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