diagnosing learning disabilities, ADHD in high school

[Kendall]

Have any of you "missed" a learning disability or ADHD diagnosis until high school? Thinking of this has never occured to me, but someone suggested the possibility.

My 13 yr. old son(8th grade) does have trouble staying on task (School and chores) but he can do it at times and has improved a lot over the last 2 years. He is easily distracted when I try to do school with him when a young sibling is in the room(under 2 years). He doesn't remember things that well just from reading them once or twice.

He spells well, reads quite a bit, reads quickly, reads at his level and above level.

I've just assumed that he is just a different learner than his brothers and that the staying on task, while difficult was a character issue. Should I consider a possibility of some kind of learning disorder or ADHD? I don't even know where to start.

Thanks in advance,
Kendall

[Mom2boys]

I am having a similar problem with my almost 11 year old. He is highly distractable and fidgety. I chalked it up to him being a boy. I thought he would outgrow it. And he has terrible handwriting. I cannot read most of what he writes. And I attributed that to him being a left-handed boy. I thought with time his fine motor skills would improve. But this year I am homeschooling his 6 year old brother too, and I see a marked difference in these areas. My six year old son has neat, even handwriting. And he is much less fidgety than his older brother, and has a longer attention span when it comes to seat work. So now I too am wondering if there is something more going on, like a learning disability, and I just didn't realize it. How do you know when your child is outside the bounds of typical development - when they actually have a problem that would benefit from intervention?

[Claire]

What you describe doesn't necessarily qualify as a learning disability, but it can mean he has weak attention skills. Some aspects of attention are neurological in nature (such as brain chemistry), but most aspects of attention are actually skills that are trainable.

A cognitive skills training program would likely help your son a great deal. These programs work on all of the levels of attention -- ability to sustain focus (lowest level), ability to sustain focus in the presence of distractions (next level up), and ability to multi-task (highest level). PACE (http://www.processingskills.com) and LearningRx (http://www.learningrx.com) are the best programs currently on the market, but they are expensive. A home program that is supposed to be very good is scheduled for release sometime in 2008 and will probably cost in the neighborhood of $500. That program will likely be called Cognitive Calisthenics.

Cognitive training programs work on a wide variety of other skills as well as attention -- working memory, visual and auditory sequential memory, pattern recognition, directionality, etc.

[Claire]

I am having a similar problem with my almost 11 year old. He is highly distractable and fidgety. And he has terrible handwriting. How do you know when your child is outside the bounds of typical development - when they actually have a problem that would benefit from intervention?

The one aspect of attention that is usually not trainable is impulsivity. Impulsivity is often related to chemical imbalances in the brain and therefore often is unresponsive to anything except medication. You don't mention impulsivity as a problem.

Distractibility and fidgeting can be caused by sensory integration disorder, which is evaluated by an occupational therapist. You might want to call a local OT clinic, describe your son, and ask if he should be evaluated. If so, ask them about medical insurance coverage for the evaluation. OT clinics deal with insurance every day and usually they can tell you exactly how a referral needs to be coded. You can take that info to your doctor so the referral is written up correctly.

He should probably be evaluated by an OT anyway for his handwriting, as he may have fine motor control issues. If this is the case, the OT will be able to prescribe exercises to strengthen the fine muscles.

Just be aware that poor handwriting can also be a reflection of dysgraphia. Many types of dysgraphia are unrelated to fine motor control and instead are neurological in origin, and therefore largely unresponsive to intervention. Learning to keyboard is often recommended for this type of dysgraphia, but many neurological dysgraphics also have difficulty acquiring keyboarding skills. The only program that worked for my borderline dysgraphic dd (and I tried many!) was Keyboarding Skills (http://www.epsbooks.com/dynamic/catalog/series.asp?seriesonly=2564M) by Diana Hanbury King. You still have to watch to make sure the student uses the right fingers, but at least this one worked.

[angieathome]

Yes, I think it is possible to just now consider ADHD or maybe ADD (no hyperactivity). I was an adult before I recognized my own symptoms. I get distracted by birds tweeting too loudly LOL. There is great advice on the board for your son. Regardless of whether it is a character issue or a behavioral issue, you can treat it the same way: the lesson or the chore has to be completed or nothing fun happens for you. You can be a "teammate" to your son and tell him you want to be on his team to help him get his work done in a way that leaves plenty of extra time for more fun things. Timers, alarms and sticky notes work great for me. Small rewards for small accomplishments work great for me. A simplified physical arrangement of my belongings is helpful and too much stuff is bad for me. Ask him for ideas that would allow you to be a "reminder helper" as opposed to a nag. (I still need "reminder helpers" to this day.) Ask him to help brainstorm ideas that would help him. A formal diagnosis still might be helpful, but I am guessing that the end result is that he will have to find strategies that will work life-long. There are many good books on specific strategies for attention challenged individuals. The tips and tricks really do help.

[Joan in Geneva]

have missed it earlier....one of the prescriptions for ADD is learning one-on-one...so with homeschool, you are already doing that and reducing problems that might have been more manifest in a group setting....

My oldest is so bright that we thought problems were related to character issues, and were so against meds, and he ended up insisting on a diagnosis at 19....if you search ADD, there was a thread in February...

Just to check, is he getting enough time to exercise and get exhausted? get out and run around time? boys especially do need that to balance the seatwork...and there are foods that can get them more excitable...it is better to check out the less serious possibilities before going the medication route as that has it's own set of problems.

Exercise is another one of the important nonmedicine aids to decrease attention disorders.

And then your home - is it generally a peaceful loving place? Father/son relationship in good condition? (you don't have to answer these questions, they just play a part in emotional health and are therefore important to take into account).

Angie's organizational advice is the type of thing that also helped my ds...

There are less serious possibilities which are mentioned in posts above...
BUT if you have eliminated all the other possibilities, it is very important to find a good doctor to get a differential diagnosis...there are other conditions which can have some of the same symptoms... this site (http://www.aafp.org/afp/20001101/2077.html) is for adults with ADHD, but if you scroll down to table 5, it will give you an idea of some of the more serious possibilities...

Hope this can be of help,
Joan

[Kathy in MD]

Have any of you "missed" a learning disability or ADHD diagnosis until high school? Thinking of this has never occured to me, but someone suggested the possibility.

My 13 yr. old son(8th grade) does have trouble staying on task (School and chores) but he can do it at times and has improved a lot over the last 2 years. He is easily distracted when I try to do school with him when a young sibling is in the room(under 2 years). He doesn't remember things that well just from reading them once or twice.

He spells well, reads quite a bit, reads quickly, reads at his level and above level.

I've just assumed that he is just a different learner than his brothers and that the staying on task, while difficult was a character issue. Should I consider a possibility of some kind of learning disorder or ADHD? I don't even know where to start.

Thanks in advance,
Kendall

In addition to the causes Claire mentioned, impulsivity can also be caused by food sensitivities (mild allergies). Dairy (specifically cassien) and wheat are the two big food causes.

Claire, it's good to see you on the boards again!!!!!! How are you doing?