I was one of those doubters myself. I was one of those who said if parents would just discipline their kids, they would have the problem.
I am now a believer. My son was struggling with keeping up with the other kids in Pre-School and kindergarten before we got the medical attention he needed. Multiple directions were nearly impossible for him to follow. The teacher would say, “kids grab a pencil, an eraser, and a piece of paper and sit in a circle” all he would here is “grab a pencil”, and he would take his clue of what to do next by watching the other kids. Seen this at home as well. “Take your plate to the sink, go wash your hands, and get your get you pajamas on”, was 2 directions too many. Half way through kindergarten the Doctor tried him on a small dosage of Focalin and we and the teacher noticed a Night vs. Day difference right away.
I even gave him a test asking him to write the numbers 1 through 100 . The day before the Foculin, it took him forever just to get to 33, where he could go no further. Many of the numbers were backwards or unreadable, and he skipped a few. The day after, he got all the way to 99, it was done neatly, and he only had a couple of numbers turned backwards, a 5 here, and a 6 there.
He is now in second grade, and we are now weaning him off the stimulant Foculin and onto a new non-narcotic and safer guanfacine, which ADD ADHD parents are all talking about.
I can tell, you this for sure, If you skipped a day with any of these medications, it was a nightmare at school and at home. There is no mistaking it. Is it over diagnosed by Doctors? Probably, nut for my child it was the right decision.
My daughter can’t handle multiple verbal directions either.
Has your son been tested for things like short term memory problems?
That’s what my daughter has, and she sounds just like your son.
It's possible your child is just very intelligent and becomes bored very easily. A simple test would be to de- medicate and see if the old behavior returns. If necessary get some placebo pills to avoid behavior modification. The long term affects of anti-pyscotics are unknown but I suspect they are similiar to THC, another brain altering chemical.