All About ADHD : Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
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My girl started P1 last wk. She was not able to complete her worksheet in class for whole 2 periods this wk. Her form teacher mentioned that she could be ADHD. Stressed!!!As I know that is not true at all. She just not knowing how to go about doing the worksheet.
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Unable to complete work given in class does not mean your child has ADHD. Please ask the school for detailed observations from all subject teachers to back this teacher’s remarks.
If the observations really show that she shows many signs of being ADHD, it’s best to get the school to refer her to educational psychologist for assessment and start intervention early. It may be medication or other methods.
If the school is unable to provide evidence to support this teacher’s remarks, you should see the principal to lodge a complaint. It’s unfair for teachers to ‘label’ kids without evidence, especially if this teacher is not trained in special needs and does not have much evidence to back her comments up. If your girl does not have ADHD but is labelled this way just because her form teacher made this remark, it’s very unfair to your girl.
Do check out with the school in detail before planning your next step. If she really has ADHD, there are many methods to help her. I have students who have already graduated and are in Poly/JC now. They were diagnosed in P3/4 with ADHD and coped very well in mainstream school system with early intervention.
If she doesn’t, you need to clarify with the teacher/school and work out ways to help your girl work independently in school to complete her work on time. It could be just a simple case of not knowing how to do and dare not ask. Talk to your girl about it too. Ask her to describe in detail to you about what she did in school. Talk to her classmates also. -
Mods, think this one should go under "Work with your child"?? instead of this thread.
bellej, perhaps you should ask the teachers for more symptoms before concluding if help should be sought for suspected ADHD.
Also, if you feel that it is not so, this should be communicated to the teacher, stating the reason why, like what you share with us. The teacher should not mistaken a lack of understanding of what he/she wants as ADHD. -
what are your girl's preschool teacher's feedback about her?
teachers/school should only make the comment of ADHD after observing the kid for 6mths; now is only 2 weeks :roll: -
Only doctors can give clinical diagnosis like that. Not teachers.
Being unable to complete assigned tasks is only like a puny bit
to it. Besides a true teacher will not label so blatantly outright…
Not even into a month before your child is with the teacher, oredi
dis kind of assessment arh… your poor kid. Did she say it to your
child, or were you called up and notified over the phone, or did u
hafta meet up with the teacher personally for this issue… Need
more insight to this issue of yours. Even for fair tuition assessment
at least kena give tutor 3mths to show results… or the next big exam
whichever is earlier… this one only into two weeks… unless though u
have encountered pre-school teachers commenting somewhat similar
comments like that… More details pls! Dun complain anything yet for
now.
Let’s brainstorm and discuss. Complaining without knowing the real
reason behind this will make things worse. Back yourself up with more
research, your own personal assessment, doctor’s assessment if need
be… feedback from pre-school teachers… current teachers… and also
find out if your child actually has difficulty attempting the assignment due
to shortage of time given… didn’t understand the lesson… distraction… (etc)
Two periods can be 45min lesson then suddenly rush 15min writing time!
Do talk to your child again… and gather more information from the teacher
with regards to your last conversation pertaining to this. Hear from you, soon dear…
Stay calm. -
Hey, don't worry about it! That's exactly what my son's teacher told me when she could not teach my son. She then told the vice principal, then the principal. I refused to believe them. They then forced me to get a diagnosis on my son. After spending $3000+, the psychologist confirmed that he is not ADHD. Wasted all those money. I then told them he is more likely to have asperger, a high order autism. After almost 1 year, the MOE psychologist confirmed my finding.
Do some research on what exactly is ADHD before spending all those money and tears. How can a teacher, who has hardly 2 weeks with your kid diagnose him with ADHD?! Only you know your child the best.
I would suggest that you read up a little about ADHD. There are quite a few symptoms to it. Then, have a chat with the teacher. For all you know, it might just be stress due to a change of environment.
I think our teachers need a lot of education in the area, especially now that so many children are having learning difficulties.
Perhaps start here? http://helpguide.org/mental/adhd_add_signs_symptoms.htm -
Alamak. We also went through the ADHD, CAPD, Dyslexia (he was looking for a pattern with the alphabets so he couldn’t "read" it out), Aspergers route. Teachers are too eager to label, and psychs have all sorts of "suspicions". It takes a detailed test to prove otherwise, and lots of $. I didn’t bother except for the last one - a screening was done without my knowledge. But frankly I knew deep in my heart and from doing research that it wasn’t true.
If you’re very sure, just roll your eyes and stick with your gut. Parents are often right. -
I also dun like to label kids so soon. Sometimes i feel that its an easy way out just to label. Come on, its only the 9th day in the p1 life and can tell that it is ADHD? Better talk to the teacher and do more observation on ur child. The trs in the sch with special needs training might be able to shed more abt it. Observe the child for a longer period of time. It could be many factors that ur child cant manage to finish the work.
Be positive and stay calm, things might nt be that bad. -
I’m a teacher trained in special needs and to be able to even refer the child to MOE’s educational psychologists for assessment, we need to build up a case.
Building up cases involve many procedures and many ppl.
Written reports/observation by all teachers who teach the particular child. Detailed incident records, survey/interview with teachers, peers and the student himself/herself. Parents also need to give background about home environment, schooling history, traumatic experiences when younger, medical history, etc.
And to be able to gather enough evidence for it to be reliable, it needs to be over a span of at least 2 months. And it’s not at the end of 2 months but consistently throughout the 2 months.
All you can do now is to ask the teacher for evidence of written observations given by all subject teachers.
They may send your child for tests without informing you. If you want to be kept inform, you have to highlight to them that all tests/assessments need your written approval. -
mrswongtuition:
The problem is, some teachers find certain kids so hard to handle, and they find it so difficult to put up a case, that they take the easy way out. They do something drastic and then ask the parent to chip in the money and get the diagnosis done. Just some black sheep out there. But I met one. What a costly thing to do to us! It was only I sent in many complaints that the school finally allocated some support, instead of asking me to provide psychologist support, teacher aide, etc etc. I was beginning to feel like I was MOE...I'm a teacher trained in special needs and to be able to even refer the child to MOE's educational psychologists for assessment, we need to build up a case.
Building up cases involve many procedures and many ppl.
Written reports/observation by all teachers who teach the particular child. Detailed incident records, survey/interview with teachers, peers and the student himself/herself. Parents also need to give background about home environment, schooling history, traumatic experiences when younger, medical history, etc.
And to be able to gather enough evidence for it to be reliable, it needs to be over a span of at least 2 months. And it's not at the end of 2 months but consistently throughout the 2 months.
All you can do now is to ask the teacher for evidence of written observations given by all subject teachers.
They may send your child for tests without informing you. If you want to be kept inform, you have to highlight to them that all tests/assessments need your written approval.
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