My 5 yo son is a little busy. He is my oldest and I do not have much experience with kids. So it is difficult for me to figure out what is "normal". He doesn't sit still much, except when zoning out watching TV. When he plays video games he shows great focus and hops around the whole time. He has been in part time preschool for 18 months now. 3 hours a day, 3 days a week at a church. The teachers say he does really well. Though we have not asked any really specific questions. He has learned a lot.

If your child has mild ADD, what symptons did you see early?

My son is really sweet, not violent at all. He's a real charmer. My wife one time said we should get his hearing checked because he did not seem to hear her. But he hears fine if you say cookie or candy:). He just has to be in constant motion. I'm a bit the same way. I was diagnosed ADD as a child and took medication for a short while. I had a bad reaction so I went off medication for about 20 years. Recently I got rediagnosed and medicated. My symptoms are on the mild side. Other men in my family are undiagnosed ADD so I'm suspicious that my son may be as well. He starts public kindergarten in the Fall. I've considered taking him to a child psychiatrist specializing in ADD and seeing what they think. But it is not really causing him any real problems yet. He drives us crazy sometimes, but not excessively so.

This observation is not backed up by any study that I know of, at least I don't know of the "annoying study". I have never seen annoying on a rating scale...so take it with a grain of salt.
Is your child really annoying...especially to both his peers and to adults...well then, that just rings major ADHD alarm bells to me. Major ADHD points if he is especially annoying to both parents. It's very rare that you hear of little ADHD angel. ;)

It's a different story if they are the quiet inactive ADHD type.

My ADD 8yo isn't hyperactive, but he didn't show much in the way of signs in preschool except some minor delays in fine motor skills. This wouldn't have meant anything if it weren't that he'd always been rather developmentally ahead before, even in those same skills.

In Kindergarten he started to do a few things that we know recognize as ADD-related:

1) His teacher often had to put in extra effort to get him to complete tasks. If motivated properly, he got through them just fine. It wasn't until late in the 1st grade that motivation no longer helped. Extremely bright and always able to do any of the work, just not able to actually initiate and complete the tasks.

2) He began to complain often of silly somatic problems. He would say his legs didn't work right and "drop". We attributed it to attention-getting behavior (which was odd, because he didn't seem to need attention), but now it seems he was trying to gain sympathy in order to avoid tasks that were cognitively challenging.

3) Emotional immaturately started to become a problem in Kindergarten, and he was actually older than most of the kids because his birthday was 2 weeks after the cut-off to start school. While he's a very sophisticated thinker, he actually threw some minor tantrums at school in Kindergarten.

Hope this helps.
Keep in mind that a lot of the behavior you describe is pretty age-appropriate. But, if you're paying attention, the clear symptoms will stand out if/when it's time for a diagnosis.

My son was active in the womb. Given the opportunity, he would have lived outdoors at a very young age. We kept him busy with sports and activities. Teachers, neighbours and other kids really liked him. He had sensory issues; didn't like to have his hair washed or put his face in the water, but became an excellent swimmer and diver when he was ready for it. Didn't like some food textures as a baby, but I had good books and he didn't develop food issues. Sleep problems from birth; night terrors for a few years. Ritalin helps him sleep, now. Very musical and good with his hands, but printing was messy until he was eight years old.

My son has ADHD and these are the things that I remember:

- Daycare ~1.5 years old: was given a mug with picture of him sitting down but trying to get up from chair. It was a cute picture and I didn't think anything of it until later. Yeah, I distinctly remember being a little stressed with his activeness even at this age. hehe

- K-4: teacher described him as "not being challenged enough".

- Kindergarten: teacher said he HOPPED to the trash can taking the long route. She had a bit of time with him (he was diagnosed at this age).

Now that I think of it, I could prolly go back even further. The following things are something I wonder on and could very easily pass for baby/toddler/boy thing to do:

- When he was an infant, I'd have to put covers over his carrier to get him to nap (keep away the "distractions") otherwise he'd fight sleep. Especially at church. My sister called him a "thinker". I can vaguely remember the look that his mind was churning.

- He was always into something...trying to figure something out of interest. Usually how something was operating (ie amusement park rides).

- I remember calling him EverReady since he was a toddler and still it comes to mind to this day. You know the commercial "he keeps going and going...". That's the EverReady battery right?

Thanks for the feedback. He has done OK in preschool. We have a parent-teacher conference coming up. I'll ask some pointed questions. I'll see how he does in full day kindergarten in the Fall. We probably will not get him professionally evaluated yet.