ADHD Awareness and Support

Here is my Long Story of Life with an ADHD Child:My name is Nikki. I am the mother of 2 gorgeous and very active boys. Nicholas will be 7 years old on August 31st and Noah is 2 years old. I taught at a school for students with dyslexia for 8 years. During those wonderful 8 years working with my students I encountered many neurological based disorders such as ADHD, Behavioral Disorders, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Autism, Central Auditory Processing Disorder and many more. While working at the school I became pregnant for Nicholas. The pregnancy was full of complications, an amnio was performed due to fear that he had Down's Syndrome (he didn't), I had gestational diabetes that required insulin twice a day (as well as the strict diabetic diet), and developed preeclampsia at 28 weeks and required bed-rest. He was delivered at 34 weeks via C-section due to concerns about my health. He weighed 6 lbs. and was 18 inches long. He was completely beautiful and healthy. At 4 weeks old he developed an ear infection, from that point on he had ear infections until he was 6 years old. He was treated for 43 ear infections and had 5 sets of ventilation tubes. Naturally due to all of the ear infections he had trouble hearing and aquiring language skills. He did not speak single words until the age of 2 and did not use complete sentences of 2-3 words until the age of 4. I brought him to be tested for early intervention through the school board at the age of 3 and they abruptly told me that I was being paranoid and he did not have a problem to worry about. I worked with him in hopes that my experience with working with language delayed children would make a difference. Early in Nicholas' life I questioned the possibility that he was also ADHD. These symptoms exploded at the age of 4. He could not pay attention to anything for longer than a few seconds, he was extremely hyper to the point that he would literally run in circles or up and down the hall for hours, he was not able to even sit to eat a meal, and had to be held down in my arms to calm down long enough to fall asleep. For those people that think that ADHD does not exist and it is a diagnosis conjured up by the medical community and the pharmaceutical companies to sell medications - you MUST NOT have ever experienced an ADHD child before! Nicholas went to Kindergarten at the age of 4 due to the cut-off for birthdays in Louisiana. He struggled during this time. The school tested him upon my request for a language based disorder - his scores were well in the deficient range (as of course I suspected for several years) and was diagnosed as having Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD). Auditory information was not processed correctly in the brain and therefore, he has trouble hearing sounds in words, following instructions, and difficulty with language based tasks such as reading. The school thought that 30 minutes of speech therapy once a week was the answer to this problem. Wrong! In the middle of his Kindergarten year and after many conferences with his teacher, I decided to have him tested for ADHD. And yes, his evals showed that he was ADHD combined type (hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattentiveness). Now, I neglected to tell you that I have a bachelors degree in psychology and certification in special education. I had been providing an environment for Nick that was built on behavior management and this just was not working! He was not learning in school, because of the ADHD behaviors he was hard to work with at home, he could not function in social situations (he was even too ADHD for sports - T-ball was a nightmare!) It was after many tears, lots of praying, and weighing the pros and the cons of putting my little son on medication I made the decision to put him on meds. I know some of you that are reading this are going to bash me for my decision, but I will tell you that it has been the best decision I have made for my child. I am not saying that medication is right for every child, but it was for my son. I believe that it is the parent's choice and should be respected. As a matter of fact before I had Nicholas I was against medicating children and NEVER pushed the issue as a teacher upon my student's parents. He is now able to focus and learn. He is able to participate in social activities, such as sports and hanging out with friends. Before the meds, children Nicholas' age would shy away from him and did not want to be his friend, although he was a very loving child. At the end of his Kindergarten year, he was just beginning to learn his alphabet. He was finally getting it! However, we noticed that his mathematical skills were not developing at all and he of course still was having problems with the CAPD issues. I took him to the psychologist for a full evaluation at this point. He was then diagnosed dyslexia (dyscalculia - math dyslexia). His 1st grade year I placed him at the private school that I had been teaching at for students with dyslexia. He developed math skills, phonics skills, and reading skills during that year. I have decided to homeschool him this year. My hopes are to have a place in which parents of children with ADHD can come and ask questions and share their stories.