Freedom to Learn

I am a homeschooling mom with ADHD, homeschooling a child with autism. Homeschooling is not 'school at home' so it fits ADHD really well. As both my daughter and I learn by 'doing,' our curriculum is hands-on, experiencial learning. My daughter will attend for hours if the subject is of interest and relevant.

While I excelled academically, I scored poorly in social studies. I am relearning history with my daughter as we go in the chronological order of history instead of the haphazard way it it taught in schools. We again do hands-on learning. We read the history of ancient Egypt, then we draw or color pictures about what we just read. We will then write a story about the topic we read. We do math while building pyramids, etc. Go to a museum to see it in person.

Its so fun that attention isn't a problem. No disruptive behavior. My daughter begs to 'do school.' For me I finally enjoy learning a subject that has plagued me. I have no problems attending to the material -- or retaining it either. My husband, also with ADHD, has now joined us in our studies and he too is enjoying it.

My son was in a high-performance private school for several years (from age 5 to age 7). He was seen as disruptive and disobedient so he was labeled as ADHD. Although we spoke with several health professionals, most of whom concurred with the ADHD label, we never sought or received a formal diagnosis.

We've been unschooling for several years now. He is 11 and we do not identify with the ADHD label at all. He is energetic and rambunctious at times, but often finds an interest which holds his attention for hours on end. The only time he fits the ADHD diagnosis is when he is bored or uninterested in something. Or he will be particularly rambunctious after sitting for long periods of time (whether he was engaged or bored while sitting still doesn't matter).

Although I recognize there are many people who are truly ADD/ADHD I've found it's much more a matter of interest. Even many adults I've met who claim the label have no problems paying attention when they are engaged and interested in the subject matter. Anyone who is bored is likely to have their thoughts wander and their body begin to feel restless.

Also, I find it ironic we tell kids to "settle down" or require them to be idle with much of their time and thenn lament our childhood obesity and diabetes rates.

My son was never "diagnosed" with ADHD nor were we aggressively pushed by the school to "have him evaluated," but what is interesting to me is that practically every other boy at some point receives that label. Not sitting still and following orders is very much part of most boys' physical and psychological makeup. Teachers bascially don't like this and being under various kinds of pressure doesn't help either.

So when you eliminate the confinement and obedience factor from kids' lives, a lot of the "ADHD" symptoms vanish. That's been my experience since homeschooling my kid. When he gets antsy doing something now, he simply stops and does something else. Yesterday in a music camp he worked for six hours rehearsing and recording a song with a group of mostly homeschoolers. I frankly don't understand how when any random group of kids is capable of this kind of intense work we are to suppose that in any other random group of kids half are ADHD!

For a research project I looked at some ADHD resource and information sites and was flabbergasted to read that "according to latest studies" all the symptoms people associated with ADHD -- doing badly in school, not paying attention, etc. -- are not required for the official diagnosis any more. In effect, now you can have "attention deficit disorder" while being perfectly capable of paying attention. Huh...?!! Even the terminology is all mixed up now!

So, my experience with homseschoolers, unschoolers, etc, has been that once you just drop using a certain terminology (especially such vague and contradictory terminogloy as ADHD talk) you just don't run into certain problems!

I'm really looking forward to your findings, Peter.

My son was never "diagnosed" with ADHD nor were we aggressively pushed by the school to "have him evaluated," but what is interesting to me is that practically every other boy at some point receives that label. Not sitting still and following orders is very much part of most boys' physical and psychological makeup. Teachers bascially don't like this and being under various kinds of pressure doesn't help either.

So when you eliminate the confinement and obedience factor from kids' lives, a lot of the "ADHD" symptoms vanish. That's been my experience since homeschooling my kid. When he gets antsy doing something now, he simply stops and does something else. Yesterday in a music camp he worked for six hours rehearsing and recording a song with a group of mostly homeschoolers. I frankly don't understand how when any random group of kids is capable of this kind of intense work we are to suppose that in any other random group of kids half are ADHD!

For a research project I looked at some ADHD resource and information sites and was flabbergasted to read that "according to latest studies" all the symptoms people associated with ADHD -- doing badly in school, not paying attention, etc. -- are not required for the official diagnosis any more. In effect, now you can have "attention deficit disorder" while being perfectly capable of paying attention. Huh...?!! Even the terminology is all mixed up now!

So, my experience with homseschoolers, unschoolers, etc, has been that once you just drop using a certain terminology (especially such vague and contradictory terminogloy as ADHD talk) you just don't run into certain problems!

I'm really looking forward to your findings, Peter.

My son was born at 25 weeks and 2 days. As a result of his premature birth, he experienced bilateral brain hemorrages resulting in a condition known as PVL. He is now six and doing exceptionally well. He taught himself to read and is reading at about a third grade level. He was diagnosed with ADHD at 3. He requires constant stimulation to keep his brain busy and cannot focus on any given task for more than a couple of minutes. The exception to this is video games because of the instant feedback they give him. Our homeschooling experience has gone so much better than I ever expected. We were told by a Developmental Psych that he would not be mainstreamed if we put him in school and that his IQ was borderline for mental retardation. Both my husband and I feel strongly that our son scored low during his evaluation because the tester could not hold his attention and he just threw out an answer just to be done with it. He doesn't care about what is "correct" - getting it "right" is simply not motivation enough. I have learned in homeschooling him that I need to keep things short and reward correct answers with shorter exercises. It has been recommended that we medicate him but we have chosen not to. Because he is being schooled at home, we have the blessing of being able to bend to his needs instead of the other way around. This first year of kindergarten has gone impressively smooth. He struggles with handwriting due to CP and dyspraxia but we just keep those lessons short realizing he'll get there in his own time. I love having my little guy home with me.

When my son was in his last year of preschool, I became concerned when I saw his lack of interest in the arts and craft type activities that would be mandatory at kindergarten, so I held him back a year. He started kindergarten when he should have started grade one. My strategy did not work. It was not long before I was meet at the end of each day by a teacher with her lips pursed and her arms folded ready to tell me all the "bad" things my son had done that day. He was not sharing at the sand table, he was touching his private parts during circle time, he was interrupting with off topic comments and so on. The teacher suggested a developmental pediatrician and it was not long before my son had a diagnosis of ADHD. Because of a complicated family situation he stayed in kindergarten for the complete school year and I started homeschooling him in grade one.
At first formal school time lasted about 20 min. a day and all we worked on was him learning to read. He made slow, steady progress. Other than that we participated in fun activities with our home learner community. Also I read to my son as much as he wanted. I often spent over a hour a day reading to him. As well he listened to hundreds of hours of stories on tape from our local library. As the years went by we slowly added math using the JUMP program developed by John Mighton. Socials and science were hand on and experiential. When my son was 9 he joined Cub Scouts. The Cub handbook became our curriculum. He picked badges and we worked on them together. When he was grade 5 we found an alternative school similar to the Sudbury Valley School, also known as democratic education. He started going one day a week and loved it. For the last 4 years he has gone this special school 3 days a week and homeschooled 2 days a week. During the last year he decided that he wants to graduate from high school and has started taking courses at school. His writing skills are behind others his age but as he has been diagnosed with a written output disorder this is to be expected. He is learning to use software that helps him write and is once again making slow steady progress. He is getting C's in his courses and I don't think he will ever be a great student, but I am ready to be proved wrong. The important thing is that he is interested and motivated and working hard. I think the real advantage of home schooling has been in the development of my son's social skills. He is a throughly nice person, both kind and empathetic. I just don't see how he could have learned to socialize as well at school where he was being made to feel that he was unacceptable all day long.
We were lucky in that we had the financial resources to have a parent stay home, and that we had a supportive extended family and community. I would never judge a parent who chose to keep their child in school.

My son has seemed different, though "normal" since birth. When he was 3 we pulled him out of preschool because he seemed to be the only child who wouldn't/couldn't sit still for circle time. His 4-5 yo preschool year was better(the teachers seemed better able to deal with him) but had some challenges. Kindergarten did not go well at all so we pulled him out and are now homeschooling. At his (very short)6yo physical this year, the doctor asked a few questions and handed us a prescription for Ritalin and said try this and see how he does. No referrals or other suggestions. We did not fill it. As others have said it seems to be a matter of interest. If he is into something he will be focused and attentive for long stretches, if not he gets antsy. As an example, at our local homeschool conference a robotics club had a booth and had their robot there. My son would have stayed there asking about the robot for the rest of the afternoon if I had not moved him along. For his Kindergarten year we mostly did experiences and he loves science, art and books. I hope to introduce a little more structure this year but we will still follow his lead.

Here's my story:

How The American Psychiatric Association Tried To Scam Me And What I Did About It
http://www.parental-intelligence.com/HTAPATTSM.pdf

Both my children have significant attention deficit disorders My son, now 13, was kicked out of preschool at age four, because he could not sit through Circle Time. He was referred to the local Early Intervention preschool, diagnosed with ADHD & Asperger Syndrome, and placed in the autism class -a very structured program using a combination of TEACCH and ABA. My son regressed slowly over the next 6 months, at the end of which he'd lost all expressive language skills, except rote phrases, and was having Major behavioral issues. At that time my son was 4.5 and was so hyperactive he was out of control. When we left Early Intervention, the school was INSISTING he be medicated, saying he wasn't allowed to attend class without medication. I refused to experiment with neuro. meds. on a 4 year old, and opted instead to quit my job, hire a behavioral therapist, and educate him at home. He was already reading (had read 'Sibley's Guide to Birds' so many times he had it memorized -literally) but according to the school psychologist he didn't even possess pre-reading skills because he was unable to answer the standardized test questions like ... What letter would this shape make? [ l 3 ] The answer of course is B, but when my son answered 13, and was marked incorrect, he got so angry that he refused to answer any more questions, and received a <1% score.

We home schooled for 3 years (which included 'facilitated playdates' with a Floortime therapist) and placed him back in public school for 3rd grade. He was doing 6-7th grade math curriculum, had completed 2nd grade Lang. Arts program, but due to serious dysgraphia he was not at grade level in writing assignments. He qualified for an IEP but he could not keep up with the classroom pace at all. I requested an aide for him, which he received, but the aide only walked him around the school campus instead of actually helping him with 'executive function' issues like finding the right page in the book, getting homework to the teacher, etc. We started medications to help him keep up. Ritalin first - side effect: awful irritability, followed by Straterra -side effect: horrific OCD behavior, followed by risperdal, which didn't do much at all, but it did help with sleep disorder issues so we left him on that med. By the middle of 3rd grade he was moved to the resource classroom for all academics, and the behavioral problems were back. His psychiatrist increased his risperdal dosage for the start of 4th grade, but things just got worse. Unbeknownst to me, he spent most of 4th grade in a bean bag chair in a classroom with 2 non-verbal autistics (I thought his special day class was the resource room).

At the end of the school year, we had a full near-psych. evaluation. He had dropped 3 grade levels in math, 2 grade levels in reading, and his behavior was so severe that the psychriatrist recommended residential placement, and handed me a Rx for depakote, which I never filled. We pulled him out of school, and went back to homeschooling. I took him off meds. to get a baseline on his behavior. Things improved for him so quickly that I never restarted Rx medications -he does take Somnatrol (herbal sleep aid) to help with sleep issues. He was back at grade level in 6 weeks (except writing of course) and we've been homeschooling ever since. His school program is structured, but flexible. He follows text books exactly, but curriculum is selected for his learning style, and he decides when to do the work. (school work is tied to a points chart, so No work = No privileges). On a good brain day he can complete a weeks worth of assignments in one day -independently. On a tough day, I have to sit with him to help him focus, and we may only cover a few 'interesting' assignments. It all balances out over all though, and, he is progressing wonderfully, and has little to no behavioral issues -which is more than I can say for a lot of 13 year olds.

My daughter is currently 10 years old. We first noticed ADHD around age 3, but since she didn't have any behavioral problems, we just kinda rolled with it. No issues in preschool, but teachers all made similar comments on her "ethereal and creative" nature. At our first parent/teacher conference in Kindergarden, the teacher mentioned ADD and she was given an SST (in-house Student Success program). The teacher was great and was able to accommodate her attention issues, but 1st grade was a very different story. Independence was a top priority for her 1st grade teacher, and when my daughter wasn't able to perform, the teacher decided she must be lazy. She really cracked down on my daughter, and things went from bad to worse. Daughter started have anxiety attacks, and then health problems. I requested an evaluation for an IEP,thinking that the teacher would back off if she realized the problem was neurological and not behavioral, but the school refused. So we had private evals. and daughter was diagnosed with ADHD Combined and dysgraphia. But the teacher, and the school, didn't change a thing. We pulled daughter out of school, rather than going through Due Process- our family had enough stress.

Daughter has a very different homeschool program than her brother -much less structured, and more child led. She chooses her own subjects and learning materials, daily. We have a wide variety of books, computer/online programs, and hands on projects for her to choose from, and she learns much better if she can follow an interest and then hyper-focus on it. She may pick something different, and seemly unrelated, everyday, and then tie that randomness into a major project that she will work on for a month. Life skills, organization skills, and any other deficits -like handwriting, are taught completely separate from academic content. I don't want her ADHD to hold back her learning.

Daughter has never been medicated, and she LOVES school work! Her friends, who'd stopped coming over to play during the 1st grade disaster, are now over daily and are asking to do homeschool projects too. She feels proud of her self, and all the great things she has accomplished, and I'm certain that would not be the case if she were back in public school.

we are very blessed in that we are close family friends with a ADHD expert who teaches at a local university. She talked to us when our daughter was very young (under 1) never saying she was ADHD but letting us know that other kids did not act this way all the time and supporting our frustration, giving us advice, guiding us and also giving us the most helpfull advice of of - to NOT get her formally diagnosed on paper. She is now 5 1/2 most definalty has ADHD - she had to see a phychologist for a break in we had and after one visit he asked me if I knew she had ADHD LOL - of course I do - We have never put her on anything. We again have been very blessed by very good advice. In germany they give alot of the kids with ADHD gum to chew when they need to concentrait and we find that this helps her -if she needs to sit in the car, or do "still work" but it does not last long. For the most part she just is not a sit still kind of gal. She moves, ALOT. But she is also highly distructive. We have alot of bipolar in the family , and when they came out with the stong link between ADHD and bipolar last year it was a big light buld moment for our family. We just hope that is not on her path, he sister is bipolar.

My son would probably have been diagnosed ADHD had I ever sent him to school. He went 100 MPH unless he was in front of the TV, then he was glued. He learned wonderfully at home and by age 13 he held down 3 part-time jobs and spent the summer house-sitting for his grandparents (our Pastor lived next door). He was offered a full-ride scholarship to any college he wanted by the Marines. He declined it, but is now a career Marine currently doing recruiting duty in New Jersey.

My son attended public school for K - 2. The teachers always had a problem with getting him to sit still and stop fidgeting, but it was never suggested that he had ADHD because he was able to focus on school work. I was tired of the teachers complaining about what I considered normal and acceptable behavior for an energetic young boy, so I started homeschooling him.

That was very successful for a few years, but as he got a little older (around 9), the behavior started getting unmanageable. Throwing fits (and objects), climbing out his second-story bedroom window, complete inability to change from one activity to the next when prompted. So, I had him evaluated. He was diagnosed with ADHD (hyperactive/impulsive type). We tried Concerta, but he went crazy. He was very wild and almost violent. I had to take him outside for the entire day to a safe space to run it off. I stopped it right away. (I was told this reaction was due to his anxiety.)

We tried behavioral therapy for a while, but his behavior got worse. It was almost as if he lacked the ability to stop and think for even a fraction of a second about his reaction to situations, so he was unable to use the behavioral tools he was given.

Eventually, we tried Strattera (a non-stimulant ADHD medication, a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor) and it helped so much. He now has that second to think about what he's going to do and he makes better choices. No more temper tantrums, throwing things, hitting, or reckless behavior.

I get frustrated when other homeschoolers/unschoolers claim that ADHD is ONLY a reaction to school. It is real. My son cannot stop and think before acting, without medication. But, yes, school is torture for most kids with ADHD and my son has no desire to go there.

Currently, we are very relaxed homeschoolers (some would call unschoolers, but we do have a few rules). The children are able to choose their learning interests and activities, even unconventional ones.

My son (now 13) still has ADHD symptoms, such as inattentiveness, hyperactivity, and the need for extra time to make transitions, but homeschooling allows me to work with his attention differences instead of treating it like it's a bad thing.

Peter, from my experience as a person involved in homeschooling for the last 11 yrs, I can say that ADHD is just one of many reasons why parents take their kids out of school.

I'm so glad you are taking the time to do this kind of research. It's so important to have another perspective out there!

http://www.adhd-report.com/adhd/ritalin/33_medication.html

This suggests correlation, but it's only a suggestion! It may or may not be true. From what I've seen in the online community over and over again, is that parents take their children out of school because they are tired of dealing with a system that is harming their children. Parents do it because of the "no child left behind" issue. That's been a huge contributing factor. What it did, was cause stress and anxiety in young children, who were being diagnosed with all kinds of behavioral issues for not being able to handle that sort of hostile environment. Behavioral issues and children not fitting in, and the "no child left behind" program, which go hand in hand, have been the number one reasons that I've seen stated for parents new to homeschooling. I don't know if there are any studies done on that... This might be a good resource for that http://www.nheri.org/

Like I said, it's only something that I've read online in the homeschooling community, in email groups and such, not empirical data that I've documented.

This is another resource online for the homeschooling community in general, with links to other places http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/weblinks/ADD.htm

One of the links is from Home Education Magazine, which is probably the number one magazine for homeschoolers, at least in the US. http://www.homeedmag.com/INF/SPCL/spcl_add.indx.html

My child was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of six. The immediate and only option I was given to address the ADHD was a prescription for Adderall. I did not accept it at that point but I was offered it many times by both the neurologist who saw my son and the pediatrician.

My son had severe language and speech problems and had an IEP beginning at age three for speech services. We placed him in Kindergarten a year late (age 6) to give him more time to mature and improve in speech and language. In Kindergarten, he had trouble focusing, following directions, would spin on his rear end during story time, socially isolated himself, struggled in all academic areas, his speech was 90% unintelligible to everyone but his parents, and he often mentioned that he was dumb.

In 1st grade, we brought him home to be homeschooled by his mom who had been a public school teacher. He was thriving within a week. School was not traditional at all. We played ball as we learned to spell, incorporated movement often, and made many lessons hands on. He learned slowly. At the age of 8 ½ we decided to try to Adderall because he still struggled with attention and learning. Once he was on the medication, he began to learn at a better rate. He was still full of energy but not as out of control with hyperactivity. He was learning but not nearly as well as his peers.

He developed severe depression at age 10. He was placed on a few more drugs. Each drug seemed to make him better for a few months, and then worse. When a drug caused a side effect, he would be given another one to combat the side effect. By the time he was 11 years old the pediatrician said one day, “You have a very sick child.” Our thought was. How? When? He was born very healthy. He did not catch anything. When did he get sick? None of the doctors could answer that question.

He developed a B12 deficit because of the Adderall, which depletes the body of B12. This gave him Obsessive Compulsive behaviors and we had to give him B12 injections. The injections made the Obsessive Compulsive behaviors disappear as long as we kept them up.

For many years, he was behind his grade level in just about all the subjects. Then we turned to biomedical science. We removed toxins from his environment and foods. We balanced his body out with improved nutrition, organic foods, vitamins and minerals. We discovered and removed gluten and lactose, which he was intolerant to. He was treated for yeast overgrowth. We brought in neurological reflex movement, sound stimulation, and dyslexic remediation. After each step, we took his hyperactivity, distractibility and other issues would make huge leaps of improvement.

We had asked the doctors how to remove him from the Adderall and they really did not know. Their best guess was to just wean him off and hope for the best. We attempted this three time with no success. Once we had done the biomedical approach above as well as the educational approaches above we weaned him off the Adderall. There was no difference in his focus or activity level at that point. He was/is fine. NO hyperactivity, NO distractibility. He is doing great in school.

If we could do it all over again we would have gone straight to testing for food intolerances, removing toxins from his environment, treating the yeast overgrowth, and remediating the dyslexia symptoms. In our experience, the medications just masked the real causes of the hyperactivity and inattentiveness, and ultimately caused more problems.

We continue to homeschool him. It was the best decision of our lives not just because of his speech and hyperactivity - it is just the best thing we could have done for our child. He is now 16 and planning on going to college.

We have been home schooling for one year now. My daughter was diagnosed in grade 4 and started a very small dose of Ritalin. In an effort to economize, we ordered batches of pills that were 20mg and cut them in quarters. She got one after breakfast, which she never ate, and one at lunch. She is a very tiny person so this seemed reasonable at the time, but I wonder now if it was a problem in that the dose would always have been slightly different due to imprecise cutting of the pill. She lost her bubbly personality, developed a fearful, choked expression, stopped talking at school, began wearing a down winter parka every day, all day. Often she would be crying when I would pick her up after school. When I walked her to school she would not want to talk with classmates. If I went at lunch or after school she would always be alone in the schoolyard. Her grades were good, she would eat dinner twice ( a full meal right before bed) but she became very silent, probably depressed and reported that she felt someone was watching her.

Grade 5 had new problems added, though her grades were quite good. She participated more in class but the topics were upsetting to her- she said they discussed the child sex trade in developing nations while studying the UN Rights of the Child convention, and also watched a video of a baby polar bear drowning due to the melting ice caps. This kind of thing haunts her for weeks on end. Her teacher commented on her passionate debating skills but I see now that she was driven by extreme emotion to speak up. Trouble sleeping, no weight gain, little growth. Her decision to be vegetarian probably does not help her ability to focus. She also avoids eggs when she can so she may experience blood sugar fluctuations that effect her concentration. The biggest problem in grade 5, though, was getting her medication to her. For the last few months of grade 4 the office stopped giving her the pill reliably. She would sit for the entire lunch hour waiting, unaware how much time had passed and return to class without having eaten lunch OR having gotten the lunchtime dose. By school's end she would be painfully hungry and just burst into tears. I began to wrap her pill in foil and tape it to one of her lunch containers so she could take it AFTER eating- she was getting very thin. This worked well for grade 4. Half way through grade 5 someone alerted her teacher that this was going on and Madame was not "comfortable" with it so it had to stop. She would not give my daughter her lunchtime dose herself ( I do not remember why, sorry) so it was back to the office. They had trouble giving it reliably and it was during one of these meetings with the principal that he suggested we try home schooling her. He had a son with similar issues that they were able to send to a special (though very expensive) school.

So here we are, and feeling pretty lucky!
We manage anxiety: if she feels safe, she can learn. If she is upset, stressed, saddened or scared her focus will be shot for mundane things. She can read gross, gory books that are funny but NOTHING sad can be tolerated. We keep things pretty short with maximum interest whenever possible. If we have to learn about body systems, I find a book with cartoons ( NOT photos with real blood ) and funny, friendly aliens. We just glance over things that are prescribed for our grade to become acquainted with them. If I can find anything humorous on the topic she will be all over it, but otherwise it just is not going to hold her interest.

If she feels safe, she can learn. If she can sense that I am frustrated with her, the game is over. We cuddle on the couch for math or she does "Teaching Textbooks" on the computer, with their friendly voices and complimentary mascots that cheer her on. Khan's Academy is also good for math, a light-hearted, kind man. We only do the questions til she knows the concept, then we move on. We try to review a little each day, see-sawing our way through, forward and back. She gets most questions wrong, however, due to sloppy mistakes or lack of attention. I see she knows how to do it but she can't unless I am right there prompting her, usually writing the numbers as she tells me, but she will wander off mentally every 5 seconds and be unable to answer 2+1. Mornings are possible, afternoons are not.

There are no video games ( except a typing game) and very little television because I noticed early on that this had a HUGE effect on her ability to think. We do watch lots of educational videos, though. Aside from these and reading (must be her choice completely), there is nothing she will do without my complete devoted attention. Except play "Free Rice" if I suggest it or about 15 minutes of typing games. She will not write anything voluntarily so I usually take dictation. I know she CAN write and that she can compose her thoughts well, can organize a neat, concise argument -if she is keen to- from past assignments in school. Without medication she is mostly unable to function academically. She will sit and chew a string, paper or hair indefinitely, perhaps write one or two sentences even if it is a topic she loves. Sometimes, if she has had a good night's sleep and been eating well or is just getting over a flu where she has had a fever(?) she will have Excellent focus and seem like an absolute genius but this is rare. I had hoped exercise would make a difference but I have not noticed any improvement that way. She is healthy and growing, entering puberty and very happy so I am satisfied for now that it's the right choice, though medication seems like it might make another appearance this coming year as she really does focus better when she is on it.

We have been home schooling for one year now. My daughter was diagnosed in grade 4 and started a very small dose of Ritalin. In an effort to economize, we ordered batches of pills that were 20mg and cut them in quarters. She got one after breakfast, which she never ate, and one at lunch. She is a very tiny person so this seemed reasonable at the time, but I wonder now if it was a problem in that the dose would always have been slightly different due to imprecise cutting of the pill. She lost her bubbly personality, developed a fearful, choked expression, stopped talking at school, began wearing a down winter parka every day, all day. Often she would be crying when I would pick her up after school. When I walked her to school she would not want to talk with classmates. If I went at lunch or after school she would always be alone in the schoolyard. Her grades were good, she would eat dinner twice ( a full meal right before bed) but she became very silent, probably depressed and reported that she felt someone was watching her.

Grade 5 had new problems added, though her grades were quite good. She participated more in class but the topics were upsetting to her- she said they discussed the child sex trade in developing nations while studying the UN Rights of the Child convention, and also watched a video of a baby polar bear drowning due to the melting ice caps. This kind of thing haunts her for weeks on end. Her teacher commented on her passionate debating skills but I see now that she was driven by extreme emotion to speak up. Trouble sleeping, no weight gain, little growth. Her decision to be vegetarian probably does not help her ability to focus. She also avoids eggs when she can so she may experience blood sugar fluctuations that effect her concentration. The biggest problem in grade 5, though, was getting her medication to her. For the last few months of grade 4 the office stopped giving her the pill reliably. She would sit for the entire lunch hour waiting, unaware how much time had passed and return to class without having eaten lunch OR having gotten the lunchtime dose. By school's end she would be painfully hungry and just burst into tears. I began to wrap her pill in foil and tape it to one of her lunch containers so she could take it AFTER eating- she was getting very thin. This worked well for grade 4. Half way through grade 5 someone alerted her teacher that this was going on and Madame was not "comfortable" with it so it had to stop. She would not give my daughter her lunchtime dose herself ( I do not remember why, sorry) so it was back to the office. They had trouble giving it reliably and it was during one of these meetings with the principal that he suggested we try home schooling her. He had a son with similar issues that they were able to send to a special (though very expensive) school.

So here we are, and feeling pretty lucky!
We manage anxiety: if she feels safe, she can learn. If she is upset, stressed, saddened or scared her focus will be shot for mundane things. She can read gross, gory books that are funny but NOTHING sad can be tolerated. We keep things pretty short with maximum interest whenever possible. If we have to learn about body systems, I find a book with cartoons ( NOT photos with real blood ) and funny, friendly aliens. We just glance over things that are prescribed for our grade to become acquainted with them. If I can find anything humorous on the topic she will be all over it, but otherwise it just is not going to hold her interest.

If she feels safe, she can learn. If she can sense that I am frustrated with her, the game is over. We cuddle on the couch for math or she does "Teaching Textbooks" on the computer, with their friendly voices and complimentary mascots that cheer her on. Khan's Academy is also good for math, a light-hearted, kind man. We only do the questions til she knows the concept, then we move on. We try to review a little each day, see-sawing our way through, forward and back. She gets most questions wrong, however, due to sloppy mistakes or lack of attention. I see she knows how to do it but she can't unless I am right there prompting her, usually writing the numbers as she tells me, but she will wander off mentally every 5 seconds and be unable to answer 2+1. Mornings are possible, afternoons are not.

There are no video games ( except a typing game) and very little television because I noticed early on that this had a HUGE effect on her ability to think. We do watch lots of educational videos, though. Aside from these and reading (must be her choice completely), there is nothing she will do without my complete devoted attention. Except play "Free Rice" if I suggest it or about 15 minutes of typing games. She will not write anything voluntarily so I usually take dictation. I know she CAN write and that she can compose her thoughts well, can organize a neat, concise argument -if she is keen to- from past assignments in school. Without medication she is mostly unable to function academically. She will sit and chew a string, paper or hair indefinitely, perhaps write one or two sentences even if it is a topic she loves. Sometimes, if she has had a good night's sleep and been eating well or is just getting over a flu where she has had a fever(?) she will have Excellent focus and seem like an absolute genius but this is rare. I had hoped exercise would make a difference but I have not noticed any improvement that way. She is healthy and growing, entering puberty and very happy so I am satisfied for now that it's the right choice, though medication seems like it might make another appearance this coming year as she really does focus better when she is on it.

Our daughter was diagnosed with across-the-board developmental delays around age 2. Expressive and receptive speech, cognitive skills, motor skills . . . you name it. Despite all these very obvious needs, during her early childhood the local area education agency only offered her services focused on speech; subsequently, she went into public school kindergarten with an IEP that also focused only on speech. To make a long story short, although they started providing somewhat more services when she was in first grade, her public schools years of K-3 were mostly disastrous.

In response to repeated encouragement by the resource teacher, when she was in third grade we took her to a psychologist and came home with a diagnosis of ADHD and a prescription for Metadate. We tried it for about a week, and the testing results did show a noticeable improvement in areas such as short term memory (from 0/10 to 5/10 on one test, for example). Nevertheless, we couldn't bring ourselves to continue the meds: she was awake until very late at night, had a glazed look in her eyes, developed a small rash on her thighs, etc. And it just didn't feel right: we've focused her whole life on providing a healthy organic diet, keeping junk food to an absolute minimum, providing tons of exercise (hiking, swimming, gym class, etc.), etc. I don't remotely question the decision of parents who choose to use meds: they just weren't the right decision for us.

Instead we started her for fourth grade in a small private alternative school for grades K-7/8. It has about 14 or 15 kids and is like a big home-schooled family. The main teacher has many years of experience teaching children who didn't fare well in public school (many have the ADHD label), as well as children whose parents are simply disgusted with the public school educational model (NCLB, regimentation, corporate world-view, etc.). Getting her out of public school was the best decision we could have made. The school meets in a small house in a residential neighborhood. The children work sometimes in groups and at other times on their own, following individually tailored programs. (There are usually at least two aides around to assist the main teacher, and older children also help younger children.) If they can concentrate better by standing up while working, they can stand up. They can take frequent short breaks to run outside and play; when the weather allows they can do some of their work outside, such as practicing speeches. There are no normative assumptions regarding where a child should be in her or his learning, no normative assumptions about how they should learn or behave beyond a progressive commitment to community and courtesy. (I.e., children can lose privileges, such as being allowed to go on field trips, if they are rude/disruptive, but this is handled in a caring fashion through consultation with parents.) Homework is assigned mostly only upon request (of the child or her/his parent). The lead teacher has certainly mentioned during conferences her need to use strategies to help our daughter with her extreme problems around (dis)organization (she assigns someone to help her clean out her desk each week, for example). But she has never pushed us to use meds.

In the end, I guess I feel a little guilty that we weren't willing to give the meds more of a try. Maybe more of our daughter's learning problems than we realize are due to the ADHD. But we feel that there is too much uncertainty surrounding the safety of the meds. As for public school, I do perceive that NCLB is a huge part of the reason it didn't work: the teachers are under significant pressure to get "results" as far as test scores, regardless of the toll it takes on the children. Our daughter's self-esteem plummeted in public school. At her private school, she feels much more accepted and successful. I wouldn't want to go back to the days when children such as our daughter were written off as ineducable, but I think we do need to start asking ourselves if it is always worth it to try to "maximize" potential. As I sometimes try to explain to people, children are not tubes of toothpaste: if you squeeze and squeeze and squeeze to try to get out every last ounce, you stand a good chance of inflicting permanent damage.

And as for us as parents: before we bailed out for the world of alternative schooling, we felt like we were raising not a child, but rather a set of problems in need of a set of solutions. No more.

I wish I could say homeschooling was the cure for ADHD like so many others here implied. For us it hasn't been, in fact homeschooling and spending everyday with my son made me more aware that we needed help for this. I started to suspect ADHD when he was in first grade at a school for children who were advanced or gifted. I brought it up to his teacher and she brushed me off, saying that other than not being able to do his classwork because he was too busy worrying about everyone else, he was fine. ADHD was not even a thought in her mind. I still wasn't convinced. His classwork was coming home incomplete, at lunch the lunch monitors where giving him something to do because he would not sit. It was the same story since PreK, he's a great kid but he won't sit still and he won't stop talking. We had the same issues at home plus behavior issues. Everything seemed to point to ADHD.

In April 09 we took him out of school to homeschool due to him being bullied because of a peanut allergy. From there his behavior grew worse. It would take us 3-4 hours just to do math. Forget getting anything extra like art, science, history in. It was a miracle if we got math, grammar and reading in most days. As the year progressed he got worse and worse, I talked to a friend that also homeschools and saw us weekly during co-op classes. She was a teacher in her former life, and I asked her what she saw for the few hours a week that she saw him. She agreed with me. So I went to his pediatrician and got a referral to see a child psychologist.

After a two month wait we finally got into see the psychologist and got an official diagnosis for ADHD. Let me say, that I'm not happy with this psych. She pushed medication vs behavioral therapy, but when you live in an area with very little mental health services and state insurance, your stuck sometimes. So behavior therapy wise at we are on out own. She put him on Focalin XR. It seemed to work, but not enough. So we upped the dose, which worked better, but now we had emotional meltdowns and fits of rage, especially at around 3-4pm as the medication wore off. So her answer to that was more medication, which I was not ok with but decided to try. It didn't work, we still had fits of rage and uncontrollable emotions. I explained all this too her, she brushed it off as the medication and didn't want to change anything. We were not going to see eye to eye on treatment.

The light at the end of the tunnel came when she felt she had done all she could for us and released him back to his pediatrician for further treatment. When this happened I explained to his pediatrician what was going on and we agreed to try another medication. He started Vyvase last week. I have a new child. I have the child I knew he could be. He's calm, he can focus for more than two second, he's not raging or breaking down emotionally all the time. He's still an 8 year old boy, but he's an 8 year old boy I can now handle. I honestly don't know where we would be without this medication. Today was our first day of school and we got everything but science in, we got so much accomplished today. We could never have done that without getting him treatment.

For those that can homeschool without medication, more power to them. But homeschooling wasn't the cure for us. Medication isn't the cure for us, he will have to learn to live with this for the rest of his life. Medication just helps him control himself better and for that I'm glad.

My daughter was diagnosed with ADHD by her physician when she was six years old and in the first grade. She was very strong academically, so I had always attributed her ADHD tendancies to misbehavior. Our relationship became very contentious. Her first grade teacher noticed that she had the most ants in the pants in the class, but also that there wasn't one child in the room with whom she could get along. That is the thing about ADHD. It doesn't always affect learning, but the social ramifications can be devestating.

Being an educator, I was at first against meds. We tried every ADHD modification in school and at home that we had ever heard of. We made occassional progress, but overall we felt helpless. We knew our daughter was bright, funny, and kind ... but only saw glimmers of that. She often expressed frustration when what came out of her mouth was different that what she intended. She simply could not control her impulses.

The first day she was on medication she came home and read a full book. Her handwriting was so much more legible that I have kept the before and after samples. Most of all, though, she was suddenly a kid that others wanted to be with. All her strengths were finally able to shine.

Despite all this, I began homeschooling her in third grade for mostly religious reasons. I received a ton of pressure from homeschoolers to stop her meds. Why would I need them? Couldn't I accommodate her? But the truth is that it seemed insane to me to remove such a support. Off meds she is inattentive, argumentative, and unpleasant to be with. On meds she is productive, fun, and kind. She does have the side affect of appetite surpression, so we have to get creative to get enough calories into her. That is easily accommodated, though, and we have been happy with her progress both socially and academically in the three years that we have homeschooled. We will continue to homeschool at least through eighth grade.

I still feel embarrassed in the homeschool community at times to have a child on ADHD meds. And I do not agree that it is comparible to asthma medication or heart medication, because if you remove those meds a child will die and not so with ADHD. Furthermore, and more importantly, if you give those meds to a child who doesn't need them, it will hurt them. Not so with ADHD meds, which makes it very complicated. I wish I could say that I never second guess our decision, but I often do. Of course I would prefer that prayer and good parenting could illeviate the ADHD issues. It just isn't so for us.

So for now we continue to enjoy homeschooling and she continues the medication. I am very glad to see you investigating this issue and will eagerly follow your studies.

My 13 year old son has been exclusively homeschooled. He is gifted and I am aware of a trend of labeling gifted kids as ADD, but my son really is so inattentive that it impairs his ability to function. He was diagnosed at age 8 and for two years, we tried every alternative treatment we could find, including cranial sacral therapy, vitamins, behavior charts, etc. Finally, when he was ten, we tried a low dose stimulant, and found that it made a world of difference. Without medication, my son would go to his room to get socks for a trip to the store, and he'd forget what he was there for and sit down to read a book. He was constantly losing track of time, forgetting things, and being distracted by various sights and sounds. Medication has been very helpful for him, and we have worked closely with an ADHD specialist to keep him on the lowest dosage of a medication that is effective for him.

Professor: I wish you would write more about the development of the larger discourse not just about ADHD but also about executive function. Included in this would be comments about attempts to map ADHD/executive functions disorders onto the brain and label it a disease. All behavior ultimately has a physical explanation so of course someone will be able to map the disorder on to the brain. There is also a trend in neurobiology to discuss what they 'know' and to bring the ideas of normal/abnormal further into their studies of the brain and thus to label ADHD and related disorders as diseases. Most parents do not have the intellectual sophistication to sort through these issues and really understand medicalization.

In 2007, our oldest child was in a morning private preschool program, three days a week for about a year to help with socialization. He would often exhibit issues of shyness/tiredness & withdrawal into his own world during play, alternating with hyperactivity bursts, combined with attention difficulties and over-sensitivity, especially when mixing with large/noisy groups of his peers (he would cover his ears, suck his thumb, zone out, and then a few months later he started acting out with high energy bursts and temper tantrums around the other kids – there weren’t any tantrums at home, and no hyperactivity issues at home either. But he would still have low energy/attention issues consistently throughout his day, lots of zoning out. He was always very quiet, not very verbal. At the time, he was also receiving private speech therapy as recommended by his regular pediatrician (he was weak in conversational pragmatics.) Eventually, we followed recommendations to get him further tested when he was 4 years 4 months old, by a developmental behavioral pediatrician. He was diagnosed as functioning within the broad range of normal in all areas, but his attentional problems produced some scattered lower scores. The comments also stated that the pediatrician expects by the time he reaches adolescence, he may clinically look like a child with Asperger syndrome. His official diagnosis was developmental delay atypical uneven pattern consistent with mild PDD-NOS/mild on the autism spectrum; high-functioning with sensory integration disorder; attention deficit disorder; phonologic disorder.

Because he hated preschool so much, and because we were also seeking a new way of life with this diagnosis, we pulled him out and focused on private speech therapy, learning at home, small groups, and we enrolled him into a social skills “play-pals” occupational therapy group class. He did OK in that 12-week class, we took 2 sessions, he always loved the counselors (he always did great with adults), but many of the kids were higher-needs and the socialization wasn’t as “typical” as he needed. So by the end of the school year, we enrolled him in the remaining months of public preschool. He was heavily screened through the school system, and an IEP was developed. He received speech therapy and OT throughout those weeks at public preschool. He then moved into public Kindergarten in the same school, where he continued along his IEP. He continued to improve across the board with speech, self-care, basic academic practice and his hyperactivity/distraction issues in the classroom improved a bit. The biggest struggle throughout Kindergarten was the social, he often commented that he hated school, felt like he had no friends – he was exhausted when he returned home each day.

By 1st grade, he showed strength in reading and math, followed directions, had good self-care, interacted really well with adults, they noted he was a gentle and quiet child, sweet-natured. He struggled with handwriting, scissors, rhyming; he had a difficult time fitting in with his peers, often awkward and clumsy, difficulty expressing himself verbally, defaulted to sillyness at times; needed reminders to stay on task. He remained on grade-level; was enthusiastic in art/music but struggled with playground social-time, and would often refuse to participate during journal time – which is how the teacher started every morning – he dreaded it -- forced to sit at the desk to write or express himself was difficult to say the least. The classroom was mostly boys, it was a very rowdy, aggressive classroom with an older, old-school/stern teacher. A few weeks into his 1st grade year, he began begging us to allow him to stay home, saying the classroom was boring, he didn’t have any friends, he hated school, etc., and so we focused on providing a nurturing, supporting place here at home and encouraged play dates with a boy here in the neighborhood. We made sure that his attendance remained strong at school, even though we were worried and sympathetic, and we spoke often with his teacher and IEP team about any specific concerns. They weren’t very worried about his social/peer issues. Instead, it was all about testing. They were always testing those kids! There was support in speech mostly, a little bit of OT (handwriting), and very little guided play and not enough social skills support.

Then he eventually became targeted at recess on the playground and was soon a victim of bullying. He would seek out peer interaction in terms of chase games on the playground (he loved running, and would outlast anyone when playing chase or running track) but the chase games soon turned into “get him!” kind of play, which eventually devolved into him being called the “bad guy” and the other boys being the cops. The ironic thing here is that with all of his previous OT social skill training and therapy, he was actually over-polite, over-sharing, over-trained just a bit – he followed protocol and standard rules of engagement, but because the other “typical” kids never received the same training, his skills were seen as a bit off. Many of those kids could have benefitted from their own social skill/play skills training! I wish that teachers had more time to provide social guidance and real-life teaching instead of always stressed to teach for the tests.

Why did we ultimately decide to go with homeschool? Bullying. This was an over-stressed school environment. We had a lack of faith in the school system, and a belief that our schools really are indeed broken. There was not enough teacher guidance. The school seemed incapable of seeing that they had a problem. There was a particular incident during recess when some kids played a game of “football” out in the field without any guidance or direct adult supervision, and the teams were uneven 4 on 2 – my son came home with bruises on his face and trunk. We spoke with the coach, teacher and counselor and their way around it was to remove the footballs during recess. Their staff was limited, and they had a policy not to over-hover unless there was direct conflict. At this point, no one was calling it bullying. But still, at that point, I was done. However, my husband wasn’t completely comfortable with the idea of homeschooling yet. So we continued with school (1st grade) through the new year. We talked with our son about standing up for himself. Told him to stay away from the aggressive kids at the playground. Made sure he knew we wanted him to feel comfortable to talk to us or his teachers about anything that was difficult or that felt like a problem. Shortly thereafter, when there was a day with only a young substitute teacher watching two classes on the playground, our son was held down by several kids who threatened to put him in the jail where the bees would sting him, and they tried to pry his mouth open to force him to eat “poison” (a rock). They held pointy, muddy sticks up to his face and held his arms behind his back and pulled his hoody tight so that it was choking him. Then the bell rang and they let him go. He didn’t tell anyone, until dinner that night, he told us everything, gave names and details. We spoke with him several times, and after lots of crying and hugs, we realized that not only was public school not a good fit for our son, it was also neglectful and damaging for the kind of kids who don’t fit into their system. We immediately withdrew him from school the next day. I met with the superintendant and then the principal, and after the formal meetings were over I then talked with the teacher. Not once would they acknowledge the word “bullying.” I still struggle with our decision not to pursue this issue further with the school. But instead, my focus and energy is going to our family.

We started homeschooling immediately with our oldest child this past sprint, while a younger sibling finished out their last month and a half of their kindergarten year, we wanted that younger child to have closure (that younger child excelled socially and academically at school). Once summer arrived, we began homeschooling both children. It is the best thing ever, I don’t know why I waited so long! He has relaxed so much. He does everything I ask of him during our lessons -- we only take two breaks during our morning lessons. There are no special accomodations for him, there is no need. He doesn't struggle with learning, and there are no struggles with attention, no hyperactivity. He is so happy not to be going back to school in the fall. He is like a different kid, he is thriving in this quieter, natural environment. He plays so well on the playground with his new peers. He loves theatre and gym class. We are not continuing the IEP/speech because we feel strongly that he no longer has any developmental delay issues that require formal intervention or therapies. We will continue to monitor this closely and will provide private therapy if the need ever presents again in the future.

Even though the school suggested Ritalin last year, we never put him on any medication. There was never any disruption here at home. He plays beautifully with his siblings, and even when there is conflict between the children it is all in the realm of typical behavior. Learning at home has been a wonderful experience for him, and for all of us.

Today, our son is almost 8 and continues to change and improve remarkably. I will always watch out for social concerns and continue to provide him with opportunities for typical interactions and enrichment. I recognize that he is sensitive, but we embrace that! I for one am proud that he is not a brute, nor a bully! As his parents we are proud to say that he will never go to public school again. And after much reading, research, self-education, conferences and now that we are on this new path, I can firmly state that none of our children will ever enter into that broken system again. Our son is sweet natured, creative, curious and loves homeschool. He is a natural learner. And we are following his lead. If our kids show interest in a certain area, we make time to explore it further, together. We will begin attending a homeschool co-op this fall, one day a week in order to provide a consistent social group to grow with over the years. We are enrolled in enrichment classes throughout the academic year. At home, we homeschool at the kitchen table in the mornings, 4 days a week for a few hours. We loosely follow recommendations from “A Well Trained Mind” with lots of classic literature – tons of good books, instruments and art supplies are everywhere here at home. Our kids thrive with computers (time4learning.com, Creativity Express, Destination Math) but for this age group we still restrict screen time.

Our son has never been medicated, there is no need at this time, and our pediatrician has always confirmed that there was no need based on his behavior and performance. She felt that the IEP accommodations in the school environment were enough for his specific needs. I think the schools are over-pushing. And now that we are homeschooling, (and he is thriving academically, socially and behaviorally) medication is no longer a subject of consideration. We are excited about homeschooling – it has changed our lives for the better! I have my son back.

DD was teacher's pet & thrived in Montessori K3/4//5. One day the teacher Miss C met me at the door & HAD to show me something. DD had started 7 different works on 7 trays & knew where she was on ALL of them!! I was confused. Miss C thought that was amazing. I told her that was *MY* life - to be in the middle of a bunch of projects, books, etc, & jump among them. DD was like me (w/ ADHD?). I didn't know any different or see a problem. DD had always been crazy about inhaling information & knowledge since she was a toddler! In first grade Mrs M wanted her tested (Miss C had wanted it, too). DD had wanted to "walk around & help all the other children with their math" & stared out the window all the time, but always knew the answers. DD said, "Why do I have to tell Mrs M what 8+7 is when I already told Miss C?" Good question, I thought, but in school you aren't allowed to move ahead. They wouldn't let her move up to the 2nd grade, & there was no gifted program for her age. The independent psychologist said he hated to "saddle" her with the diagnosis, so he didn't.

By 4th grade (this time a private school w/ an advanced curriculum) her 7 teachers WANTED her tested. We tried Ritalin for a few months, but it only resulted in a daytime compliant zombie that wanted to work even harder at night to pursue her knowledge. By spring they asked for a conference, refunded our deposit for the coming year & told us she was too far ahead for them to help her. They agreed she was a classroom mgmt problem, because she could do anything but listen, & they knew they had her nailed, but she alway knew the answer. They suggested homeschooling.

We started homeschooling, & after lots of reading & talking, one of the interesting things I found was that the ADHD & gifted behaviors are quite similar, and in testing for ADHD, you should find someone experienced in gifted testing. Oops. The psychologist never mentioned that.

Our homeschooling started out with a curriculum program that she hated following. She would just want to read all of the history book and do that other subjects later. The piecemeal, parsing out of knowledge that is "curriculum" always galled her. We started unschooling and everything fell into place. She was accepted to a 4 year college (her desire to leave home and be her own person).

The "problem" is that she loves knowledge, wants to go at her own pace (fast), ignoring some subjects while pursuing others, and delving into specialized interests no one else her age has. She is usually introverted, with a few sensory issues. The drama, administrative stuff, and wasted time at school drove her crazy since the first grade. She likes adults, & as a late teen, has friends in other cities that she talks to on-line, but has no peers here. Her boyfriend has similar characteristics, but is away. She will find her "tribe" when she starts college, we hope. She has been an autodidact unschooler for 5-6 years. She IS bothered by her lack of concentration sometimes, and wants to try medication again so she can finish a book she really want to finish. Unschooling saved her sanity, though.

FAIL!?!

dog grooming

My daughter was finally dx'd ADD after many years of my knowing she has it. She's very bright, and it takes longer for the world to come crashing down on bright kids. She's now in high school, we homeschooled in elementary for a couple years. It was necessary, but certainly not ideal. Her homeschooling peer group was made of kids with issues or kids of parents with extreme beliefs. With ADD, the child needs to learn how to interact with their peers, manage their impulses, learn to organize and plan, and come up with coping strategies. In the artificial world of homeschooling we encountered, this was not possible. We don't want to escape, or redefine the real world, we want to function in it. So giving our child meds was a fantastic solution. Some people think that "drugging" ourselves (I have it too and we take Ritalin) would make us flat, and not creative or interested in the same stuff we loved before. Yeah, maybe we are 1% less creative during the day, but it wears off at night, and we are 100% more creative because we have TIME to do what we choose. We finish things we start, we choose carefully what we start, we don't alienate friends with our impulsive outbursts. If your child couldn't see, would you change their schooling, or get them glasses? Ritalin is like wearing glasses. The world becomes clear. We are happy.

I was diagnosed whet adhd at the age of 5. the doc's sead it was because I was born premature. When I started school all the teachers did was pass me along and didn't care about my grades. I started taking ed's at age 10. in middle school I was diagnosed whet adhd+bipolar in 7th grade I was kicked out of my school because the teachers said I was out of control and I made it unsafe for the other students. When I got kicked out I had to get a therapist and psychiatrist. Schools going good now we know what my problem was I get bored in class because Im a fast Lerner. Im in 9th grade now and go to Hope online and it really workes for me

My son was 9 when he was diagnosed, but we had suspected it for a year or so. He was then in a traditional public school in one of the best districts in our area. In addition to being in a typical classroom with about 19 students, he was also in the gifted program for math and science that met several times a week. He was never a physical disruption, ie. he could stay seated, did not fight physically with others, he was respectful and well meaning, but teachers reported that he would try to take over discussions, interrupt others, and have a hard time working with a partner. Most significant to us –because most of the behavior I have described could be from boredom- he daydreamed frequently, he was not able to finish his work in a timely manner, unable to be neat, made numerous “careless” errors, and his written answers rarely demonstrated his true knowledge. He was very anxious about his inability to do his written work as well as his other gifted peers, and distressed over the fact that the rest of the class “knew” that he was supposed to be one of the smart kids, but that he couldn’t get his work done. He developed tic-like habits due to the anxiety of being in school. I won’t describe them because they would be too identifying, but once we started homeschooling, these habits slowly faded away, and one year later they are gone completely.

He is 10 now, and we have done more than a year of homeschooling. We follow a fairly traditional curriculum. He still struggles with staying on task, and daydreaming, but his desire to do well on his work has returned. We are sometimes able to go off on tangents together if he wants to discuss something with us, which is nice, and provides a break. I think that a lot of his interrupting and “taking over” discussions in the classroom had to do with his desire to really talk about a subject. He makes lots of noise while he works, which is something I know he was not able to do in the traditional classroom. He sings, clicks his tongue, and makes other noises that he says help him keep going. His work pace is still much slower than you would expect sometimes. His anxiety is gone! We had one therapist tell us not to expect the anxiety to go away, but it did. He is still not a huge fan of schoolwork, but his love of learning is back, and he is just a much happier kid.

He does take a low does of methylphenidate. It helps. We do not plan on increasing the dose. He takes a small amount of melatonin to help him get to sleep at night. The melatonin was started by me, but was also later approved by his pediatrician.

I was a similar child. I have some adhd symptoms as an adult. I take the same dose of methylphenidate that he does, and it makes a subtle, but important difference in the way I function. In order to stay on track with his curriculum, I have elected to follow a program that requires me to turn in his work on a regular basis. That is just one of the ways I support myself, or cope, with the symptoms of adhd.