[arkansas parent]

I am taking T Thursday to see if he has ADD or ADHD. How do I explain to him what is going on? ( he will be 7yo o Dec 8th.) I don't want him to think there is something wrong with him.

[mommytoEli]

my son is 6, and he just knows that his brain works really fast and likes to be on all the time. lol. he knows it makes him not want to sit down or sit still and that it makes it hard for him to fall asleep at night, and so he has to work harder at being calm, quiet, and still than other children.

he was actually dx way before he would have understood what we were even doing, so i never needed to explain why were going in the first place. maybe i would have just said something like "i notice you have a harder time sitting still in class and paying attention than the other children. i notice you like to move around a lot. i want to see if there is something we can do to help you be able to sit still and concentrate. we are going to talk to the doctor and see if he has any suggestions on ways we can help you do that." to me...taking a child in for an adhd consult is no different than going for an eye exam to see if your child could concentrate better if they wore glasses. so i just treat it like that. there is nothing REALLY wrong with kids who need glasses or have adhd, but both sets of kids DO require modifications to be successful.

good luck.

[ajjhmf]

We talked about J's brain having the "jumpies." At the time he was dx'd, he was nearly 7. It was also how he was able to tell us how well any medication was working.

We have since learned that his ADHD is a function of his birth mom's prenatal care/habits. J is 10 1/2 now and we've learned that there is so much more going on in his brain than we first realized. We just talk to him now about how his brain works different and have delved a little into why. I operate on a need to know basis with him on this and dole out the information at an age appropriate level.

[Barksum]

We just talk about everyone having a unique body, and that includes their brain. We talk about LD because we have cousins who have LD's and we talk about how nice they are and how much we love them...and what good jobs they have, too...but that their brains work differently with some information. We've explained the ADD stuff in the same way: "Your brain files information differently and we're having tests to help figure out ways to make it easier to find what you've filed away in your memory", etc. etc.

[aspenhall]

I never classified my ADD as an LD....hmm... It was simply the way I was...just another quirk that makes me- me Like how some people prefer math, or art etc...my brain preferred to process my thoughts in different patterns that allowed me to solve problems easier (by thinking outside the box/no boundaries) and helped me imagine things easier, be a better reader etc..

[Barksum]

Aspen, according to "the books", LD's and ADD/ADHD are 'minimal brain impairment', or some such term.

The kids' cousins with LD don't call it "LD" and we didn't use that term. What we said was, "You know how Grandma and Cousin X and Cousin Y were so careful and methodical when they write? ... blah blah and etc." and tied it in to how everyone has a brain that processes info and some do it one way and some do it other ways and we're constantly working to make sure that they can use their brains to the best advantage.

My oldest Ds once said, "I can't think right because of the drugs, huh." And I said something along the lines of "...your brain processes information differently and it probably has to do with the drugs, but it won't stop you from doing well. Just because you sort information differently or have to work extra hard to do your writing assignments isn't a bad thing, it's just something you are aware of and are working on." I think this is where the references to the cousins with LD's came in.

For us it ties into almost everything around the house, what with the kids having drug/alcohol issues. Routines for chores, school, and everything else, the kinds of food we opt to eat, the time spent outside running around, what they are not allowed to do (much video or computer time), what they are encouraged to do (read and ride bikes), etc. etc. etc.