My 7 year old son was Dx in Jan. ,however his artwork has always been a bit strange..was wondering if a VERY vivid imagination is realted to ADHD? He isn't depressed and is an overall happy child.I would so appreciate any experiences or input...Thanks

Yes, vivid imaginations can GREATLY be related to ADD/ADHD. :D

Strange artwork seems prevalient around here.
Does your son draw spooky stuff? Designs? Deformed creatures ,humans?

I tend to draw an array of faces with different expressions, like they are alive and they decide their mood after their drawn. I also have a tendency to draw pwople with elongated arms tangled up. Also heads that are inverted and are looking 2 or 3 different ways at once. I also like to draw noses and fangs and lips.
My son drew well at age 3 actual dicernable pictures.
One was a goose recycling rubbish, 5 bins. Another that comes to mind is a skeleton playing basketball. His other favorite pictures were bones and nuclear power plantsand tools machinery and engines. This was 3 and 4 years old. Now he does mostly maps, gnomes and weapons, and violins. (No sax)

Well, I'm relieved there was no sax! ;)

I think the vivid imagination comes with the territory. I wouldn't worry unless the images seem really violent or disturbing.... then you might want to talk with him and see if he has some fears that are coming out in the artwork.

Mainly it's wierd robots, but anything he draws be it human or animal or God knows what else they all have sharp teeth! He drew a picture of our dog yestersday and she had sharp teeth and BIG pointy ears and also alot of the pictureshave knives and guns but he always says
that they belong to the "good guys" that are going to make the world safe.

I used to draw lots of dinosaurs with big sharp pointy teeth. I still have a book I wrote as a 5-y.o. featuring lots of exciting dinosaur fights. ;)

My online comic strip is the direct evolution of the doodling I did back in grade school (instead of whatever it was I was actually supposed to be doing at the time... :D )

Mostly was tanks, military vehicles, and also swords, axes, shields, and other assorted medieval cutlery.

My son likes to draw a lot of the same sort of stuff, and he is ADD too...

Oh yeah, I forgot, I used to draw dragons as well... took forEVER to fill up a page, but I wanted to draw a dragon on a treasure hoard, swords and crowns and jewelry and treasure chests buried in about a billion coins. I daresay I got good at it but never had the patience to fill in the entire page like I wanted to.

A boarder we had who was in psychiatric treatment liked to ink these strange black bloblike designs, full of smaller coloured blobs, very surreal, almost like stained glass when it was done. I greatly admired her work and used to try and copy the style in endless, boring classes as a way to stay awake...

This isn't a bad thing. He has an outlet to express his creativity and emotions with. This is an outlet that he can continue with through his teen years and into adulthood too. If he has a safe non-judgemental place to work on his art that sounds like a good thing to me.

If you do notice that his drawings are becoming distrurbing or his art work is interfering with other areas of his life then that may be a time to become concerned.

I have always wondered what would have happened if somebody like Stephen King was not allowed to express his creativity...

I wouldn't worry too much about the fixation on pictures of sharp teeth, knives, guns etc. I think they're a very male thing to be interested in, not necessarily ADHD. Little boys simply think they're cool - I've always had an interest in firearms and edge weapons - I drew them as a kid and collect them as an adult (as my father did). Interest in weapons is not an indication of future anti-social or potentially violent behaviour. It's a "guy thing"!
Regards,
Greg

It represents power, of which humans want. I have watched my sons clearly move from one powerfull thing to another.

I love fangs, and would like more arms and to be aware of so much more. So that explains a lot of my doodleing.

Drawing is so important for children, it is a way to confront fears.
My brother when quite young loved lions and was scared of them so he invented lions that were his friend in his drawings.

We used my son's artwork to actually get to the root of a problem he was having at school. One picture that I'll never forget showed a little boy in a classroom full of wolves all drooling and looking at the boy ready to tear him apart. Drawing is a way of reflecting what we feel, so his therapist started having him draw while he spoke with her. Turned out he was being mentally and physically bullied at school and when the kid was reported by my son the teacher's response was stay away from him. Therefore, he did not come to his father and I because if his teacher didn't think there was a problem then we wouldn't either right? WRONG!!!!!!!! He now realizes that just because one adult chooses to avoid a bad behaviour that does not mean all adult's will avoid it.

The subject matter sounds like pretty typical 7-year-old boy stuff, so unless it's a drastic change from what he's been drawing in the past, I wouldn't be concerned. I think it's great that you encourage him to tell you the stories behind the pictures ... I wish more parents would do that, whether their kids are ADD or not!

And I personally feel there is a strong link between creativity and ADD.

Your son sounds like a very cool kid!