Does my son have symptoms of ADHD ?

[Gators32]

My son is 8 and is having a hard time in school. He is very smart but does not seem to have the gumption to sit still long enough to to complete assignments or homework. He cannot focus unless everything is quite, and his memory is short lived. He constantly has to be moving a part of his body and cannot sit still for any amount of time. I also have an extremely hard time with him listening and following instruction at home. I am not saying he is a bad kid, but he does have a few anger problems and throws temper tantrums from time to time. Now you put him on a video gMe and he is good to go, so what can I do about the other things? One more thing, he was making good grades earlier in the year, but his tension span is slim to none now, could this be a sign of ADHD?

[SupermomNC]

I have two children one is 18 yrs old and one is 7 yrs. Back in the day I knew that my daughter was different than everyone else, I knew that the way she was acting was different than the other kids her age, but I refused to have her on medication because I didn't believe in medications for children. I was told she was adhd, bipolar, and odd. Well by time I admitted there was a problem that needed medication, she was having alot of problems in school and we were miserable at home and she refused to take any medications and was too big for me to force her to take them.  When my son came along and I started to notice behaviours that were like hers and different from other children her age, I took him straight to the doctor!  His pediatrician was happy to diagnosis adhd.  I went one step further and took him to a neurodevelopmental pediatrician. She did a complete exam with all kinds of blood work to rule out all kinds of food related allergies and such that could cause this behaviour. In the end, he has adhd, odd, and bipolar disorder which all run in the families.  The hopes are that being caught at this age perhaps some of the curcuitry in his transmitters in his brain could be rewired and he may not need to be on meds the rest of his life. Life here is easier and he is doing better in school.  I no longer hear him talk about him hating himself or calling himself stupid. He still has problems but he has a better outlook on life. Trust your parental instinct. Get two opinions. My middle child took adhd meds from 5th grade to 9th grade and that was it, that was all the help he needed, now he can do it on his own. All kids are different.  No cookie cutters.

[allmymarbles]

If I take a negative approach to ADD it is balance out those who aggressively misapply the diagnosis. Sure I know there are children who have this problem, but they are a very small minority. The others are just displaying personality and character traits (some of which can be annoying). We should reserve extreme treatment for those with extreme problems and, I agree, other methods should be tried first, in any case. We are very close in our thinking.

One of my daughters always kept me in stitches. One summer we were vacationing in England and happened to be visiting Oxford University. We were taken around the school by one of dons. He was very knowledgeable and everyone had lots of questions about the school. My nine-year-old daughter, figuring he knows everything in this world, raises her hand and asks him if chickens have gall bladders. I didn't even know she knew what a gall bladder was, and why chickens? The poor don looked very confused and said he didn't know. Don't you just love kids.

[Sandman2]

  Its the kids like your children that kept me from being bored to death as a teacher.  Its probably one of the reasons I still substitute teach.  I love the interaction.  I love to teach.  I have had teacher friends who could not handle, kids with energy or intelligence.  I have also had many, many kids with ADHD. I have had kids who I gave two to three days to finish a 25 question test.   I have had a least two who died shortly after highschool.  In short, I have seen both sides.  All I want people to do is to recognize that the situation does exist.  That there is more than one way to handle it.  That it can be horrible for a child or an adult if they have ADHD and can't cope.  I also believe that a child will not be drugged out of their individuality IF the medication is properly done.  Even then, meds alone is not the answer and may not even be necessary.  Education is!
    I completely understand where you are coming from.  I have had kids(I enjoyed ) go on to other teachers who destroyed them because the child dared to question them.  
    My point is that ADHD (if a child has it) is a life changer.  If it can be PROPERLY  identified, and treated (not always with meds).  It doesn't have to be a life destroyer.  So definitely keep warning people about things that seem like ADHD (a lot of it is just poor parenting and teaching skills),  but realize that it does exist.  And until the parent finds out what it is that is going on with their child - they can't deal with it.  
   And ya, maybe like you - I am too close to the subject.

[benjimom]

They say kids can focus on video games b/c they are constantly changing and that is what ADHD kids like.  

Yes, really investiage this.  Also, did this just start or has this been an issue for some time?  If it just started I don't know if it would be ADHD/ADD.  

[allmymarbles]

I guess why I am so het up on the subject is that I am from a very energetic, you might say hyperactive, family. We talk fast, we walk fast, we think fast, we play hard and we sleep like the dead. I, for one was a pain in the neck at school, one of my brothers played hooky routinely. and two of my children were just like me. What we had in common was boredom, so this is something I understand very well. All of us hated school. That does mean we hated learning, but we did better on our own, in the early years, and ultimately went to choice colleges. All of us have been successful in our careers. I have sympathy for those children who are harassed because no one tries to understand them. It would grieve me if they were drugged out their individuality.

[Sandman2]

   Agree completely - and sometimes, the teacher is at fault because they aren't very good.  However, I was just making sure that Gators wasn't falling for the urban myth that if a child can concentrate on something it automatically means they don't have ADHD.

[allmymarbles]

But it is also possible to be hyperactive without having ADD since energy levels are not uniform Such children tend to become bored in class because everything is moving too slowly. And if the child is clever, so much the worse. It is no surprise then that they are inattentive in class, but have no trouble at all with fast-action video games.

We have to look more deeply into the cause of inattention and lack of focus. It is often nothing more serious than boredom.

[Sandman2]

  I agree with Jenkaye 100% with her suggestions for cutting back on video games.  I wonder however if gators32 was wondering how someone with ADHD could concentrate on a video game.  And the answer is that the stimulation is great enough that they will get locked into the game and actually can have a hard time quitting.  So, yes, a child with ADHD can concentrate enough to play video games.  

[jenkaye21]

My son is 8, too, and I have similar concerns.  Although smart, he has trouble completing assignments and focusing on them until they are done; trouble following directions.  He is easily distracted, and can find ways to distract himself from any task.  He is not defiant, and does not want to get in trouble.  He is sad when we are disappointed in him, and wants to do better.  His behavior is not a problem.

You mentioned video games, so I will choose to comment on that. As a teacher, I feel like video games are a having a negative effect on our children.  They are learning to focus on something that is constantly moving, constantly changing, that requires constant input from them by pushing  buttons, entering answers, etc.  Even educational video games are this way.  In school, things are just not that way, so students are bored, have trouble concentrating, staying focused on a task, etc.  That being said, my kids DO have video games.  As I become increasingly concerned about his ADD, however, I have cut WAY back on the amount of time I allow him to play it.   He used to spent an hour or two every evening, now it's maybe an hour or two a week.  I try to fill his time with other things (puzzles, coloring/drawing, board games) that will be more like the school environment, as well as encouraging time to play outside and participate in sports.

[allmymarbles]

I have noticed that with some of the boys in our family that they start to act this way before puberty. It drives you nuts and then, around the age of 14, they start to focus and apply themselves. The period is extremely annoying and you begin to think something is wrong with them. I remember my husband asking me, when our son sent through that phase, if he had hit his head or something. Hold your breath and wait, but don't put up with the tantrums. He does not sound as if anything is wrong with him that age will not fix.

[Sandman2]

As dolly said, it could be many things.  
   If you are concerned about ADHD, than you need to start reading up on it.  A very good book is, "The ADD/ ADHD Answer book," by Susan Ashley.  It will also give you good ideas on how to handle the hyperactivity, following instructions at home, how to work with the school, etc.  Even if he doesn't have ADHD, many of the suggestions in the book you will find quite valuable.  Click on the link -  Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - at the top of the page and you can get a quick general overview.
  And if you do go to see a doctor, it certainly wouldn't hurt to run general tests (well, the blood workup will hurt), to rule out other factors.  A specialist, like a pediatric psychiatrist, is typically the best way to go.
  And, yes, all of those things you mentioned are signs of ADHD.  You do need to find out what is going on because how you (and the schools) treat a child with ADHD is different than say a child on sugar highs.  Good Luck.  Please post if you have any more questions.

[dollyn]

It can be many things.

1. It could be his  Teachers

2. It could be His School.

3.It could be something that is happen at home that maybe you don't know about.

4.It could be Children or a Child at School.

Medicaly it could aslo be many things that would need to be looked into. But most Doctors won't check for other things,and Teachers also won't think of it being anything but ADHD or ADD and sometimes both and they may even add in Bipolar.Instead of cheking evrything out.

And what I mean by that is that they won't run blood test to see if there is a reson why things are going off. Like Checking there thyroid levles and Sugar levels and other blood levels that can give them more info on whats going on.They would rather put children and adults on these drugs that have very bad side effects ,that can do damge to there body and some have died from taken these drugs. I found out after my son was on two different drigs that he was having Seizures 4 years ago and he is still having Seizures even with Medicine and Surgery last June.The side effect of these drugs my son took can cause Seizures and now I wish I had never let me son Teacher push us into taken him to the Doctors and getting him on drugs. The drugs can damge there liver there heart also.
The Doctors also wouldn't ever think of doing a EEG ,and I think they should to make sure that everything is ok with the brain.

Try giving him Vitamin B6 and Omega 3-6-9 These are good for the brian and also Childrens Multivitamin.