Does My Five Year Old Son Have ADHD?

[viajon2]

My son is not overly hyperactive, I think he behaves how a five year old should behave. But my concern is that he is unable to learn anything from kindergarten. Often he does not participate in learning, does not make any friends and he usually plays by himself except when he plays with his cousins, with children he is more familiar with. He has been to kindergarten since early this year.

Another thing about his problem is his speech and communication. He is unable to speak properly, and cannot say things in sentences. But he will tell you whether he wants to eat, go potty or when he is thirsty. It is impossible to talk to him as he never seems to answer any question. But he sometimes do what he was told to do, like, turning off the TV, close the door and so on.

He likes to play computer games and will go on for hours. It is hard to teach him anything new. Like recently when I tried teaching him to write the alphabet letters, he wasn't too excited about it and rather do something else.

My main concern is his learning difficulty and unable to communicate.

Does he have add/adhd?

[benjimom]

Does his teacher at school offer any suggestions on what next step you should take?  If the teacher doesn't know then go on to the principal.

[benjimom]

I think you need further evaluations to determine what the issue is, esp with the speech delays.  Those could have a big part in everthing.  Also if he has trouble with communicating of course he will not participate well in class or make friends easily.  My son started to talk after age three, he is now almost 6 years old, but he was about 2 years delayed at least in his communication skills. I think it STILL affects him and sometimes I have to remind him to use his words rather than hit hard to get attn.  or when he gets upset, he tends to try to hit sometimes and gets upset.  It's tough for them.  Is he on an IEP with speech therapy seeing him.   I think that is number one priority.  Why is his speech so delayed, it could be many things.  

[specialmom]

I had thought of sensory integration disorder as an issue for your son because you spoke of articulation problems and difficulty speaking in sentences.  Those can definitely be motor planning issues.  Then when you add in that he has difficulty holding a pencil, that is more motor planning.  Fine motor issues are hard for some sensory kids.  He also sounds like a kid that needs his system woken up to maintain focus.  Mine is the opposite in that he needs his slowed down to focus.  But both are sensory things.  Some kids absolutely do not do well sitting and being drilled with information. They need movement and interactive learning.  The hours of computer games is something that I keep coming back to because I think that is unhealthy for any kid but especially a child with these types of issues.  He needs to interact with the environment.  He most likely needs his system to be wake up and computers are just mesmerizing and avoiding of the real world.  It is like tv.  Not a good thing to do for hours on end.  Medication is one of those things that I would use if I had to but I would try other things first.  I'd weigh the pros and cons of the med.  Many kids do great on it and some have severe side effects or it exacerbates a problem already there . . . so you'd want to understand everything about it.  So, that is why I was thinking sensory in general.  

[dollyn]

The Ritaline is not doing anything for him you said,that should tell you something right there ,maybe because he doesn't need it.

My son was doing the same things as your son didn't want to learn at School and I let the Teacher push me into giving my son drugs to try and help him.When 1 didn't work she would keep calling me and say I think you should try another so we changed drugs and still they did nothing.I was very glad when my son changed School's .Then a Nurse called me to come get him and told me she thou he was having Seizures ,I didn't believe her but still told my son Doctor and he said he was sick of the School and sent my son for an EEG and both him and I where thinking everything would come back Normal. But they didn't and now my son has Seizures every day and we have not been able to stop them.

Please get your son a EEG and Blood work done to make sure that everything is normal.

Let me ask you this would you rather have him be the way he is now or would you rather have him on the drugs and them find out latter that the drugs had made some very bad side effects and that you can change them. I know I wish I could go back in time and I would rather my son be the way he use to be before the drugs and I wish I would have had other test done before we put him on the drugs also.

[benjimom]

Could it be possible he has a learning disability, esp with his speech delays, that is what it sounds like to me.  But evidently a doctor feels he has Ritalin as he is on that drug.  Somtimes boys are just not interested in school.  My son can be like that sometimes.  

Was your son on an IEP for speech issues?  My son is on an IEP for speech delay, I think today even though he talks fairly well, it still affects him. He did not talk until after age three. Even now I think it's hard for him to deal with feelings and /or emotions.  My son gets speech therapy services at the school currently.  

To me it does not sound like ADHD, but I'm not a doctor either.  But if you are unhappy you can get a 2nd opinion.

[viajon2]

Thanks for the reply...

To some of you that said that my son might not adhd, could you specify what makes you think so? I am curious as to which description that I made that does not seem adhd?

His kindergarten teacher has said that my son is not learning anything from school. So me and my wife took the liberty of home schooling him for a while until he gets used to being thought.

Now we are teaching him alphabet writing, but he seems uninterested. He keeps yawning, and having trouble holding a pencil. I tried to correct him, but he seems so stubborn, and sometimes he cries a lot, demanding that he does not want to do it anymore.

Does this sound like add/adhd?

The ritaline is not having any effect on my son. He has taken it for about 2 weeks and I saw no changes whatsoever. He is on the lowest dosage.

[benjimom]

to me, it does not sound like ADHD, honestly I think a lot of boys are just immature and a lot is expected of them.  I think kids learn all in "their own time".  I feel sometimes like my son who is five should be reading more, but I remember in the past he eventually gets things and when he does it just happens like counting, etc.  He used to have trouble with that and now he has no trouble, actually likes it.  He does know the basics.  

Be careful with psychologists, you can go to several and get different responses.  I have taken my son to one psychologist who told me my son could be bipolar b/c there is family history and then said he did not want to see my son any longer and only me.  Then a therapist who said he probably has ADHD and she did not want to see him until he was back onto medications. FOr right now, I'm going to steer clear of therapists and psychologists in general and just deal with an MD.  I took my son to a psychiatrist and he did not want to do to medications, he said they are not something to rush into and they have side effects.  But then the therapist still did not seem interested in seeing us again, so I have been back to see her.  


My son had speech delays and sometimes he still does not pronounce certain words correctly.  I would ask the school if perhaps he could get in and see a speech therapist (pathologist).  It might help.  

i am having my son eval. for sensory processing disorder April 20th.

[allmymarbles]

It was my fear that the pediatrician would try to treat the boy and is probably not qualified. I have known very perceptive pediatricians and many who are not. I keep thinking of the unqualified who hand out pills like Adderall, for instance, without being able to make a competent evaluation. We learn of very young children on this forum who have been misdiagnosed, or precipitiously diagnosed.

[Sandman2]

There are different forms of autism.  If you haven't already done so, you might want to check out this site on this forum.  
    http://www.medhelp.org/medical-information/show/3489/Asperger-syndrome

[dollyn]

It makes me mad that the Doctors would put a 5 year old on ritalin, people have died from taken this drug and the other drugs.

your son should be getting speech in school to help him,his hearing tested. And I would also get a EEG done on him to make sure that everything is normal with his brain.

Like I have said so many times try Vitamin B6 and Omega 3-6-9 they are very good for the brain .And don't have all those very bad side effects.

I only wished someone would have told me about all the bad things that can happen and have happen.It is to late for my son .

[viajon2]

@specialmom

based on this website: http://www.incrediblehorizons.com/sensory-integration.htm

my son is does not show any signs of the symptoms stated in the site.

@Sandman2

I am quite sure my son is not autistic as he does not seem to show any autistic symptoms, he does not do any repetitive movement or the like, and based on what I have read, he respond when his name is called, he shows that he is a loving boy and he have a younger baby sister which whom he really cares about.

My main concern is he is not learning anything from the kindergarten, he does not pay attention to his teachers or peers, he rather do things by himself.

and because of his speech delay, it seems that he does not really understand when I talk to him. he only understands instructions that he is familiar with such as clean up his toys, turn off the TV or the lights and so on.

It is just so difficult to teach him something new and I am afraid this will have a permanent effect on his life later on...

[Sandman2]

   You definitely need to try and find another psyc.  Putting him on meds based on what you have said is a trial and error method.  Its gee, I have no clue, so lets try the normal diagnosis and see if it works.  I am surprised that he is not bouncing off the walls - so I guess that it is possible that there is some ADHD there.  
    However, I would google Autism and check into the information presented there.  

[specialmom]

Please google sensory integration disorder and motor planning and see what you think.  Google all of sensory and see if any of it fits.  I can give you some ideas of things to do if it sounds at all like your son.  Sensory and adhd can look very much alike but meds won't work on sensory at all.  Let me know what you think.

[viajon2]

Thanks for all the replies... Really appreciated it.

Yes he plays a lot with computer games, all of his games are learning games, such as jumpstart games, the reader rabbit series and so on.

My main problem for not getting help is that i lived in quite a remote place where all of the services you all mention are not available here. I live in Malaysia BTW.

I had him taken to a psychologist, he was rather unsure about my son, but after a few calls from his "mentor" he diagnosed that my son has ADHD and he has to take medication, ritalin, which he has to take every day on a lowest dose available. However I have seen not much progress, but it is still too early.

I am concern that his diagnose might be wrong and I have no where else to go until I can go to to the city which is quite far away.

I have been doing research that his speech delay was probably because of his ADHD, don't know whether that is true or not.

I thought that when he started kindergarten he naturally pick up some communication skills from his peers. But after a few months, I have not seen any progress.

My son is quite intelligent, he learns all his ABC's on his own by playing/learning from computer games. But whenever I try to teach him he would rather do it himself. He keeps grabbing the computer mouse whenever I try to show him how to do things correctly.

Recently he started to build a few sentences, no more than 3 words max. Like whenever he's hungry he would say want eat, want eat egg, want eat sausages, want drink orange (as in orange juice).

I am so worried about him, I feel hopeless, until I can managed to get him evaluated, as the last evaluation I went to I was not satisfies as the psychologist seem unsure.

[specialmom]

Curious why you wouldn't take the problem of his speech to his pediatrician allmymarbles?  They are often necessary for a referral to a speech pathologist.  Things have also changed in kindergarten from when I was in it (about a million years ago).  They do have kids reading with the expectation that they progress throughout the year with it.  If a child does not progress at all----  a parent should be concerned as to why that is.  This is my opinion.  Giving a child some extra help along the way can ultimately build their confidence to succeed in school.  Succeeding in school can build their confidence for life.  This isn't about a parent's ego but a child's.  

And lastly, when I read the original post again--------- no 5 year old should be on the computer for 5 hours.  They need to be interacting with the world more and doing physical things.  That is equivalent to watching television for 5 hours to me whether it is educational tv or not.  So I'd really get this boy out more.  
All just my opinion.  

[allmymarbles]

It certainly does not sound like ADHD, and a quick fix with a pill is not the answer. As for his being shy and not too interested in learning that is not unusual for a boy his age. I tried to teach my son to read when he was five (he wanted to keep us with his sister who was 15 months older) but he had a short attention span. Once he entered first grade he was fine. Your son's playing computer games and getting on well with his cousins suggests that he is of normal intelligence. The only troubling thing you mention is his difficulty with speech. For this you should have him evaluated by a competent child psychologist. I would not take the problem to his pediatrician.

[specialmom]

Hi.  My son has sensory integration disorder and it affects many things.  The area of motor planning could be off for your son.  This is the part of the nervous system that organizes things in the brain and then coordinates the messages for the rest of the body to cooperate.  So, speech can be greatly effected.  A child has to organize the thoughts first--------  take what someone has said, understand it, organize what they want to say back----------  and then oral motor comes into play whent he motor plannning system sends the message to the mouth muscles to make the sounds.  Auditory issues can come into play-------  think if everything in a room was the same volume------  the teacher talking, the birds outside, the breathing of someone next to you, laughing in the other classroom, etc.  And the brain of a sensory child can also become flooded in an enviroment that they feel overwhelmed in and then they can't think straight.  All the signals get jumbled.  Social skills can be affected by sensory as well.  It is amazing how even a slight problem can affect things so much when it comes to the nervous system.

Some kids are overactive and some kids with sensory are underactive.  Google sensory integration disorder and see if you think it fits at all.  On the plus side, we do occupational therapy with my son and it has changed the course of his life.  He functions beautifully in the classroom now (he's also in kindergarten).  I have lots of ideas of things you can do at home that help the nervous system if you think any of it would help after you read a little on the internet on sensory.  If you feel it doesn't fit, I'd work with the school as a team to figure out what will work best with your child.  I'd start over socializing him and take him out to interact and set up play dates.  Help him with his social skills.  I'd also cut way back on computer time.  All kids but especially those with trouble focusing need lots and lots of physical activity.  It is key to my son.  (ps------  my son has never taken medication as medication does not work for sensory.)  good luck!

[dollyn]

Try giving your son Vitamin B6 and B12 also Omega 3-6-9  and a Children Multivitamin every day.

Most children would rather play and do something else then to learn,and most children learn better from an outsider.

Your son School should have had a meeting with you about what is going on and how they can help him, He should be getting speech at School along with some one on one time with Teachers to help him.So he should have an IEP .

Also you should have your son hearing tested to make sure he can hear, also I would  have his blood levels checked .

Since he likes to play on the Computer you can put some learning games on and let him play them and if he doesn't want to play them because it is learning then you need to tell him he can't play the others with out doing these first.

what every you do don't put your son drugs ,they have very bad side effects that change your child for the worse. My son has Seizures after being put on these  drugs
because the Teacher wanted him on them because ,he said he couldn't learn and she couldn't handle him.  My son is no longer that happy go lucky child any more.

And now at the age of 11 he is finally starting to learn because he has the right Teachers who won't give up on him and do what ever it takes to teach him. And I also think the Vitamins have helped him.