All About ADHD : Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

[tdiaz]

Eldest child had adhd, early diagnosis is always good so that we can understand the child better.

Before he was diagnosed, we would lose our patience with him a lot, we couldn’t understand why he was behaving in certain ways, it was only after he was diagnosed that we were able to help him better as well as understand him more. He’s doing very well now, studying in NUS!

[Li Bee Wah]

bellej:

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.

Really hate it when teachers try to shift the blame from their own incompetence to your child having a problem! Really just giving parents scares.

[swortionery]

I wrote a series of articles a few weeks back, sharing some of the tricks that I use during therapy to regulate the behaviour of students with ADHD:


https://swordsandstationery.com/stationery/what-adhd-means-myths-and-truths/
https://swordsandstationery.com/stationery/condition-kids-with-adhd-to-behave/
https://swordsandstationery.com/stationery/volume-regulate-adhd-behaviour/
https://swordsandstationery.com/stationery/appealing-to-a-child-with-adhd-to-behave/

Hope you all find them useful, or at least inspiring.

[Estéema]

It is parents’ need to explore and eliminate any suspicion of learning delays. If we respond & write-off suggestions ESP by educators, and not attempt to help investigate thro medical professionals’ help, we are the ones delaying the early chance for our own kids to overcome the hurdle.


A lot of these can be mild hurdles, unless diagnosis as serious end of the continuum, and can be helped if we are quick & early to discover. We do dis-service to our kids by thinking others are out with ill-intentions, suggesting things that we hv never encountered & do not believe it’ll happen to our kids. Some parents shut their minds off in denial & it’s sad. I always hope that parents can see it as their responsibility to watch out for potholes & lift our kids fr it - my analogy for helping overcome learning disabilities.

[zac's mum]

Esteema, I see the point of early intervention.


Sometimes, though, the educators who “diagnose” the child:
- are not professionally trained to accurately spot ADHD, autism etc
- do not think through carefully how to convey their “diagnosis” to the parents

I have some mummy friends crying when confiding in me that their DS’ kindergarten teacher has put to them in a complaining manner that the child is disruptive/uncooperative/hyper/lacks concentration/hates writing/anti-social etc etc, without any suggestion of how to help the child improve. Merely throwing out the line “you better send him for some testing”. When prodded “send where?”, they don’t even know the answer. And the parent got the impression that the teacher is trying to get the child to quit the school so that the burden is off their back.

I’m all for early intervention, if the teachers and parents are sufficiently educated and coached to truly help the child.

[adhd.041031dad]

Early intervention is good. But it is known that teachers in SG are pretty quick to label kids ADHD or inattentive. Considering the amount of focus needed in a typical Singapore school from P1 and up… and the huge change from Kindergarten, it’s very easy to appear inattentive.

[zac's mum]

adhd.dad:

Early intervention is good. But it is known that teachers in SG are pretty quick to label kids ADHD or inattentive. Considering the amount of focus needed in a typical Singapore school from P1 and up... and the huge change from Kindergarten, it's very easy to appear inattentive.

Much as I hate to make such statements, I think sometimes the behavior is marked as bad in comparison to the rest of the class. Boys are especially marked as hyper compared to girls in kindergarten. And then if they end up in co-ed primary schools, the difference in behavior is again labeled as abnormal.

On the other hand, in a boys-only school, the P1-P2 teachers already know that it’s just typical boy behavior and are more understanding about it. The best teachers will do what they can to bring lessons outdoors. Others, when they need some peace and quiet, unfortunately resort to videos (albeit educational videos).

[Estéema]

I certainly DO NOT mean teachers diagnose. They’ve no right to do so. Only doctors can do diagnosis & ONLY psychologists/pychatrusts shld and only after they’ve applied relevant testing tools.


In fact, as a mother, I was the first to noticed exceptional behavior in my child but cld not confirm as I did not hv the right tools (only learnt how to recognize symptoms). Eventually, brought my child for professional therapy & one of the need was to hv his teachers complete a thick set of questionnaire. DC’s Form Teacher brushed aside that it is not nec as she do not see any learning issues. It was the language teacher who recognized and cld contribute a written report on classroom behavior of DC. Doc then use these contribution to put DC on group therapy to watch & apply intervention.

I rmbr part of therapy was to do art therapy with DC. Ano activity DC did was exploring feelings on grp therapy and articulating various feelings with a grp of 5-6 other kids. It is not unlike some of my company teambuilding activities done with trained consultants.

I was indeed.very relieve dear child get early intervention & now hv little learning issues of inaatentiveness or over-active & inappropriate behaviour. Granted it is still WIP as DC grow, as different milestone requires guidance. Was thankful I seek early help for DC, in spite of DH’s early denial. It was not easy persuading DH and was even ‘accused’ of being paranoid, till he heard fr doc. We were relieved it’s mild and we put in at least 2 years of therapy.

Can’t imagine how serious DC cld hv become due to our ignorance as I rmbr early years frustration. But I know we need professional diagnosis & if true, intervention.

[Estéema]

I certainly DO NOT mean teachers diagnose. They’ve no right to do so. Only doctors can do diagnosis & ONLY psychologists/pychatrusts shld and only after they’ve applied relevant testing tools.


In fact, as a mother, I was the first to noticed exceptional behavior in my child but cld not confirm as I did not hv the right tools (only learnt how to recognize symptoms). Eventually, brought my child for professional therapy & one of the need was to hv his teachers complete a thick set of questionnaire. DC’s Form Teacher brushed aside that it is not nec as she do not see any learning issues. It was the language teacher who recognized and cld contribute a written report on classroom behavior of DC. Doc then use these contribution to put DC on group therapy to watch & apply intervention.

I rmbr part of therapy was to do art therapy with DC. Ano activity DC did was exploring feelings on grp therapy and articulating various feelings with a grp of 5-6 other kids. It is not unlike some of my company teambuilding activities done with trained consultants.

I was indeed.very relieve dear child get early intervention & now hv little learning issues of inaatentiveness or over-active & inappropriate behaviour. Granted it is still WIP as DC grow, as different milestone requires guidance. Was thankful I seek early help for DC, in spite of DH’s early denial. It was not easy persuading DH and was even ‘accused’ of being paranoid, till he heard fr doc. We were relieved it’s mild and we put in at least 2 years of therapy.

Can’t imagine how serious DC cld hv become due to our ignorance as I rmbr early years frustration. But I know we need professional diagnosis & if true, intervention.

[zac's mum]

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a32858/drugging-of-the-american-boy-0414/


Very long article about ADHD. But I loved reading it, particularly for the personal stories and good insights.