Anonymous
09/05/2025 11:02
Subject: How much forgetfulness/impulsiveness/"carelessness" is normal in 4th grade (vs a sign of ADHD)?
ADHD is massively overdiagnosed so yes, lots of kids get the dx and medicated for symptoms similar to what you are describing.
Anonymous
09/05/2025 10:58
Subject: Re:How much forgetfulness/impulsiveness/"carelessness" is normal in 4th grade (vs a sign of ADHD)?
Regardless of whether she has an ADHD diagnosis, it wouldn’t hurt to implement some strategies to improve her executive functioning.
She needs reminders and strategies.
She needs reminders to doublecheck her work before submitting it:
Re-reading the questions to confirm what she was asked to do
Re-reading her answers to see if she performed the right mathematical calculations to answer the question that was asked
Checking to make sure she answered all questions
She needs checklists for:
Assignments to make sure each one is completed and turned in
Accounting for her belongings before she leaves a location — This doesn’t have to be written down, but she needs to be taught to run through commonly lost items mentally. Do I have my backpack? My lunchbox? My water bottle? My jacket? My schoolwork? She needs to be trained to evaluate whether she’s missing anything before transitions rather than afterwards.
She needs tasks to be broken down into manageable steps. Instead of multi step directions, she should only be given one task at a time to keep her from being overwhelmed. She should be given clear deadlines for each portion of a sizable project to help her manage her time.
She probably needs help with organization. Someone with better organizational skills needs to help her with things like cleaning out her desk, folders, and backpack.
There are a lot of strategies for emotional regulation. Do some research on strategies suggested for kids with ADHD. It’s not like those strategies are useless unless you have ADHD.
She needs reminders and strategies.
She needs reminders to doublecheck her work before submitting it:
Re-reading the questions to confirm what she was asked to do
Re-reading her answers to see if she performed the right mathematical calculations to answer the question that was asked
Checking to make sure she answered all questions
She needs checklists for:
Assignments to make sure each one is completed and turned in
Accounting for her belongings before she leaves a location — This doesn’t have to be written down, but she needs to be taught to run through commonly lost items mentally. Do I have my backpack? My lunchbox? My water bottle? My jacket? My schoolwork? She needs to be trained to evaluate whether she’s missing anything before transitions rather than afterwards.
She needs tasks to be broken down into manageable steps. Instead of multi step directions, she should only be given one task at a time to keep her from being overwhelmed. She should be given clear deadlines for each portion of a sizable project to help her manage her time.
She probably needs help with organization. Someone with better organizational skills needs to help her with things like cleaning out her desk, folders, and backpack.
There are a lot of strategies for emotional regulation. Do some research on strategies suggested for kids with ADHD. It’s not like those strategies are useless unless you have ADHD.
Anonymous
09/05/2025 10:26
Subject: How much forgetfulness/impulsiveness/"carelessness" is normal in 4th grade (vs a sign of ADHD)?
My 4th grader, who'll be turning 10 this fall, is struggling a lot so far this year in terms of things like forgetting to bring home folders and assignments multiple times a week (last year there was a lot more teacher help on this), rushing through math homework and making lots of mistakes due to reading the directions wrong or skipping steps or not really thinking the problem through, etc. She is also saying repeatedly that certain aspects of the math concepts she's doing homework on weren't explained in class that day and I don't know if that's true or if she's just missing it/forgetting it.
How typical is this at her age? I have always wondered if she might have ADHD-- I do, and she seems to meet a number of the diagnostic criteria ("careless" mistakes, loses things, avoids things that require a lot of mental effort, interrupts, impatient, fidgety, talkative, etc) along with some significant challenges with emotional regulation in ways that I associate with ADHD. But it's only like 3 or 4 criteria in each category, and I know you're supposed to have at least 6 in one or the other in order to be diagnosed, which she doesn't. Plus it's not entirely clear to me to what extent her behaviors in these areas are typical for her age vs outside the norm.
I suppose if she doesn't meet enough of the criteria to "technically" have ADHD then it doesn't really matter how normal or abnormal this is because she wouldn't be able to get a diagnosis or accomodations or treatment or anything like that-- but I'm still curious about what is normal at this age and whether this feels typical to folks or more ADHD-like.
How typical is this at her age? I have always wondered if she might have ADHD-- I do, and she seems to meet a number of the diagnostic criteria ("careless" mistakes, loses things, avoids things that require a lot of mental effort, interrupts, impatient, fidgety, talkative, etc) along with some significant challenges with emotional regulation in ways that I associate with ADHD. But it's only like 3 or 4 criteria in each category, and I know you're supposed to have at least 6 in one or the other in order to be diagnosed, which she doesn't. Plus it's not entirely clear to me to what extent her behaviors in these areas are typical for her age vs outside the norm.
I suppose if she doesn't meet enough of the criteria to "technically" have ADHD then it doesn't really matter how normal or abnormal this is because she wouldn't be able to get a diagnosis or accomodations or treatment or anything like that-- but I'm still curious about what is normal at this age and whether this feels typical to folks or more ADHD-like.