It has been several months now since Katey was diagnosed with ADHD. Our pediatrician made the very (un)helpful, "I think I am comfortable saying that she most likely has ADHD, Inattentive type" diagnosis (??). And, pretty much, that was where his helpfulness ended. So, after several months of working with the school and doing internet research, we headed to a Behavioral Pediatrician who, thankfully, has been much more helpful!
Mike and I have been wrestling with our thoughts on ADHD and medication. I have strong feelings regarding the seemingly over-diagnoses and haste to throw kids on Ritalin in the 1990's. So, to have a child be diagnosed with the same disorder and be faced with medication choices was rather difficult.
What we have come to find is that there is little effective help apart from prescriptions. We did read a very interesting book or two on the Executive Functions of the brain. There was even a quiz to discover which areas of executive thinking/executive skills one is weak in and which he is strong in. So, we took the quiz - once for Katey, once for Mike and once for me. The results?
Strengths:
Mike - Metacognition (take a birds-eye view of self to problem solve); Time Management; Response Inhibition
Jen - Working Memory (hold info in memory and complete complex tasks); Time Management; Flexibility
Mike - Task Initiation (begin a task without procrastination); Organization; Working Memory
Jen - Task Initiation (begin a task without procrastination); Goal-directed Persistence; Metacognition
The books did give some tips on how to help develop these skills, though it is pretty much with a lot of repetition and time and lists and charts. That takes a lot of task initiation...and as you can see from above, our family seems to be lacking in that. :-)
So, after working with teachers and school staff, setting timers to help Katey stay on task, making lists to help her remember what needs done and when, and reading lots of helpful information, Mike and I decided to try medication. And, after spending about an hour talking this over with the doctor, he really did help to dispel some of our concerns.
We are now officially on week 1 of Focalin XR. We are thankful that our doctor wants to start on super low doses and work up as needed. There is already a noticeable difference in Katey's focus and concentration skills. She is looking us in the eye when we talk, has had good behavior reports from school for 3 days in a row, and one of our good friends pointed out that the flow of her speech has also improved. Mike and I are very hopeful that this has been a good decision and we look forward to seeing Katey come out of her focal fog!
2 comments:
Glad you guys got a helpful doctor for Katey. Hope she continues to do well!
I meant to comment on this a while ago, but thanks for sharing all this! It gives me a better understanding of the whole diagnosis and details of ADHD.
Post a Comment