What a supportive group you have here. And how knowledgable. They way you all stand up to the ill written posts is commendable. It is hard to understand the sad life of someone who protests things they don’t understand. Luckily, there aren’t many members of “THE WORLD IS FLAT” club. By the end of the this year, your argument will likely have a lot of biological back up against this doubting thomas. There are alread brain scans and DNA that show this is real and actually very benefited by meds, rest assured.
Now for my question;
I am a psychologist who is looking at moving into educational psychology in New Zealand, and am just learning about ADD and associated disorders. i am keen to find out what parents have found most helpful in terms of treatment or interventions??? I realize there are many, but I’d like a breif description of your child and the treatment you found most effective.
Re: Parents, what has worked
Obtaining a complete educational evaluation to determine my ADHD son’s strength and weaknesses. By understanding this we teach to his strenghts and we utilize them to assist his weaknesses. After testing 3 medications Focalin has provided the best results with minimizing opposition, impulsivity and hyperactivity.
Best of Luck to you.
Re: Parents, what has worked
[quote=”amom”]Obtaining a complete educational evaluation to determine my ADHD son’s strength and weaknesses. By understanding this we teach to his strenghts and we utilize them to assist his weaknesses. After testing 3 medications Focalin has provided the best results with minimizing opposition, impulsivity and hyperactivity.
Best of Luck to you.[/quote]
Yes, what amom said is good. It had become so second nature to me I didn’t think of it. My sons evaluation shed so much light on how his mind works, I felt very lucky to be in possession of it. It was like having some keys to parts of his mind, his learning style. It helped with more than school accomodations. It helped with homework and dicipline as well.
add treatment and support
I have to agree with the previous posters-diagnosis, followed by self-education (there’s an area that I wish I had had more help), followed by advocation for my child’s needs. Meeting my child’s needs is the big area I need help in. The doctor is busy, the school busy, the counselor unknowledgeable.
We have felt our way along. My child is high IQ and ADD/LD. I was very lucky with the second tutor I hired - a veteran teacher with reading and spec ed expertise (and the mother of an LD child). She pointed to me to the best of the local psychologists to do the testing. She also taught my child to read. Both the psychologist and the tutor were happy that the parents were concerned, supportive and involved.
Because of this info on this board, I took my daughter to a developmental optometrist who diagonosed vision problems. While vision therapy did not ‘fix’ the ADD, it certainly took care of the jumping text and sore eyes. Being able to read certainly has made school easier!!!
I think that it is important to recognize that ADD is often only part of the puzzle. By attacking the LD and the SI and the bilateral/body awareness issues and the memory issues, etc., etc, that our children can learn to compensate and function successfully.
But I am continually amazed at how tough it is to find precise information and knowledgeable help. Too many people want to make money instead of progress. A lot of soapboxes, not a lot of information has been my experience.
My son sees a doctor that specializes in ADD/ADHD kids, and also children with behaviorial issues. My son is on Concerta and we also use alot of different teaching techniques and behaviorial strageties. Since starting to see this particular doctor over our family physican my son has turned around 100% - his behavior and grades in school have greatly improved as well as his behavior and study habits at home.