When should you diagnose a child with ADHD?

K is young to conclude anything about ADHD in my opinion, especially for the kinds of things you note. My youngest, who is quite active, did marvelously in K because of the teacher. She truly was a gift. First grade he had a totally different type of teacher and totally different kind of experience. So it may be more of a teacher-kid match as anything else. I would specifically ask for a teacher who is good with active kids for first grade. Some teachers require kids to sit a lot more than others. A teacher who uses stations for example would be better than one who requires kids to sit silent all day.

Beth

As long as everything else in his life is going well I agree with Beth. Part of the DSM diagnoses requires that the condition affect the child in two out of three settings or something like that. If it’s only school then school could be the problem. That’s why they have that stipulation as part of the diagnoses.

When my older daughter was in kindergarten her teacher told me she thought she had adhd. I was uneducated about adhd at the time and said there’s no way! I’m an educator, surely I would know it if my child has adhd! So what we did was set up a system where the teacher would send home a smiley face on a sticky note for every day that my daughter had a good day following the rules. This positive reinforcement worked great. Before long our refrigerator was covered with smiley notes! My daughter said to me one day, “Mommy, I just needed to learn the rules.”

With that said, I was very wrong about my daughter. She hit middle school and it was like a bomb dropped! Meanwhile my younger daughter hit first grade and was having a lot of LD type problems. I started researching like crazy. Everything I read about adhd described my older child perfectly! It got to where my older daughter was in danger of failing even though she is very bright. The research shows that many children who are very bright with adhd are able to do well until they hit the middle school years because that is when the type of learning changes.

Back to your original question. I don’t think it’s appropriate for the teacher to be insisting you test for anything or to push diets on you. She is not a doctor! What I have done with teachers is first ask them to be very specific on the behavior that is at issue. Otherwise, how can you understand and address it at home. Then work on ways to address the specific behavior. Make sure there are REWARDS for accomplishing the targeted behavior— not just negative ways to acknowledge it’s not successful! Ask the teacher to send a note home on a good day or something like that. The year is almost over. If you can get the teacher to focus on the behavior that is troublesome (just one thing at a time) instead of what she thinks is wrong with your son it may help.

Good luck and let us know how it works out!

I was actually kinda thinking that perhaps the structure of the school setting (a lot of seatwork) might be what is giving my son a hard time. He can sit still for a long time IF it interests him but can not sit still if it doesn’t. He has a hard time staying seated and a lot of times will want to stand, even while doing his handwriting! I think I’ll give him a little bit more time—perhaps first grade will be better. Unfortunately, this is a very small school and therefore I don’t have a choice as to who his next teacher is unless I take him out of that school and put him into a totally different school. (I’m hoping she does some stations and hands-on activities—my son THRIVES on hands-on activities!)

Even though I’m a very academic person and do a lot of sitting-down activities, I don’t think constant seatwork is appropriate in K or even all day in Grade 1. ALL those kids should be getting hands-on activities for a large portion of the day.

I would consider visiting the first grade classroom to see if you think the classroom style is a better match for your son. At the very least, I would ask around. Parents usually have a pretty good idea, although many kids are resilent enough that parents don’t pay attention to teacher style.

If you find out it is a sit down and work style, I would consider moving your child. The odds are high he will have trouble and why go through another hard year.

I agree with Victoria that it is developmentally inappropriate but that doesn’t stop people from teaching this way.

Beth

I agree with all of the above. Kindergarten used to be about playing and reading/math readiness. There were games, songs, and activities, but next to no seat work unless a child really wanted to do it. Now it has become very regimented, and somehow everyone is expected to adjust, even though as recently as 10-20 years ago, everyone knew that these expectations were unreasonable.

What on earth is wrong with standing up while writing? He’s writing, isn’t he? Who is harmed by his standing up? And why does he need to spend so much time sitting down anyway? Whose needs are being met? The children’s need for a stimulating environement for learning, or the teacher’s need for control?

We put our kids into alternative schools or homeschooled for their early years. None of them ever got the ADHD label, even though two are classic ADHD cases based on their behavior patterns. They are all successful, and we did not use medication on any of them. The environment makes all the difference. Most adults would not be willing to sit still for what we expect of our kindergarteners. It’s insane!

I think the academic load picks up in 4th grade, maybe 3rd.

Personally, I wouldnt go there before that

I don’t think age is the indicator for asessing for adhd. I have seen 1st graders who, without meds, were holy terrors-dangerous to themselves and others- with no self-braking system. But I would expect adhd to present as more than trouble staying with seatwork in first grade.

Do encourage skills - fine motor, listening. sometimes kids get up and wander because they can’t easily do what is asked of them. Who wants to cut and paste if the scissors never work right for you? Get some appropriate crafty things bead stringing, etc for hand-eye and fine motor. Get some interesting books on tape to encourage listening. Try some games or activities that your child can do independently-sometimes kids experience independent activity for the first time at school. they are used to being entertained by an outside source-TV, nanny.

Remember that the teacher is seeing your child in the context of a group of children. She is telling you that yours is slightly different than the group. It could be the teacher-her expectations don’t match your child; it could be the group- the group doesn’t match your child or it could be that your child is having difficulties that he cannot express. sometimes we don’t know our children are dyslexic or ADHD or whatever until they are put into the situation of needing certain skills.

Does his cub scout leader or sunday school teacher or tball coach notice anything? Are there any other indicators?

just a thought

I agree with everyone here. How can they demand testing for ADHD in K? At our school, I’ve noticed that the K class does a lot of seatwork nowadays. Far more than my oldest son (now 19) ever did. It’s just crazy to expect kids that young to sit for long intervals. When my two oldest were in K they were expected to learn their ABC’s, stand in a line, wait their turn, be respectful of each other, etc. It’s a different story now.

I still think that my son in 5th grade, being required to sit straight, look straight ahead, & do seatwork is just asking too much. I work at the school so I have the opportunity to see what goes on daily. In my son’s Social Studies class they listen to the teacher lecture, they take turns reading aloud from the dry, dull, boring material and then they take a chapter test. BORING!!! I would think it would almost be pretty hard to make Social Studies boring. You would almost have to work at it to make it dull. I think that is the reason my son loves math and science. In math, they have a very laid-back teacher and his classroom is just more unstructured than some and in science it’s almost all hands-on. The kids just have a great time in there. My son never comes home telling any tales from his homeroom but I sure hear a lot about science class.

There is such a difference in teachers. My son was lucky enough to have great teachers all the way up to 5th grade. We had one teacher for 1st grade that understood that every child WAS different and if the child wanted to stand up and write, that was just okay with her. His 3rd grade teacher was another gem….she believes in the 7 styles of learning and tried to make sure that she ‘reached’ every student.

I aggree with everyone about adhd testing. I’m sure you would be noticing some things at home. Waitingto see how he does next year is a better idea. The one thing I haven’t seen mentioned is the possibility that he sees school as somewhat of a social activity. I wonder how much interaction with bigger groups of children he has had before this. There’s always the possibility that a classroom setting is a little disrupting for him since theres so much to see and hear.
He still young and sitting is hard for little people. Would the teacher consider letting him stand to do his written work as long as he stays at his desk? tammie

Thanks for all the tips and ideas, especially for the idea of getting the beads and string—you’re right, he does have some trouble with fine motor skills so that might be the root of some of his troubles. I’m going to be working with him during the summer in hopes that by the time he goes into first grade that he won’t have any problems. He’ll be in school full time and I’m afraid there’ll be even more seatwork! They basically require students to be reading by the time they enter first grade now, which was never a requirement when I was that age—they basically were happy if you knew how to count up to 100 and knew all the letters of the alphabet! Now, they want first graders to know how to add and subtract and read, before they even start the school semester! Fortunately, he loves math and science and can read a little bit already. It’s just that he doesn’t really enjoy sitting down and doing the work. BUT, I’ve found one thing that might be helpful—he loves to help others, and I’m now having him show his little brother how to do things in his workbook. He doesn’t seem to mind the work at all when he’s helping his brother!

I forgot to mention in the main context of that last message that I am going to wait until next year to see how he’s doing. He does have some difficulty staying on task, even in soccer, and others have noticed this too. But, I think this might be more of a maturity issue rather than ADHD. So, I’m giving him the summer to see how things progress. If his first grade teacher says anything, then I might have him tested at that time.
Thanks for everything.

Hi April,
I would suggest that your observation that ‘fine motor skills’ may be the problem. Could be your answer?
It occurs to me that activities carried out whilst ‘standing’. Have a greater involvement of ‘gross motor skills’. Whereas, ‘seated’ activities are far more exclusively ‘fine motor’ activities.
Given that he is more comfortable with his gross motor skills, it seems rather obvious that ‘standing’ would be more appropriate?
Being forced to ‘sit’ in an enforced uncomfortable ‘fine motor ’ situation.
Will no doubt cause him to be fidgety and distracted?
Whilst ADHD might be an easy explanation for schools. With medication as the solution? Which avoids any assistance from the school.
A targetted focus on developing his fine motor skills may in fact be the real solution?
Most importantly, developing his fine motor skills will also enhance his sense of self-confidence and self-esteem.
Geoff.

I would also look into alternative schools or classrooms that are more accepting of this kind of normal childhood behavior and are more flexible in meeting a child’s individual needs. It made all the difference for our kids to be out of the standard classroom environment through their elementary years.