Looking for Socks

Look on Parenting BB she posted there earlier.

Mrs Polly from Md? :-))) This is socks. still hanging around. Feel free to email.

Just wondering who the famous “socks” is! Are you/Is she a very knowledgeable mom, or a professional of some sort, or both??

LOL,the infamous Socks! ( I am hearing the music for Jaws)

I am a mom. Have two incredibly handsome,intelligent boys. Both happen to be ADHD/Gifted/LD. They come by it honestly,their father although undiagnosed,had significant behavior problems in school,as well as learning issues. I was formally diagnosed dyslexic in kindergarten. I finally learned to read at around 12. As I grow older I wonder more about ADD,but heck I am older now,I am allowed to forget my head sometimes.( okay,I am not that old yet) I am a pediatric nurse who specializes in children with developmental delays,right now I work with premature infants and toddlers. I coordinate the early intervention program there.

I have spent the better part of my life figthing to be me. My father used to tell me I was born in the wrong era,because I was always looking for a reason to protest. A rebel without a cause I suppose. Ironicly enough the cause wound up being for my own two children. I,or I should say the local school district,had a fight on their hands the moment my two stepped into the school.

Being LD myself I was used to working harder,longer,and with more conviction. I learned the laws that protected my kids. When your LD,and you say you learned something,it means you can quote them in your sleep. You memorized the book,you collected every article,every website,everything.

I found Ldonline in my quest,been coming here about 6 years now.Wow,it amazes me everytime I write that. My oldest was in 2nd grade,he will be in 9th this coming school year. In my quest,I tried always to help other people in their quest,as others have helped me. Like Andy,Sara,Robin,and so many more.

Like morning coffee,ldonline is a daily ritual. I wake up,get coffee,check email,read ldonline. I love writing,sometimes I write just to satisfy my creative urges,sometimes I share a story or two,sometimes I answer a question or two.

Who am I,a Mom? A professional? Probably a walking civil rights dictionary is
more like it!
I compiled all of my best articles,and links onto one webpage for other parents to sift through,mostly stuff saved to favorites,figure it can help you, if it helped me
http://expage.com/socksandfriends
I am a parent advocate,obtained certification a few years back,but I do not charge,therefore I am not considered a professional. I network,try to help as many kids as I can. You can find me sunday nights at net haven
www.net-haven.net
I host an advocacy chat there. 8 pm EST Nethaven is a chat community that I met from this BB. For parents of kids or adults who have ADHD/LD and living with it,and suceeding at it.

If we don’t help each other,who is going to?

Hi Socks, I was just reading that your sons are ADHD/Gifted/LD. A friend of mine is trying to figure out her son. He scored very high on the IQ 128 psychoevaluation and the only thing he scored low was in Attention. He does not seem to have an LD but is Hyper. The doctors say he is not ADHD, but he can’t seem to sit still and is bouncing all over the place. They have tried behavior modication for years and nothing worked, and the doctors said that if they had not done any behavior modication he would have been alot worse. The parents have tried stimulants and had not been successful, in fact, the child got really bad side-effects and developed vocal tics because of it. I am trying to figure out if he can be Gifted/ADHD or just Gifted. He enjoys academic and that is why he scored well in the recent evaluation/tests and was not boucing all over the place. But when in class he talks non-stop, irritates the other students and they are now backing away from him.

Do you have any insights to this.

Thanks so much.

is the bouncing consistent? Is it possible this movement is a tic? Anxiety can cause nonstop talking. Have they obtained a functional behavior assessment ,or has any behavioralist observed him in the classroom?

Gifted/hyper — that’s my family. And my daughter found a boyfriend who is even more so. Bouncing off the walls, story of my life. I told the two of them that if they have children, they’ll be scraping them off the ceiling — and on sober second thought, I *want* some grandchildren to scrape off the ceiling, so produce them!

Meds were not an option for my era and my mother would have had doubts anyway. My daughter managed, barely, to stay in her chair by reading and finding other things to do with her mind. Daughter’s boyfriend was given meds for a short while and got worse. Nephew should have had *something* but his schools believed in do your own thing and go to H your own way, and he will suffer the rest of his life for it.

What *has* worked for the rest of us other than nephew is to keep both mind and body occupied. Run around outside, join as many sports teams and clubs as physically possible — better to be a mom run ragged by commuting to hockey practices, than a mom in desperation with a kid out of control — learn to play music, join the SCA and learn to swordfight, take art and woodworking classes, go camping and spend your summer in the lake, etc. If you use up the excess energy on positive activities then it doesn’t boil over in other places. For the mind, teach the kid to read as soon as he shows an interest, in my daughter’s case she crawled into my lap and demanded to learn at age 2, which is how she had something to do so she could force herself to sit still. Get the kid all sorts of books — the used bookstore and the library should be second homes. There should be books in the bedroom, books in the car, books in the backpack, and books in the desk. Then when there is nothing to do in class, instead of making trouble you can take your mind somewhere else. Another option for certain gifted/hyper kids is to get them interested in math problems and puzzles; then wherever they go they have something to work on, just need a pocket notepad and pen. And get involved in out-of-school learning, from music to second languages to college math classes, and again this gives something to do when the class is a waste of time.

I know it takes time and work and money on the part of the parents to keep a kid involved in all sorts of stuff. But it’s cheaper and more satisfying than paying for psychiatric counselling and and lawyers, so it’s worth it.

“I,or I should say the local school district,had a fight on their hands the moment my two stepped into the school.”

…THIS SOUNDS LIKE ME! I AM NEW TO THIS WONDERFUL WORLD OF SPED AND AGREE THAT THIS BB IS A GREAT PLACE TO GIVE, RECEIVE AND SIMPLY NOT FEEL ALONE.

THANKS FOR YOUR PERSISTENCE IN CONTRIBUTING ALL THESE YEARS!

welcome Judy:-)

Socks,
He was recently observed /tested by a reputable neuropsychologist. He was doing academic stuff which he loves so he was not hyper. Other times, (this is how his mother describes him), he is literally in everyone’s face, constantly interrupts, cannot stop moving, has no idea of his behavior or its consequences, doesn’t understand he is talking all the time. The testers ruled out NVLD because he understands when someone else does something wrong etc.

Linda

Sorry Socks, I typed the wrong name for the author in my message above.

Linda

Sounds like they’ve got a pretty narrow definition of NVLD. Betcha they asked him verbal *questions* about waht was right and what was wrong, which of course he answered at least reasonably well. That’s totally different from being able to “read” social situations and respond appropriately!
Fortunately these kids often respond well to being directly taught social skills — the important thing being that the person doing the teaching really does believe that they’re not just “being jerks” on purpose. (There are still an awful lot of people, including teachers, who just can’t believe that it’s genuinely difficult for some kids to learn this stuff, or be organized, so even when they try to “help” it’s with the feeling that they’re losing some kind of game the kid’s playing… though sometimes when it works their eyes are opened…) Talking with him about socially acceptable ways to deal with situations where he gets into trouble might help. (There’s a book called something like “I shouldn’t have to tell you” that’s lurking at the back of my mind… there’s also a kiddo in “Turnabout Children” by Mary McCracken who is taught how to make friends that might be good to read about and see if you could steal some ideas from it.)

Please email me at [email protected]