Has my boy got ADHD?? too early to tell at age 6?

[Hayley850]

My boy is 6 years old and i have suspected him of having ADHD from age 3, he has been to the docs and they said he is showing signs, but they are unsure at this time, is it too early to tell for sure, and how old where other ppls children who have ADHD when they got diagnosed? Thankyou

[Hayley850]

thankyou, i have now been told that the teachers also think my older son who is 8 may have ADD and has been overlooked due to my other sons ADHD, so i have to get him tested too now, as they are having problems in school, and my older son is 3 stages behind the rest of his class, i will be looking into it, the school have put things in place to help them both now
Thankyou for all ure advice

[specialmom]

Hayley, good luck.  Please look into sensory integration disorder and let me know if you have any questions at all.  

Please remain very optimistic and hopeful.  My son's diagnosis was the best thing that ever happened because it allowed me to find real ways to help him.  Having a plan and providing intervention can really change the course of things.  

Stay in touch and let us know how it goes.  Peace.

[Hayley850]

Thankyou very much, i spoke to my sons teacher yesterday and she said he is getting progressively worse, distracting other children with his behavious, cant sit still, wont do his work, even tho we know he can do it, she has asked me to go back to the pediatrician and ask for more help, thankyou for all ure kind advice and i shall look into this other disorder you described, thankyou again x

[specialmom]

Hi there.  I wanted to ask you to look one other thing up when you are investigating things for your son and that is sensory integration disorder.  This is a developmental delay like adhd/add that involves the nervous system.  They can look very similar to one another and have the same symptoms at times.  It is important to figure out which is which because they are treated differently.  My son has sensory integration disoder.   We do occupational therapy for it.

Things that my son exhibited at 3-----  impulse control issues, volatility, making unsafe choices, peer interaction issues, trouble with things like handwriting (avoided it), excessive energy, etc.  

A good web site to see what sensory is about is "sensory processing disorder" or "SPD".  It gives you a good overview.  

As your child is 6, you will now have school to as another testing ground and resource for your son.

I do wish you luck and glad you found med help to help with your questions.  peace.

[margypops]

I agree that any further questions about ADHD be addressed on that forum Sandman does give good  information...this has always been the child behavior forum and very recently has become a sids and a 2nd ADHD forum ..the purpose of this forum was simply child behavior and it does entail encouraging parents to believe their child has a disorder..

[Sandman2]

   The standard has always been that a child needs to exhibit the behaviors in two different settings.  Thus, until the child was in the public schools, they usually didn't get diagnosed.  Of course, that also depended on who was doing the diagnosing.  Pediatricians (as far as I can tell) usually followed these guidelines. A psychiatrist or psychologist who specializes in ADHD seemed to be able to find other ways to follow the standards.
    However, that all has just recently changed.  New standards are being released which allows diagnosis as young as 4.  The article about the new guidelines are here.
    http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/751596?src=nl_topic
  
   I would print this out and take it to your docs.  I have been monitoring the ADHD forum for quite a while now.  So if you have any specific questions, feel free to post over there.  Best wishes.