to diagnose a 6-year-old with AS unless they are obvious signs of physical dysfunction or impairment.

[Kibbiekat]

Originally Posted by Razz2525

I posted this elsewhere but after several months of working with a counselor and a school psychologist, Asperger's has been ruled out (unless it's really high functioning) in favor of ADHD and medication has been recommended. He took a blood test and we're awaiting the results so that the pedi can get a baseline and make sure his liver functions ok before putting him on meds. I'm kind of surprised at the lack of a AS diagnosis because he definitely has moments of monologuing and temper tantrums that seems to come out of nowhere, but it was determined that he was "too social" and "physically average" to have AS. Huh. So I guess now we really have a breakthrough for our son, but we'll see how it goes on medication. At this point, we're just waiting for this difficult year to be over.

Now, it's just what to do about summer camp. I definitely feel that this year has taken its toll on his love of math so we're considering a math camp but then again maybe he needs a break and just needs to be a kid. He feels a lot less confident since another student in his gifted class supposedly does more complex subtraction. DS cried to me in the car about the teacher is always impressed by that kid and never impressed by him. Again, this came out of nowhere so I think a little more is operating than just ADHD. I was told by someone who works in neurofeedback that it's very difficult to diagnose a 6-year-old with AS unless they are obvious signs of physical dysfunction or impairment.

Thanks for the update. SPD is often misdiagnosed as ADHD. Have you been to an OT? I think it would be a good idea to get the opinion of an OT before going with the ADHD dx.

[malamute]

Originally Posted by Manuel de Vol

Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.

My son spent his first 6 years in 4 schools in 2 separate school systems.

1st 3 years in the British system, in an excellent school where he did fairly well. (Brits are not particularly interested in 'grades' - their children don't #graduate' from anything until they've been to university.)

2nd 2 years in a small DoDDs (Department of Defense Dependents' school) where the class sizes were ideal, but where there was far too much emphasis placed on 'ADHD' and too little on 'bad behaviour'.

Next year in another DoDDS school which had 4 (yes FOUR classes in his grade. Each with 40 children. He was just another number.

Then I put him back into the British system.

He didn't have 'ADHD' or any other 'amazing new discovery'. He was a boy and from time to time he misbehaved (like many millions of boys had done before him.)

I didn't allow any school to dope him (I wasn't planning on training him to be a racing cyclist ) and things went pretty well.

Until he was about 13.

When he was 13, I was suddenly stricken with some unknown disease which caused me to change from 'the fount of wisdom who knows everything, takes me everywhere, the guy I can always rely on' into 'a retard who really shouldn't be allowed out on his own.'

I understand this had something to do with 'hormones' (but I thought I'd gotten over major hormonal problems when I stopped getting zits.)

It wasn't a terminal disease. I made a miraculous recovery about 8 years later and my son is now a very good friend.

You too will probably by infected by this strange disease, but if you sit on your hands (and try to keep your lips zipped) you will probably recover.

If it's any consolation, you can remember what my mother said to me when I was much younger:

"When you grow up, my son, I hope you have a son who is just like you."

It is interesting how in Europe, the drugging of children is much less common. Like they say, Americans are a very drug-happy society. There's a magic pill for everything. The pharmaceuticals of course are thrilled.