My Experience of Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder

How do you feel when you have to admit that something isn’t quite right with your child? I wouldn’t for the longest time and felt like a failure. My youngest son, Steven, was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) this week after several years of struggling with the system. Let me tell you a little bit about Steven so that you can get some idea of what things have been like in the last few years. Steven has just turned 11 years old, he’s tall for his age at 5ft 1in and he only weighs 95lbs. My son is a very gentle and loving child who has an intense desire to be liked and he also hates confrontation. From the ...  Read the complete review

I am a parent of an ADHD child (Attention Defecit/Hyper Active Disorder). Now some people don't believe that is a disorder but simply bad parenting. I also think that many people think that normal kids are hyper or have problems. In fact, I think recently it has become a catch all for children who just have some problems settling down. But I was not going to fall into that easy excuse with my daughter. So when she began at the age of three to have problems, I had her diagnosed 5 times by different means before I agreed that it was ADHD. Then there was the question of medication. The doctors wanted to start her right away. But she was only 4 at that time and ...  Read the complete review

I have ADD. Nobody else has really figured it out and I keep it my secret. I am terrified that people will make fun of me and consider me mentally ill. I was never diagnosed in school. I grew up in a place where the name for Attention Defecit Disorder was called "Bad Parenting". There was no Ritalin or special help. You just got beat into submission. I was lucky, the fact that I got up and wandered around the classroom and didn't pay attention was attributed to my high IQ, 166 Wechsler and 171 Stanford Binet, in case any of you wondered. I was able to skate by in all my classes because I never once had to learn anything I did not already know. I ...  Read the complete review

My son is 5 1/2 & is handicapped. What's the matter then? He looks fine to me, he's just a bit lively, a typical boy & needs a firm hand.- Spoilt, hopeless parents. These are just some of the comments I have heard about my son. He suffers from a 'Hidden Handicap' -to coin the phrase;this is the title of a book written by George Serofentien about children with ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER or ADHD. We knew he was different from his peers at 18 months as he was always on the go & nowhere was safe for him as he would fiddle with or climb everything. By 2 he was getting worse, woke up at 4am & was like a tournado every ...  Read the complete review

Those of us with ADHD children have all had the old chestnut "Make a star chart" thrown at us by well meaning, but misguided family therapists haven't we? These 'magical' star charts (which invariably don't work ) are supposed to encourage our kids to work towards rewards and learn that they will get no attention, positive or otherwise, from bad behaviour. Does this strategy work? Ask any parent of an ADHD child. They will tell you emphatically NO! Star charts might work on so called 'normal' children, whose brains work like the majority, but with ADHD kids you are working on a very un-level playing field! Unfortunately, the ...  Read the complete review