Hi all. Struggling through with still trying to find a proper diagnosis. My 10 yr old child is possibly the inattentive type as he is not hyperactive. He does not bounce off the walls and never did. He never did fidget. He never did run around too much. He DOES talk too much at times. He IS able to sit and play quietly or read quietly for long stretches.

He does have ALOT of difficulty regulating his behaviour about 50% of the time--ie. doing what he is supposed to be doing, stopping or starting a task, transitions etc.He is very intense, persistent and inflexible.

His academic work is terrible, and he has a diagnosed learning disability (but unspecified). He is inconsistent in his effort when doing school work. He can have a day where he does his stuff (albeit hurriedly and little attention to detail) and other days he cannot do the simplest thing such as read a simple question out loud...just too hard. Really frustrates the teachers when they know he can do something one day and can't the next.

Do any of you identify with this scenario? He is not a spacey dreamer that the "ADD" description typefies. Perhaps he is "sub threshold" combined type.

Would like to hear from others on this one. Thanks!

A big misconception is that people with ADHD cannot focus on anything. I personally hate the "attention deficit" part in the title.

The best analogy that I've ever heard is that it's like driving down the highway with a radio that doesn't have a knob to change the channel but instead picks up whatever channel is the strongest. There may be times where your radio bounces back and forth rapidly between radio stations or there may be times where it gets stuck on one station (which is fine if that's the station you want to listen to, but it may not be). You might look for information on "hyperfocus" to get a better understanding.

Your son does sound a lot like me when I was younger. When I was a kid, I could read books for a long stretch too but that was because it was easy reading material. As I got older and the books that interested me got longer and harder to read, I found that I couldn't finish one. I'd hyperfocus on it for a few days and then put it down and never pick it up.

At any rate, hope that helps!

Would like to hear from others on this one. Thanks!

as a kid I was somewhat like him:
similar: not hyper at all; able to sit and play quietly (but not for too long); inconsistent in my effort when doing school work
not similar: never talked much (find it hard to formulate); no behavioural problems (apart from not wanting to join in); rather very shy then intense; academic work was OK until grade 8; and I was very spacy

dont draw any conclusions from that though. There is quite some variation. But there's a lot of other things that mimic ADD symptoms .. if he has attention problems why don't you have him evaluated?

hth :)
luthien

A big misconception is that people with ADHD cannot focus on anything. I personally hate the "attention deficit" part in the title.

The best analogy that I've ever heard is that it's like driving down the highway with a radio that doesn't have a knob to change the channel but instead picks up whatever channel is the strongest. There may be times where your radio bounces back and forth rapidly between radio stations or there may be times where it gets stuck on one station (which is fine if that's the station you want to listen to, but it may not be). You might look for information on "hyperfocus" to get a better understanding.

Your son does sound a lot like me when I was younger. When I was a kid, I could read books for a long stretch too but that was because it was easy reading material. As I got older and the books that interested me got longer and harder to read, I found that I couldn't finish one. I'd hyperfocus on it for a few days and then put it down and never pick it up.

At any rate, hope that helps!
Thank you for this explanation. Seriously. I'm either completely disoriented in my thoughts or hyperfocused.

About your son, there's not much I can say but I think she does a nice job!

dont draw any conclusions from that though. There is quite some variation. But there's a lot of other things that mimic ADD symptoms .. if he has attention problems why don't you have him evaluated?



QFT

There is also a possibility that he could be bipolar especially if he acts one way one day and a different way another day. On the other hand, us ADDers are also probably one of the most inconsistent groups of people on the planet so he could still be ADD. To complicate matters more, it is very much possible he is both ADD and bipolar. Or he could be experiencing ADD and anxiety. Or it could be having issues with anxiety and bipolar disorder but not ADD. Or he could be having issues with all three. Get my drift?

The distinction between ADD and some other mental conditions (and even physical conditions) is probably a lot more subtle than you would think. Only a trained professional will be able to figure out what's going on with your son.

Your son does sound a lot like me when I was younger. When I was a kid, I could read books for a long stretch too but that was because it was easy reading material. As I got older and the books that interested me got longer and harder to read, I found that I couldn't finish one. I'd hyperfocus on it for a few days and then put it down and never pick it up.

At any rate, hope that helps!

That sounds exactly like me. I had tons of book growing up, my mom never said no to me wanting to buy a book. But once I got older and the books got longer and the text got smaller I could never find a book that could keep my interest for long.