Interesting article

I have always that that ADHD is more of an LD than a behavior disorder. Especially when it comes to kids that are primarily inattentive. It’s always been hard for me to understand how it couldn’t be classified as such when it is so obvious how my dd’s ADHD has a negative impact on her learning. The behavior aspects of her ADHD are clearly a secondary effect of the ADHD. Not having a hyperactive ADHD, I don’t know. I know what others have told me, and I would tend to still say that it falls in the same catagory, but there are differences, and I’m just not as clear on those. Love to hear from some parents of hyperactive ADHDer’s. Do you think that your child has learning challenges that you can say are directly related to the ADHD? What about the behaviors? Do you view the hyperactivityimpullsivity as a behavior disorder or as a result of a mind that is moving too fast and your child is using his/her body as an outlet for this rapid movement of their minds? Hope that makes sense.

Roxie, I have an ADD/Inattentive child and he doesn’t have a “behavoral” problem at school or at home, neither does he have a social problem. He, however, has a problem with attention/focus and organizational skills. He has been remediated now (he could not read 6 months ago, at the end of 1st grade). We discovered it was ADD/Inattentive, he went on medication and what a difference. We also did remediation during the summer vacation and this time he was able to retain the information. He went from not reading to reading 3rd grade level. He still has problems, finishing written work and remembering things and organizing himself. The school is helping with this. He goes to resource room 45mins a day, for Listening skills, organization skills, reading and math. He really shouldn’t be in there for reading and math but when he was evaluated, the tests showed LD, we were in the process of having him evaluated privately by a Neuropysch at that time. So no one at school was sure whether it was an LD or ADD. So they gave him an IEP for Specific Learning Disability and I was not about to argue when they were willing to give him extra help. As it turns out it was the ADD that was interfering with his learning (self-esteem was a problem too). Now that the medication is working well, he is LEARNING and making up for lost time. I asked the RS teacher to concentrate more on the Listening skills and Organization skills as ADDers have major problems with these since he has pretty much caught up on his academics. He has a wonderful Gen Ed teacher, who understands what accomodations he needs, like spacing out long tests, letting him “play” with his pencil, reminding him of things, sometimes working one on one with him on big projects - he tends to not remember all the instructions if they are multi-steps. All the “little things” that helps an ADDer. I will have to put all he does for my son unofficially into his official IEP because the next teacher might not be so accomodating or knowledgeable about ADD/ADHD.

His RS teacher already told me that she sees my son graduating out of his IEP in the near future. But I will want them to reclassify the IEP from SLD to OHI so that the accomodations which he will still need will always be there for him. Middle school is where he is REALLY going to need it.

So long story short, yes ADD to me is not so much a behavoral disability but more an LD issue with my son.

By the way, my son tested Gifted on his IQ eval., which surprised the folks at school. They taught he was “unmotivated”, which always drives me nuts, because I cannot imagine using “unmotivated” to describe a 7 yr old when all they want to do is please the teachers and their parents.
So he was smart enough, he just could not attend enough to learn AND retain the information before Meds.

Roxie, as you know my daughter is very similar to yours just younger. For her the adhd is more of an LD than anything. I think they make the distinction because of how it’s treated. However, I can say that there have been incidents of behavior that I know now are related to the adhd but I believe because of the impulse control—not hyperactivity. For example, two Christmas Eves ago my older daughter said something to my currently diagnosed younger daughter that upset her. I have no memory what it was. However, my younger girl’s response was to pick up a rock (don’t ask how it got in the house) and hurl it at her sister. This was in the house. I heard the glass shatter as the rock went through my living room window! I was very thankful she missed! I walked in the room and my older girl and her friend are sitting there with their mouths hanging open—little sister was nowhere to be seen because I think she surprised herself with that one! She ran off to hide!

Anyway, I thought this was a very interesting article. It actually shed some light on a few things for me!