ADHD!! My son's school says to have him evaluated for ADHD?

Question

My son is now 11, in the fifth grade, having major problems focusing on studying,hand writing is bad, staying on task,etc. His teachers and the school pychologist says to have him evaluated for ADHD. They say it is a textbook case! He was evaluated a few years ago and put on medication that made him like a zombie, so I requested another med. which in turn made him throw up.. Eventually, they re-evaluated him and said that he was just being a boy!! Now, a few years later, the school, a different school mind you, says I should take him to have him checked b/c they think he really does have ADHD and will benefit from medication at school time. I need help because I really don't want him to be on medication if he doesn't need it! I feel like too many doctors just say ADHD to write a prescription and gain benefits from the pharmacutical company. Please give me your opinion and tell me what med.s have worked for your child? I desperatly need your opinion really bad!! Thanks for your help!!

Answer 1

I agree.

I also think the schools don't want to help a child that may need special attention. Or, give children the stimulation they need. Our society has changed drastically from the 1940's. Yet, our schools are still operating on the system that was adapted in the 1940's. Can you imagine...this was before Rock N Roll, before the Civil Rights, before Vietnam...and here we are operating on this archeaic system.

Don't put him on meds.

Tell them you've been this route before and your not doing it again. Also, talk with your son and see if something is bothering him. He may be having social problems or just isn't stimulated. In either case talk to the school guidance counselor. I'd set up an appointment for you or you and your son to talk this out.

I would never make my son a zombie because a teacher want to deal with drones. Kids are kids they will act out and test you. We all did it growing up...now suddenly we're suppposed to medicate them when their actions are a part of growing up.

Answer 2

Look, Sweetnytm... has it right on!!!

The people who are saying don't have your child evaluated don't know what they are talking about. My daughter has ADHD and it took several years and many different medications before we found the right one. She is now 12 and doing much better. Some kids really do need meds, but some do fine without. If the medicine made your kid like a zombie it was probably too high of a dose.

The School district by law must provide the complete evaluation's that they want, and if you don't like the first results you can request that they be done again with different doctors and evaluators and the school district must pay for them. Don't let the school try to railroad you into doing something your not comfortable with. Evaluations don't hurt anyone, they can only help when done by professionals.

If your son does have ADHD the school must develop an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for him.

Answer 3

Would you deny a child with diabetes his insulin? Most people who refuse to get their children meds are so focused on the problems we had with over-prescription TWENTY YEARS AGO. At that time, medication was limited to ritalin, and was overprescribed. Also, medication was not changed or discontinued when, instead of being alert and on-task, the wrongly-prescribed kids were groggy and unable to function. Today, there are many more options for medications, and the reasons why these medications work are much better understood. Also, if a medication is not causing a child to be more alert, on-task, and comfortable, the dosage is revised, then medications are changed if the effect is not positive. There are some "natural" remedies (herbal, over-the-counter stuff, etc.)...if your son's father is more open to trying those first, talk to your doctor about them. ADHD is a MEDICAL CONDITION, in which portions of the brain are more active than other portions, to a degree where they do not integrate their functions effectively. The more active portions get "caught in a loop," resulting in the "hyperactivity," either in phyical action or "daydreaming." The medications stimulate the slower-functioning portions of the brain to "catch up" to the speed of the faster-functioning portions. When the sections integrate and start communicating with each other, the conscious control of thoughts and behavior becomes possible. Without medical help, your son's father is condemning him to self-contained programming, and isolation from the regular education classroom and peers, because of disruptions to other students' learning and lack of academic progress for your son due to his inability to concentrate. And he's doing it needlessly. Also, people who truly have ADHD, and are not medicated under a doctor's supervision, often will "self-medicate" using overdoses of caffiene, methamphetamine, and other OTC or dangerous stimulants. They are also at higher risk for jail time (due to impulsivity) and for suicide. And all it would take is to work with the doctor to develop a medication regimen that works for your child, and he would function in regular ed, graduate high school on a standard track, maybe go to college... So what do you want for your son? By the way... Angie... schools CANNOT make a medical diagnosis. Therefore, there is no way that ADHD can be overdiagnosed by the schools. Schools can be concerned by particular behaviors, and suggest that parents talk to their doctors about possible medical causes (without mentioning ADHD directly to the parents).

Answer 4

The schools also benefit from every child that they have that gets diagnosed with something like that. You are the parent and dont give your son any medications if you dont want to. My son has Aspergers syndrome, which has a few similarities to ADHD and I was told the same thing. I felt sooooo guilty after I had him on 3 different medicines that made him have Tics(blinked his eyes constantly and jerked his head!) made him emotional and irritable and zombie like. IT was terrible. I took him of fthe meds and told everyone that they can forget it and I would NOT put him back on that stuff ever, or any of my kids.The school would try and tell me that he would benefit from it, but I said noand would tell them what side effects it had on them, and they really could have cared less. They just wanted him on the meds to make things easier for themselves.. The school is required to help him out and have a plan for him if he is diagnosed with it. THey can modify work for him and help him with several different things., and so on. Please dont give him the medicines just because the school or doctors are telling you too. Plus you never know what long term effects any of these medicines will have on you child later on in life. Like when I was giving my son Strattera, they came out saying that it could harm the liver.....I just said , this is too much and will not ever do it again. I let my son be the way he is and Im perfectly happy with it. Good Luck with your situation. I hope all works out for you.

Answer 5

Set up a reward system at home. Staying on one task for 10 minutes. Then after the timer goes off, look over his work the way a teacher would. If it's not A material, ask him to redo the work and tell him what he needs to do to improve.

Use lots of positives. "You wrote a lot of information in your book report you did all that in just ten minutes. That's great. Lets make a final copy where we write it really neatly. We can use the computer to type it."

After he types the information into the computer have him read the information to you and tell you where he's made type-o's, grammar and puncuation errors.


After doing all subjects similar to this on a frequent basis, this will ripple out into the school setting, thus helping with his problems.

Answer 6

You need to ask him what is causing him to have "trouble" studying. Find another alternative to learning. If trying to homeschool is an option, you might want to consider that. Also, consider there may be WAY too many children in his class and he's having difficulty "competing" with other children to learn. MEDICATION is NOT the answer. Don't even take him to get evaluated for ADHD because all they'll want to do is medicate him with drugs, like you said, to make him a "teachable" ZOMBIE. You know in your heart what is best, that is why you posted this question.
Hand writing is bad because he's an 11 year old boy! My brother has NO form of ADHD whatsoever and he has the worst handwritting ever...because he's a boy. Men always have bad handwirting! lol
Lots of children have problems focusing. Check alternate methods...don't medicate him like every other mother out there wants to do!

Answer 7

Ok here is my thing.....What eleven year old want to be doing school work?You give them a choice to draw,daydream,play,read comics, act like the class clown or sit down be quiet and do his work,which do You think he is going to choose? Not you but most parents and teachers are lazy and are looking for a way out of the work that needs to be put into raising today's kids.Back say 50 years ago kids who did not behave in class got punished not labled adhd,and now if you cant concentrate you have adhd. grown ups have the same problem but we know the consequences for not doing what we are suppose to and there for we do it.Where as kids do not know the consequences even though we tell them they are not mature enough to understand it.I say get a few more opinions but I don't believe in adhd 99 percent of the time.

Answer 8

I can't give you an answer on whether your son has ADHD or not. But I will tell you it can do no harm to have him evaluated again. Always remember to do what is best for him. This sounds a lot like my son in Elementary school. Although they didn't know about A.D.D. and such at that time. I took him to a Psychologist when he was six. He said there wasn't anything wrong with him. He said that on a scale of 1 to 10 in energy my son was a 10. But he was labeled in school after that. I took him to another Physcologist between 5th and 6th grade. She said for his teachers and us his parents to praise what he does right and to ignore what he isn't doing right and I went and told his teacher at the beginning of 6th grade what the Psychologist said to do and that is what we all did and it was the best school year my son ever had. I am not saying your son and mine are the same but try a lot of praise and see what happens! Concentrate only on the positive and not the negative ! Good luck !!!!

Answer 9

Have a serious talk with your son's pediatrition. Don't let your child's school or teachers pressure you into medicating your kid if it isn't absolutely necessary! Your son's pediationtion can give you an honest opinion and evaluation if you need it, and you can go from there. You need to do what's best for your son.....not for his teachers.

Also, check out his diet. Is he getting alot fo sugar in it? What is he eating for breakfast and lunch on weekdays, when the dietary effects would be noticed by the teachers?

I have seen children who's parents didn't want to medicate their child simply cut out sugar, wheat and dairy from their child's diet, as well as not giving them processed foods, and their behavior and concentration improved 100%.

Answer 10

I feel your pain. My son is ADHD, and I've been diagnosed with it as an adult. I trust my pediatrician implicitly. He (my pediatrician) is very conservative and does not like to diagnose and prescribe. My son went through a lot of tests, and then we also had to go through some stages of adjustment, where we adjusted the level of the medicine. In the beginning, the dr. prescribed a very low daily dose, and told me up front that the medicine was probably not going to do much good at that level, but we'd gradually increase it. He's doing quite well now on a low-to-mid-level dosage of the second med we tried.

Ritalin is most often prescribed. My son started with Adderall, but takes Concerta now. I take Strattera and can see some difference in my own productivity and attention span.

Bottom line: Yes, I think it's over-diagnosed, but that doesn't mean a lot of people don't have it. What would it hurt to get your son tested and evaluated? Find a physician you trust and get him tested. You can go over treatment options (including behavioral treatment only with no meds) and find a solution that's in your son's best interest.

Good luck!