Getting along with other children

She could help him by instructing him on the social graces of language—in other words pragmatic language. One of my dreams as an SLP in public schools is to have a communication group for LD/ADHD kids where they can share, communicate and learn from one another. I also want to integrate some other older kids who are level headed to mentor and be a friend to these type of kids.

There is a book called Conversations, which is a framework for language intervention with preteen, teens and young adults by Barbara hoskins that has various senarios that kids walk through in a small group setting to learn pragmatics and how to effectively communicate with their peers and others..

Hi ADHD mom. My son is the same way and it all started in 6th grade. However, he wasn’t diagnosed as ADD yet - diagnosis came in Nov. of 2002 in 7th grade. Our experience with his 6th grade year was also a living nightmare! He started ‘maturing’ in 6th grade (plus we were new the year before to the area) and he was really more like an 8th or 9th grader physically and mentally. The teachers would tell me that I was going to really be in for it when he was a teen! In our experience, getting the diagnosis by itself was a tremendous help. He no longer thought he was ‘weird’ or ‘strange’ and knew that there was a chemical imbalance to blame for some of the things he did. He’s now on meds (Strattera) and he is doing SO MUCH better, although he is still having some social problems. He has friends but most of the kids get on his nerves because they’re ‘so immature.’ As part of his IEP he goes to a social skills group at school which seems to have helped. Where he used to be the one always getting into trouble, he has learned to just sit back and watch everyone else get into trouble! He is also seeing a psychiatrist to help him with self-esteem and anger issues that are just a part of the ADD picture. See if your school offers social skills and if he’s not in counseling he probably should be. That really helps a bunch! Take care and good luck.

Thanks for the input. My son is also on Strattera, we started it in January and it has really improved his focus doing class room work but he has become a much bolder person, not putting up with the names etc. that other kids call him. I will check into the social skills class because that is really what he needs. It seems that each week he is having problems with a different child. There is only 10 more school days left but next year will come around really soon and the problems will start again. Seems like a never ending cycle!

My son started Adderall xr in 7th grade. Since that moment, the problems are almost ‘peanuts”. His whole attitude changed. He suddenly could get along much better with his classmates. He loves school and most of the time himself. What a relief!
Hope you will find a way to deal with the problems. For us, nothing else really brought any help. All social skill groups, tutoring and talking could not make him see what he was doing and there was no way to change the problems before that.
We know, it is no fun for anybody. Good luck!

I’d say check with the school to see if the school social worker, speech therapist, or psychologist run groups regarding social skills or friendship, etc. Sometimes they do lunchtime groups and then also throughout the school day.