immature socially and emotionally

[sweapie]

My daughter will be 7 this Wednesday.  She has finished 1st grade and will be going to 2nd grade.  She is an A student, but did not test high enough for the gifted class.  She had been diagnosed with ADD and takes Focalin 5mg for school and 2.5 mg for sports games and after school activities.  The medicine has seemed to help the inattentivness in school.  We are no longer cutting our papers in to confetti or cutting our hair, but socially she is a mess.  She seems to not really have any friends.  There are two girls at school she plays with, but is never invited to play outside of a school setting.  She can get rough when playing. If they are playing sometimes she takes it to far and gets rough.  She cries at the drop of a pin.  She is a great story teller also.  She definatly over exaggerates her stories.  Last night she got cut from her Select Soccer team.  The coach said she was to immature. I'm not sure where to go from here.  I get upset for her because I feel like she has no friends.  She is the 3rd child of 4.  I have 2 other girls age 9, and 8 and a son age 5.  Any suggestions on what else we can do would be great.


This discussion is related to Immature six-year-old?.

[BabyHardiman]

It is seriously like they blanket diagnose all kids with ADHD or ADD anymore.  My nephew was "diagnosed" with ADD in his former school, and was held back... when he switched schools his new teacher asked "why was this child EVER held back, he is on a 4th grade reading level, and excels in math", they just couldn't understand why he was held back or "flunked" I guess would be the other word commonly used.  

[LRM1021]

Unfortunately, social immaturity is one of the issues that ADHD children face. From what I understand, medication does not attack this issue directly.

Her dr may be able to reccomend a local psychologist who offers social skills training for ADHD children. There are also several books out there on the subject of helping ADHD children with social skills development.

Another thing to try-- martial arts. Sounds crazy, I know, but the physical activity in martial arts actually ENCOURAGES physical control. The actions are repeated over and over-- until the child gets is right. Its sort of less stress in terms of sports. My son used to be aggressive, on top of distracted and goofy:)-- martial arts absolutely got rid of his aggressive tendencies, and gave him a good way to develop social skills. Its been great for him.