You know your child is ADHD when...

[techgrl]

when your six-year-old is barred from his own kindergarten graduation ceremony

[busyhermit]

I send him to his room to get dressed for bed. 10 minutes later, I check on him and he's only taken off his pants. After a warning, a few minutes later he's playing in his room buck-naked. I have to stand and watch him then to actually get him dressed.

[badcat]

ha ha ha ha ha!! i can't get over how magical this thread is!! ha ha!! i have been cracking up all morning!!
my son will design and illustrate an entire deck of pokemon cards in one sitting, but it takes an hour and a half and fourteen reminders for him to put his socks on in the morning!! plus, then they end up being the "wrong" socks (i have yet to find ADHD friendly socks) and we have to start all over. i remember countless episodes like those described above: all the contents of the fridge poured on the floor and "skated" in, EVERYTHING in our house "labelled" ("bukshelf", "t.v.", "frich"), and all my old books kidnapped and carefully arranged in towers on his bedroom floor. so much fun, so little time!!! ha ha ha!!

[xstarchildx]

He's tries to pinch a mini bus and cannot drive

[expatCanuck]

Originally Posted by busyhermit

My son really loves soccer, and loves playing. But when it's his group's turn to go on the field, his teammates jump up from the bench and go onto the field - leaving him sitting on the bench playing with his water bottle. The coach has to holler his name a couple of times to get his attention and get him out on the field. Then, of course, there are the moments that the ball is kicked directly to him, but he doesn't even see it coming because he's looking at something out in the crowd.

... Or ... Your 7-year-old son is dribbling the soccer ball up the field,
sees a schoolmate (on the opposing team) who moved away
the previous year, and stops short in his tracks & says "Hi, Lily!".

... Or ... You win the end-of-season soccer team award for most enthusiastic parent,
simply because you spent the season calling out to your son to keep him focused on the game.

- Richard
oldWithoutMoney.com

[expatCanuck]

Originally Posted by techgrl

when your six-year-old is barred from his own kindergarten graduation ceremony

Or your three-year-old is expelled from preschool art class because, while the other children are quietly painting away in their spots, your child is wandering hither & yon (occasionally trampling through his classmates' works), seeing what there is to see, doing what there is to do, with little regard for the teachers' task instructions.

[CantSitStill]

I really think you all must know my daughter!!!

You know your child is ADHD when:

She is almost 7 and still having to buy pull ups.

When she does decide to use the toilet she waits until the last possible second.

You are still keeping a potty chair downstairs because she doesn't give enough warning to get her all the way upstairs.

Half an hour before school she gets into her fathers model paints and paints her legs blue and orange.

She wears a new outfit once and after she is finished they are only good for playclothes.

She finds a squirt bottle of sunblock and entertains herself by squirting the entire bottle all over the bedroom.

Just about every wall in the house has some form of artwork, dirt or food smeared on it.

The furniture is used for climbing equipment and it is great fun to hang upside down off of the couch or lay across the top of it.

[Lunacie]

Originally Posted by CantSitStill

I really think you all must know my daughter!!!

You know your child is ADHD when:

She is almost 7 and still having to buy pull ups.

When she does decide to use the toilet she waits until the last possible second.

You are still keeping a potty chair downstairs because she doesn't give enough warning to get her all the way upstairs.

Half an hour before school she gets into her fathers model paints and paints her legs blue and orange.

She wears a new outfit once and after she is finished they are only good for playclothes.

She finds a squirt bottle of sunblock and entertains herself by squirting the entire bottle all over the bedroom.

Just about every wall in the house has some form of artwork, dirt or food smeared on it.

The furniture is used for climbing equipment and it is great fun to hang upside down off of the couch or lay across the top of it.

That sounds more like someone on the Autistic/Asperger's spectrum.

I loved having my head hang upside down over the furniture and imagining if the whole world was topsy-turvy.

[CantSitStill]

Originally Posted by Lunacie

That sounds more like someone on the Autistic/Asperger's spectrum.

I loved having my head hang upside down over the furniture and imagining if the whole world was topsy-turvy.

We actually had her assessed 3 years ago for autism and after seeing 4 different doctors during the process it was determined that she does have some tendencies but she was not on the spectrum.

She does have sensory integration disorder, however. She is what they call a sensory seeker. To her hanging off of things gives her that sensory rush she needs. She has zero fear and an extremely high pain tolerance. Not a good combination at all especially when paired up with the ADHD.

She was born 14 weeks early and alot of times the sensory and behaviour issues just come with the territory with little ones born that early.
Mostly due to their immature brains at birth, the change of bloodflow after birth and the environment in the NICU they are vulnerable to bleeds in their brains shortly after birth. The bleeds can be very mild, moderate with swelling of the ventricles in the brain or severe with the ventricle(s) bursting.

One thing all the docs were definite on was the ADHD and ODD. We can definitely tell the days where she didn't have her concerta because she is all over the place, fidgeting, non stop talking and can't stay with any one thing for longer than 5-10 minutes. So the meds are definitely working for her.

[kirataffy]

you know your child has ADHD when he puts his finger in the empty refridgerator light socket to see if it was ON!

Taffy

[PopSwatter]

...when you take them to Chucky Cheese and they have more fun playing with the soda machine than all the games

...when the teacher calls and tells you to come get your kid because he's gotten on her last nerve! immediately!!

...when you get home and Grandma's locked out her room, the ceilng fan string is somehow stuck in the fan, the top of the dresser is broken and on the floor, the window blinds are a mess, the dog food is not in the bowl, and the kid has decided to go outside on his own and get the mail, etc. etc. (can't leave kid alone with Grandma no more)

...the blank wide eyed, open outh stare, zoned out look when watching tv

...tht same look when caught doing the same naughtiness for the umpteenth time like "huh? why you mad??"

...the phrase "I don't know"

[brett lange2]

you know, when your 5 year old decides what dinner will be, he picks all the ingrediants out of the fridge and cupboards, he helps to mix it put it in the oven and between announcing that he's hungry and getting the table set he's in the back yard naked in the pool and saying that "i didn't know you were fixing dinner". and another is that two weeks into school your kids teacher has already started talking about expulsion for the sake of the other students.

[madderakka]

Originally Posted by brett lange2

you know, when your 5 year old decides what dinner will be, he picks all the ingrediants out of the fridge and cupboards, he helps to mix it put it in the oven and between announcing that he's hungry and getting the table set he's in the back yard naked in the pool and saying that "i didn't know you were fixing dinner". and another is that two weeks into school your kids teacher has already started talking about expulsion for the sake of the other students.

I thought my kid was the only one that stripped in the back yard. At least yours wasn't in the winter

[lollypop]

You know your child is ADHD when..........

She places a twin socket adapter in the microwave and switches it on to see what happens..

When she tries the same thing again a week later even though the previous attempt nearly caught the house on fire.

When she uses her chest of drawers with drawers pulled out in stages to climb up top and as she reachs the top the entire solid wood unit falls landing on top of her...... after 30 minutes of screaming and a clear red mark soon to be bruise across her middle she goes straight back and does it again!!

When she takes a tube of toothpaste and using a blob per picture turns the living room wall into an art gallery

When she takes out her dolly in the pushchair at 2am in the morning for a stroll across the local gold course with no fear of how dark or cold it actually is (she was 3 at the time)

When she takes a pair of scissors to her bed and cuts the mattress and base to peices, then tells you the scissors walked from the kitchen all on their own and went 'snip snip snip' on the bed

So many more but I'll save them for another day

[Lady Lark]

Oh yeah, the "art".

I discovered that Desitin removes the color from carpet, and that I hate the smell of baby powder in the vacuum.

See, we bolted the kid's furniture to the walls, cause we didn't trust him not to climb it. Apparently it took all the fun out of it cause he never did it.