Can my son have ADHD

amother

Wed, Jan 14 2015, 6:20 pm

My son is 9 years old . He's a really smart child who does well in school. If he gets into a toy or game he can play build for a while. And every night he reads for a long time. - his Rebbis hardly complain about him but I don't think he sits so calmy in class ( he has told me he stands on the filling cabinets some times) but he's a good kid who doesn't do trouble so they don't complain. Anyway here the reason I think he night have ADHD - he cannot control himself at times when things don't go his way he gets very angry and acts out he's always hyper and junping evrywhere he has a very very hard time sitting my husband said in shul he's all over the place and I see by meals he never sits more then a few seconds - even at. Night he moves around a ton and is a anxious child he's always very worried about change and at night he is worried about dying . His anxiety doesn't cause him to miss school or camp trips but he is very very worried b4. Thanks for listening anyone familiar with these symptoms please let me know what u think
Tia

amother

Wed, Jan 14 2015, 6:35 pm

I have a son who was diagnosed as having adhd. This term refers to a large spectrum of issues. It's not something women on a computer can diagnose your child with. when my son was diagnosed by a phychologist, it was long and tedious, we needed to answer a whole booklet of questions, my child needed to answer questions plus lots more.

for us, it was important to get him properly evaluated because he was not doing well in school, he couldn't sit still, was easily distracted, couldn't concentrate for long periods of time, was very impulsive, and got into bad behaviors that he couldn't controll, also had anxiety and was wild.

He is b"h doing better now, he is on concerta, goes to a therapist to help him deal with his impulsive behavior, and goes out of the class to learn one on one because a classroom setting is hard for him.

The best part of having him formally diagnosed, was that we were taught tools of how to deal with him.
for us, the medication was a lifesaver, but if your son is overall doing good, especially in school, you might want to look into something alternative... there are many things advertised to help children with adhd...
good luck!

amother

Wed, Jan 14 2015, 6:59 pm

After extreme pressure from my DS's school we took him to a psychologist for evaluation. What she told us is that a child is usually only diagnosed with ADHD if it is interfering in their life I.e. in their academics, social skills, physical abilities. In my son's case, he doesn't sit still for long, but he is on par with his class academically, he listens in class even when he's not sitting still, and he has tons of friends. We are still taking him for behavior modification therapy - but he was not officially diagnosed with ADHD. She did not feel in any way that we should be medicating him.
This sounds like a similar case to your son. He may have an anxiety issue or behavior issue that would benefit from some therapy, but it does not sound severe enough to warrant medication.
I strongly urge you to talk to your pediatrician about this. Our ped was so helpful in guiding us to the right therapist that works with kids like my son.

imasinger

Wed, Jan 14 2015, 8:45 pm

There are questionnaires that a doctor will give you to be filled out by teachers and parents. One of the best known is the Conner's rating scale. Collecting the data and analyzing it can give you a clearer picture of how to proceed.

If it shows that there is an issue, you can consider medication trials. Remember that they are called "trials" for a reason. If you don't see improvement, you can try something else, either a different medication, or an alternative approach.

In either case, please consider therapy if you get a definitive diagnosis. In the long term, it really helps.

You have nothing to lose by doing the evaluation. Information is good.