Help! Possible Adhd

[Guest]

Help!

 

I've just started a new job working as a focus worker for 6 children who have behaviour problems. Most of them seem to be fairly straight forward - needing consistency and sensible disipline of their behaviour, but two of the boys in my group seem to fit with ADHD.

 

As you are all so brilliant, does anyone know where i should go next, who i can contact about furthur information and when i should be really concerned about them.

 

Feel a bit lost at the moment. The two boys are quite agressive, do not like making eye contact, swear or use unappropriate language, do not seem to understand when they are being told off and 'time out' does not seem to having the effect it has on the other children in my focus group.

 

Help!!

[Guest]

What assessments have already been done to establish the need for these boys to be in a focus group for "Behaviour problems". Have these assessments led to indicate ADHD?

 

What information have you got from the parents about their childrens home life / diet / behaviour / sleep patterns / any medical conditions, these could provide indicators as to whether a child has ADHD?

 

Do you have contact with your Area SENCO, he/she should be able to advise where to go next.

 

Good luck, sounds like you have your hands full, but worth the effort when you see even small improvements due to your input.

 

Peggy

[Guest]

These two boys are quite aggressive, they hit out at other children and hurt their friends for no reason. I do not think there have been any proper observations or assessments before i started at the setting.

 

I have been doing gerenal observations, one minute observations, time observations and incident observations on the children in my focus group.

 

Another member of staff has an ADHD relative and she mentioned that these two boys are quite similar to him. I looked up some information on signs of ADHD and have completed an ADHD observation using this information for each child.

 

I don't know whether i can contact the area senco's support or whether a higher level member of staff needs to contact them.

 

Lu

[Guest alisonjayne]

Hi Lu

Do you work in preschool? If so there should be a nominated person to be the settings SENCO not much help I'm afraid.

Ali

[Marion]

My son is ADHD and doesnt fit many aspects of the picture you are giving of your 2 boys, like most conditions it isnt straight forward to diagnose. My son has never been agressive in fact quite the opposite he has no problem with eye contact and is very polite but doesnt really understand why hes being told off and is very impulsive. Its important to get a proper diagnosis rather than say this child might be............. I've just taken a load of info into school as we have had a child who is diagnosed transfer into the junior department but these web sites might help

 

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/page.cfm?pagecode=PBBFAD

 

http://www.mkadhd.org.uk/home.htm

 

http://www.educational-psychologist.co.uk/adhdcklist.htm

 

I also took in a book called only a mother could love him written by a ADHD child well worth a read.

Edited March 7, 2006 by MARl0N

[Smiles]

All setting should have a SENCO, speak to them about your concerns and they will arrnage a visit from the Area SENCO.

 

Sue

[Guest]

Thank you for all your replies, and am about to visit the websites you suggest Marion.

 

Am currently trying to arrange for the Area SENCo to come in and visit, and am doing a lot of observations to be able to build up a proper picture.

 

Lu

[Jackie A.]

My 12 year old son is also diagnosed with ADHD. Like Marion's son he does not have an aggressive bone in his body. He is very gentle and caring. He is an intelligent and intellectual boy (he achieved all 5A grades in his KS2 SATS last year). Many people's view of ADHD is the extreme cases that are often shown on television programmes where children appear to be running riot, wrecking the house/classroom, etc.

I have done so much research over the years (he was diagnosed at aged 6, but it was evident from toddler age).

 

For my son, the characteristics are

 

impulsiveness - saying and doing things without thinking, often in inappropritate situations. He often says things to people that can come out sounding very rude. He is aware that he shouldn't and is able to apologise, but could not stop himself initially.

 

Lack of concentration - he is a real day-dreamer, cannot keep his mind on things - this has an obvious effect on school work.

 

Lack of short term memory - he cannot retain information in the short term. This means he finds it very difficult to follow simple instructions, he just cannot remember what he was asked to do. The number of times that I have asked him to go and get something from upstairs and by the time he reaches the top of the stairs, he has no idea why he is there. I have to make sure I never give him more than one instruction at a time, as he really can't cope with this, eg I couldn't say "go upstairs and open your curtains, then clean your teeth."

His long-term memory is amazing - he just retains information, hence his good results at school. He is a budding scientist and also loves history where he can remember dates and events so easily.

 

Lack of organisational skills - this is the biggest problem at the moment as he is in his first year at secondary school and does not cope with organising himself. He has had so many detentions already where he has mislaid books, forgotten homework, forgotten to go to see teachers when asked, etc. Over the years we have tried to develop different self-help strategies for him - eg, lists on the wall for him to work through, ways of organising his bag and desk at home, keeping a diary, etc, etc. He cannot think through the processses involved in day-to-day activities.

 

Lack of co-ordination - although he is not overly hyperactive, his body is never still, his arms and legs are constantly twitching and moving. He finds P.E. and sports difficult because of this, eg kicking and catching a ball is hard for him. This has put him off sports completely, yet ironically he needs to be active to burn off some of his excess energy.

 

Sleep problems - he does not appear to need much sleep. Sometimes he is awake all night - his mind is active and he cannot switch off.

 

Social skills - because of many of the other problems, he finds it difficult to make friends. Especially now he is older, other children find his behaviour odd and inappropriate and of course he doesn't want to join in with what his piers are doing, eg football and sports.

 

To a stranger, my son appears a normal intelligent boy. His manners are excellent and he gets on well with adults as he can hold a good conversation. Often when I tell people that he has ADHD they find it hard to believe because of their stereotype views. I worry about his future constantly, but he is always happy. At school he does have an IEP but he is often not seen as having special needs by his teachers because he is achieving. Unfortunately he is viewed instead as lazy and uncaring, which he definitely isn't.

 

My first step to getting a diagnosis was to go through my GP. It wasn't done through school as they couldn't see the problems that we did. We referred to a children's mental health clinic at the hospital, but his diagnosis still took over a year. We still attend the clinic twice yearly.

 

I do find that many children are labelled with ADHD, when often it is an excuse for behavioural problems, often due to poor parenting skills. Too many children these days are sat in front of televisions/playstations/computers for the majority of their time at home. They have little intelllectual and physical stimulation and no good behaviour modelled by parents and family. ADHD is a condition thought to be caused by an inbalance of chemicals in the brain, therefore a medical condition.

 

Jackie

[Guest]

Thanks for this info Jackie. We're being asked to observe a child in our setting at the moment, and we really can't make our mind up whether she's just 'naughty/attention seeking' (sorry to use negative terms) or whether she has a medical problem. I've printed out your e-mail and will compare. Thanks.

 

Harricroft

[Marion]

Thank you Jackie you described my son very well and because of his excellent long term memory he developed a good sight vocabulary for reading and when tested by the Ed Psych at school came out with a reading age far in excess of his chronological age and so got no support in primary school Incidentally he still cant do phonics (but thats another post!)

He was labelled disruptive because he cant keep still (if he has something in his hand he will fiddle with it- tap it on the table - spin it etc ) totally unaware he is doing it until its brought to his attention. Also 'butting in' when he shouldnt ADHD children can have poor self control and are often impulsive only realising afterwards what they did was wrong (and are full of genuine remorse)

I read somewhere socially ADHD children work on a level approx 2/3rds of their real age and this was certainly true for my son.

Again thanks Jackie for putting it so well.

[Inge]

Jackies description of her son is so similar to our experiences with our son it has highlighted that he has had this for years and we managed to control his behaviour maninly by diet, and with no support, as it was virtually unrecognised when he was small (he is 21 now).

 

to reassure you, he too had no friends at school, hated ball sports (now I know why) , and he found other areas to use his energy , he started skiing at 12 and really enjoys the sport now. he still has the no fear aspect to his skiing, he knows he can get hurt and injured but does it anyway! (he wears helmets when skiing...just as well had accident skiing on Snowdon last week ended up in casualty - 5 stitches!!) he also tried sailing, and swimming was a real energy user, only trouble was he had progressed so far by 9 he had completed all badges and learning to offer.

 

it was a case of try everything until he found a sport to use his energy which he enjoyed. he also did bowling, and is a scuba diver, sail club keep trying to get him in a boat but fail, has done some rock climbing, and plans to climb Kilamanjaro in September!!

 

 

He made friends as he got older (at college never at school where he was constantly bullied) and found some friends who were as mature in outlook and interested in the same things as he is. now he is at Uni he is always surrounded by like minded people and very popular with the girls!! (mature outlook!)

 

He loves to learn, anything and everything, each holiday he learnt something new! St john Ambulance were our saviour here lots to do at no or very little cost!

 

His short term memory is still awful, but long term is exellent, hence the 4 A levels in Geoplogy, Maths, Physics, and chemisrty! and he is doing well at uni, graduating this year....fingers crossed.

 

he is still fidgety and cannot sit still, never sleeps, (never ever slept through from birth!!), but has found ways to channel it .

 

He still had to watch his diet, anything with a stimulant , colour or preservative has an effect on his behaviour, which he now can control but his housemates will comment if he getsmore fidgety than usual.

 

As a side effect of this when he is at work he can keep himself going for hours on a coke!!

 

he learnt to organise himself to a degree, but still fails many times over, he has got used to us contantly sending text mesasages to reminding him of things like rent to pay, etc.

 

when he began to work he found a job in a nightclub behind a bar...he said if I dont sleep i may as well work at night!! (he is now supervisor of a bar in the uni nightclub , on top of all his studies.)

 

He has become a well liked very well adjusted young man who is popular and happy.

 

So there is light at the end of the tunnel, with lots of support he came out the other end understanding his own needs and how to deal with them

 

 

Inge

[Marion]

My son is 22 occasionally sleeps through the night and diet certainly helps but not the obvious things. When he was 12 we heard that a doctor was doing research with the University of Sunderland and pushed to get an appointment. He was put on a severe exclusion diet (for a month he was allowed only water rice chicken and a few vegetables) The results were we now know that the things that cause him to be most 'hyper' are cows milk, cereal, bread and cerain vegetable oils all things you would include in a healthy diet.

 

 

Would recommend the book

Only a mother could love him written by a young man with ADHD to anyone wanting an insite into these children.

Edited March 12, 2006 by MARl0N

[Gezabel]

Oh Marion I have literally just finished the book you mention and WHAT a read it was I couldn't put it down.

 

I highly recommend it to and it gives a real insight into ADHD.

 

It's available in Tesco (or was it Asda?!) and it's a mere £3:73 and worth every penny and more!!

[Marion]

Oh Marion I have literally just finished the book you mention and WHAT a read it was I couldn't put it down.

 

I highly recommend it to and it gives a real insight into ADHD.

 

It's available in Tesco (or was it Asda?!) and it's a mere £3:73 and worth every penny and more!!

50576[/snapback]

 

Tesco I just bought a 2nd copy last week for our year 3 teacher who has had a child with ADHD transfer into his class from another school.

[Jackie A.]

I must get the book. It sounds like a good read. Thanks Inge for sharing your experiences with your son. You must be so proud of him. It gives me hope for the future for my son. I agree with what you and Marion say about diet. Certain foods definitely make his problems worse, but diet is by no means the key factor. Thankfully he has always been a good eater and is very aware of healthy eating. Although we always avoid foods with colourants, preservatives, etc, he does drink gallons of cow's milk - maybe I should try excluding it for a while to see if it makes a difference.

 

I was really amazed this morning as he asked if we could all go out for a cross-country run!! He's been doing cross-country in P.E. and appears to be loving it. I'm afraid I couldn't think of anything worse to be doing on a freezing, bitter Sunday morning, but his dad went with him for a run in the woods. He came back really invigorated. I've never known him to enjoy any kind of physical activity, other than swimming, so maybe it's something I'll have to encourage.

 

Thanks to both Inge and Marion for sharing your experiences.

 

Jackie