I have posted this in the Pareting an LD Child forum as well, but I think this is an overlap and there may be people that read this forum and not the other.
My son is 10 - we are planning on talking to him on Saturday regarding the results of his testing. He has ADHD-combined type, LD, a generalized Anxiety Disorder and ODD (maybe - dr still not 100% on that)
Anyway, how did your child(ren) react to the news about ADHD? Were they reluctant to discuss treatments? How did you explain this to him/her? I will never use the term ‘disability’, nor do I want to overwhelm this often sullen child, but I do want him to realize the long term outcomes.
Any tips or advise would be greatly appreciated.
Be well,
Jori
A word of thanks
Thank you Karen for your input. We sat down with out son last weekend and we did discuss some of the findings of this testing. He does have LD as well as ADHD, but we didn’t use the term disability - we just told him that he learns differently than other children, and now that we have learned how it is that he learns there will be some modifications in school work, etc.
We will be meeting with the psychiatrist on Wednesday to discuss the line of treatment that will happen now. She is the dr that found us the private psyc. testing. The next step will be to meet with the school mid-June to get an IEP implemented for next year. This year, IMHO, has been lost, but now we can only moved forward.
Thank you to all that took the time to reply to my request. It is appreciated.
Be well,
Jori
I think you can avoid the word disabilitiy, since your son doesn’t have a “learning disability”, although I must say that we do use that word and I believe it is appropriate.
But for your child I would simply acknowledge that he has trouble paying attention, or controlling impulses, or whatever behavior you all know is there. At the age of 10 I’m sure he is aware of what makes him different or what makes school hard. I’d say ” some people have more difficulty paying attention etc, and sometimes its called ADD. But we can help you by …..” Fill in the blank with whatever you have decided to do.
My son is both LD and inattentive and he knows that he is seeing a therapist to help him develop strategies for coping with his anxiety and to help him focus better at school. He knows sometimes people take medication to help them focus even though right now he doesn’t. He’s 11, and kids talk amongst themselves, so I figured its better to be very up front in a matter of fact way.