Posted on 11/12/2007 2:19:05 PM PST by crazyshrink
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I’m a fan of Peter Breggin and the like, ever since my kid’s elementary school tried to force me to put my kid on Ritalin.
I held them off but it wasn’t pretty, and they had no problem blaming every grade she received under an A (not too many of them) on the need for Ritalin. At one point they told me they’d deny her entry into an advanced reading class unless I had an IEP for her - that ploy didn’t work, but they made her life miserable that year because of it. It’s the main reason we started homeschooling - then we continued homeschooling because we loved it.
Sorry, but in many ways I despise most members of your profession. You sound like one of the good ones, like Breggin.
LOL
My kid too. He did miserably in a private school, even worse in a public school.
Our years home teaching him have seen his learning curve soar! He was learning Algebra II and reading and comphrehending on a college level at age 14, just 26 months after having failed 6th grade. All it took was 9 months in high school and we were back to home schooling.
He will be taking his GED in about a year so he can go on and do what he wants rather than languishing in high school. His retention ability has increased greatly, and we don’t really know why. This article has perhaps given us a clue. Our family members have always been late developers, and know I may have a clue as to why that is so.
Our kids are similar. I pulled mine out in 6th grade, which was 6 years ago, and mine is now pulling As in community college.
That is super! Mine is making his way there too.
CC is great. It really builds their confidence and saves money at the same time. :)
Disease and disorder are not the same. I was among the skeptics of ADHD, and one of those who believed if the parent would just apply the board of education to their seat of knowledge they could cure the kid. My 6-year old son most definitely has ADHD. I have been working with him at home with that Total Transformation program that you hear advertised on the radio, and it does seem to have helped at home - but at school I have been pulled aside by the teacher 3 times to tell me is is not listening to simple directions in class. A typical incident would be her giving directions for the students to grab a pencil and eraser and gather in a circle on the mat. He will join the other kids on the mat, but be the only one who did not grab the pencil and eraser. I’m at Witt's end, and I don’t believe in giving them drugs, unless they are a danger to them selves or others.
Disease and disorder are not the same.
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We agree. IMHO, ADHD is a slight biologicial anomaly, not a disease.
I have heard of, but am not familiar with, the info you are talking about. With the families I work with, helping them to learn how to break down a large task into smaller ones is often a huge success. ADHD behavior often leaves the person feeling “overwhelmed”.
Break the task into smaller ones. One example I frequently use is cleaning your room. An ADHD behaviored person may see that as overwhelming and not know where to start. By breaking it into smalll tasks, say like this:
1) pick up all dirty clothes and put in hamper
2) pick up toys and put in toybox
3) make bed
etc. etc.
It sounds like your child was caught in the high stimulus moment of all his/her classmates suddenly moving around. A good teacher, who is aware of ADHD, could cover your child’s “forgetting” the pencil etc. quite easily w/o embarassing him/her. Assign a classmate to help, look specifically at him/her when speaking, etc. etc.
It is not that he isn’t listening!!! His executive functioning hasn’t developed fully yet. IMO, this is no different than other children who may be shorter or taller or whatever than the rest of the children.
Hang in there. You sound like you are on the right track. Keep up the research. There are tons of materials available for families as well as teachers. If you need some help, you have my freepmail.
Ben
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