You can make an appointment with a developmental pediatrician if your are concerned. It will take months to actually see one so do it quickly if you plan to.
Teachers are not qualified to offer medical opinions and will not tell you anything like this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At most schools, teachers are not able to suggest screening. They are giving you many, many hints though. You have to take the initiative here.

Even if I straight up them if I should consider testing? The response has been, “He’s a 7 (or 8 or 9) year old boy!”

Dp. Yeah, I think you're picking up on their cues correctly. That type of response sounds like they don't see it.

It's true teachers can't suggest screening, but that's not the type of response one would hear from different people who think so, but are trying to dance around the issue.

Some of these issues are harder to tackle at home, but slowing down and checking work is easy to practice at home. That might be a good one to start with, when trying to build up those exec functioning skills, whether he has ADHD or not.

I think the kids who aren’t diagnosed with ADHD are the minority. ADHD is a brain disorder that’s tough to control. My husband was medicated as a child for his adhd. . None of our children have it but that was just luck.

They are doing more research and are finding genetic links to it. The genetic links are also connected to anxiety and depression. I bet in the future they will be able to zap brain parts and get rid of adhd, anxiety and every other disorder forever.

If his teachers aren’t seeing it the he may not be diagnosed anyway because the screener gets sent to teachers to fill out.

Instead of worrying about an official diagnosis at this point, start teaching executive functioning skills and hold him to high expectations at home. We say “finish the job” which means many things: shutting the cabinet door, pushing in your chair, pick up the thing you dropped, complete your homework even if it’s boring. You may have to repeat it a million times but eventually it will help them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a child in a similar circumstance at a similar age. We did nothing and the issue disappeared. The child moved on to the next grade and the issues were never raised again. We don't know if the child was bored in class or if the teacher was full of shit or if it was just the age, but we just waited and see'd and now it's all a memory.

In DS case, both teachers 1st and 2nd mentioned his disorganization. Like they would say, ok time to clear your desk off! And he would stuff everything in his desk or chair pouch instead of putting them away.

3rd grade teacher and DS both say this year his desk is fine. But he is still rushing, not checking work. I know partly his mind moves quickly but he needs reminders to read the directions carefully, recheck his work, write neatly. Teacher this year doesn’t say he is disorganized, and during class visits I saw his desk looks ok. His backpack on the other hand is a disaster. He keeps his homework binder organized, but stuffs hats, mittens, snack bags, in his backpack.

I feel like we live in a time and place when people want to turn every little thing into a psychological diagnosis. It could be that, or it could be a million other things. Maybe the kid is bored or hates the teacher or is immature or is rebelling or is distracted by something happening socially with another kid or maybe the problem is the teacher. Some of it seems totally normal. A disorganized first grader? I'd be more surprised by an organized first grader.

Have the teachers ever showed him how they want the desk organized? I used to post a photo of the side of a desk up on my wall. It showed how I wanted everything organized. Color coded folders for each subject, etc. The desk fairy visited every week or so to reward a student or two who had organized desks.

Is he young or old for the grade?

If he is less organized than all the other boys, that means something. At home you may be accommodating him more than you realize.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At most schools, teachers are not able to suggest screening. They are giving you many, many hints though. You have to take the initiative here.

Even if I straight up them if I should consider testing? The response has been, “He’s a 7 (or 8 or 9) year old boy!”

They are right. Does he have ADHD, maybe? But for now, it does not seem to be impacting him significantly. His grades are fine and he seems to be learning and on track, right? He may just be disorganized by nature, that doesn’t mean ADHD. I would wait longer and see how he continues to develop.

Anonymous wrote:We had a child in a similar circumstance at a similar age. We did nothing and the issue disappeared. The child moved on to the next grade and the issues were never raised again. We don't know if the child was bored in class or if the teacher was full of shit or if it was just the age, but we just waited and see'd and now it's all a memory.

In DS case, both teachers 1st and 2nd mentioned his disorganization. Like they would say, ok time to clear your desk off! And he would stuff everything in his desk or chair pouch instead of putting them away.

3rd grade teacher and DS both say this year his desk is fine. But he is still rushing, not checking work. I know partly his mind moves quickly but he needs reminders to read the directions carefully, recheck his work, write neatly. Teacher this year doesn’t say he is disorganized, and during class visits I saw his desk looks ok. His backpack on the other hand is a disaster. He keeps his homework binder organized, but stuffs hats, mittens, snack bags, in his backpack.

Look up the Vanderbilt questionnaire for ADHD. If a lot of the answers are often or almost always (just guess what his teacher would say for the school questionnaire and complete the parent version yourself) it might be worth screening for ADHD. If he only has issues at school and not at home, technically it's not diagnosabklle as ADHD because it's not manifestating in more than 1 setting. You could just have a child who feels like he's not meeting his own high standards. Someone has to be a B+/A- student.

We had a child in a similar circumstance at a similar age. We did nothing and the issue disappeared. The child moved on to the next grade and the issues were never raised again. We don't know if the child was bored in class or if the teacher was full of shit or if it was just the age, but we just waited and see'd and now it's all a memory.

Anonymous wrote:At most schools, teachers are not able to suggest screening. They are giving you many, many hints though. You have to take the initiative here.

Even if I straight up them if I should consider testing? The response has been, “He’s a 7 (or 8 or 9) year old boy!”

At most schools, teachers are not able to suggest screening. They are giving you many, many hints though. You have to take the initiative here.

I've been seeing several posts lately like "I wasn't diagnosed until 8th grade" or "Problems didn't crop up until middle school and I wish I had put DD through neuropsych testing earlier." Is this one of those cases?

DS is 9. He entered K as a very compliant, eager kid. 1st and 2nd grade teachers mentioned his organization (LACK of! By his own estimation, his desk was the worst of all 21 kids). In 3rd grade now and all his subject teachers mention rushing, lack of attention to detail/neatness on quizzes and tests, and I know he is forgetful despite checklists and systems. But he listens to the teachers and doesn't forget major things like homework or projects.

So... do I get him screened? None of his teachers K-3rd will say. None of them say he is ND or might be ND. I asked his pediatrician, who is also completely non-committal (literally shrugs his shoulders). I don't have other kids, so I don't have any good points of comparison. Do I wait until his teachers suggest it, or until his pediatrician suggests things are out of the norm? The reason I'm considering screening now is I guess he can get accommodations and learn different strategies NOW as opposed to when bigger problems come up in middle school, right? But so far it hasn't really impacted his grades much (Maybe he is getting A-/B+ instead of A/A+) and hasn't impacted his day to day in disastrous ways (It can be stressful heading out the door some mornings, but he has always taken his lunch and backpack). I don't need to chase a diagnosis if it's not necessary and if it won't help him. What do you think?