ADHD - middle school - What Would You Do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You really need to research more about the ADHD brain b/c your post is kind of offensive. Please don't say this stuff around your child or neurodivergent people.

The truth is, either ADHD people will choose a career that is their hyperfocus so many challenges just don't exist because it's what they enjoy & excel so they stay on top of things at OR they'll choose a job whose work environment works for the ADHD brain.

School does not work, at all, for the ADHD brain so please stop with the attitude that accommodations are some kind of unfair advantage or life failure vs. leveling the playing field in an environment that is not build for their brain.

NOW, if you do get an ADHD diagnosis, the accommodations can vary based on what issues your child has. Preferential seating, taking tests in a more distraction-free space, having SpEd help organization or executive function skills (but schools will only do this if there's an issue in school), additional test time, etc.

If she has organization or executive function issues & you don't plan on medicating, maybe it'd be better spending money initially on an executive function coach privately.

Conversely, my son found a lot of validation with an ADHD diagnosis. He (and us!) were able to get proper understanding things that are just not his fault, no matter how hard he tries. So, yes, in some areas, he has loads of laddering & more of us checking in to verify he's on track.

What happens when ADHD people don't get the luxury of choice re: jobs?

+1. I’m in a job I hate because it pays the salary and offers the flexibility I need. The types of jobs I love don’t offer both in this way. I know I will be able to switch into those kinds of jobs one day, but now is not the time.

[Anonymous]

I probably wouldn’t yet. Maybe reevaluate after 8th grade and test summer before 9th. If she is able to get As in class, isn’t struggling, and teachers haven’t been concerned- what is there to chase? Not everyone is type A. But that doesn’t mean they have ADHD

[Anonymous]

With grade inflation, you can get all A’s without knowing anything. If you know she’s ADHD, I’d get her medicated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You really need to research more about the ADHD brain b/c your post is kind of offensive. Please don't say this stuff around your child or neurodivergent people.

The truth is, either ADHD people will choose a career that is their hyperfocus so many challenges just don't exist because it's what they enjoy & excel so they stay on top of things at OR they'll choose a job whose work environment works for the ADHD brain.

School does not work, at all, for the ADHD brain so please stop with the attitude that accommodations are some kind of unfair advantage or life failure vs. leveling the playing field in an environment that is not build for their brain.

NOW, if you do get an ADHD diagnosis, the accommodations can vary based on what issues your child has. Preferential seating, taking tests in a more distraction-free space, having SpEd help organization or executive function skills (but schools will only do this if there's an issue in school), additional test time, etc.

If she has organization or executive function issues & you don't plan on medicating, maybe it'd be better spending money initially on an executive function coach privately.

Conversely, my son found a lot of validation with an ADHD diagnosis. He (and us!) were able to get proper understanding things that are just not his fault, no matter how hard he tries. So, yes, in some areas, he has loads of laddering & more of us checking in to verify he's on track.

What happens when ADHD people don't get the luxury of choice re: jobs?

addiction, jail, sadness...

that's why it's so important to treat.

I was diagnosed as a kid and my dad realized, reading the literature, that all the symptoms applied to him. So he went to the same doctor and was diagnosed and started taking medicine. In the first 30 years of his working life he had 31 jobs. He got fired, he quit impulsively and he worked at low level shit jobs where he was the first to get laid off. In his last 12 years of working, he had ONE job—after starting taking medication, he started being able to control himself, started being taken more seriously and found a niche working in a machine shop building out prototypes of new products. He was perfect for it—they gave him a sketch and some time and he turned out something real. He tested off the charts in IQ in school (literally, he's never been given an accurate IQ other than 150+) and when he as in the military he had to repeatedly retake their IQ test because he was told someone like him couldn't score that high and must have cheated... but flunked senior year of high school, had to go to vietnam, took six years to get a college degree and had all those awful jobs.

His life would've been so much different if ADHD diagnosis was a thing when he was a kid. My life is so much different than his, and it makes me so sad to think that kids in this day and age who might be like he was—smart but struggling in school, written off as disruptive, irritating or lazy—who wind up dropping out, self-medicating or working shit jobs that make them unhappy... and there are parents who let it happen because they don't believe in ADHD or they think the meds are "not proven". I know someone who claimed that people who use ADHD medication are more likely to become drug addicts—I have no idea where he got that from, but I can tell you there is LOTS of evidence that untreated ADHD is linked ot higher rates of drug abuse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You really need to research more about the ADHD brain b/c your post is kind of offensive. Please don't say this stuff around your child or neurodivergent people.

The truth is, either ADHD people will choose a career that is their hyperfocus so many challenges just don't exist because it's what they enjoy & excel so they stay on top of things at OR they'll choose a job whose work environment works for the ADHD brain.

School does not work, at all, for the ADHD brain so please stop with the attitude that accommodations are some kind of unfair advantage or life failure vs. leveling the playing field in an environment that is not build for their brain.

NOW, if you do get an ADHD diagnosis, the accommodations can vary based on what issues your child has. Preferential seating, taking tests in a more distraction-free space, having SpEd help organization or executive function skills (but schools will only do this if there's an issue in school), additional test time, etc.

If she has organization or executive function issues & you don't plan on medicating, maybe it'd be better spending money initially on an executive function coach privately.

Conversely, my son found a lot of validation with an ADHD diagnosis. He (and us!) were able to get proper understanding things that are just not his fault, no matter how hard he tries. So, yes, in some areas, he has loads of laddering & more of us checking in to verify he's on track.

What happens when ADHD people don't get the luxury of choice re: jobs?

Then medication is a requirement, not an option. And, they should be taught, explicitly, executive function skills (either via a school IEP or parents doing this)

Listen, I've got a kid with ADHD and several language based learning disabilities. This shit is hard. Personally, I'm team meds.

[Anonymous]

There are treatment options other than medication. Accommodation isn't the only option.

You could look into organizational skills training