by Julie Spaur

Created on: April 05, 2009

I completely think that the experts and general population are WAY too quick to diagnose a child as ADD or ADHD. There are many other reasons a child could be the way he or she is. But in today's "easy way out" attitude, that is the quickest, easiest way to explain what might be wrong, which unfortunately means that once the child is diagnosed, the parent, school and doctors will stop searching for another reason for the child's struggles. I think it is time we as parents stand up for our children and celebrate their strengths and differences instead of trying to make them fit into the box that society expects them to fit into. There should BE NO BOX. Please read my and my son's story below and know that there are other reasons for the struggles your child may be having.

My son is 18 and we are a month and a half away from him graduating high school...or so we hope. He has always been a VERY artistic individual and highly articulate and intellegent beyond his years. We didn't have a problem with school until 4th grade, which is when they started expecting the kids to do homework outside of class, which he would rarely remember to do. He also had a tendency to talk to the other students all the time. His report cards were ok, A's in some things, B's, C's and D's in others.

I think 5th grade was when ADD first came up. We did a general test through the school with the teacher filling out some worksheets and he was mild to moderate ADD (no hyperactivity). I started doing a bit of research on ADD on my own, but didn't pursue it through any other channels. Among other things, we started incorporating having the teachers fill out sheets every day of what he did/did not turn in. It worked enough so that he made it through 5th grade, and into jr. high he went, where things got progressively worse as more homework was expected,and he had more classes where there was more of a lecture type atmosphere and less "hands on" learning.

7th grade was the next time the phrase ADD came up. Since there were some problems going on about that time with his father and me (we were divorced but he wouldn't accept it and there was a lot of conflict when he'd come to get our son for his visitation times that unfortunately took place with him near.) So to be proactive, I took him to counseling just in case this was affecting him more than he let on. I didn't pursue the ADD since I wanted to see how counseling would work. We still continued having the teachers sign a paper every day whether

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>