If You Think Your Child Has ADHD…

If you found your way here you are probably looking for answers to the burning question...does my child have ADHD? If you haven’t gotten a diagnosis yet you are not alone. Sometimes ADHD kids go undiagnosed for years until someone notices their behaviors, habits, and mannerisms and mentions it. It takes a trained eye to spot the symptoms sometimes because there are just as many cases that are misdiagnosed as there are ones accurately diagnosed’. The reason for this is because many of the symptoms of ADHD and similar conditions overlap and mimic each other.

 As a mother of 4 kids all of whom have ADHD, I can tell you that it is hereditary. If you have siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, or anyone blood -related with ADHD then it runs in your family. Also if you have one child with ADHD it is possible that any siblings they have later on may also have the disorder. That old saying “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” means that if you have a child with ADHD more than likely one of his parents has undiagnosed ADHD or ADD (though they don’t refer to it that way anymore). It’s funny when you can start to see some of your child’s traits in yourself.

 The best piece of advice I can give you as a parent is to stick to your guns. You know your child best and if you see a difference in them from children their same age and between siblings, you know when something is not adding up. Read and learn all you can about ADHD and if you believe your child has it then get him or her diagnosed as soon as possible. You will need to become your child’s advocate with doctors and teachers who will not listen or want to brush it off as them “just being a kid”. Yes, there are normal kid behaviors like not paying attention, having too much energy, and being disorganized. But these things come and go, they don’t remain constant with kids who don’t have ADHD.

 Kids with ADHD share some of the same symptoms but each child is different so they do not all display the same symptoms. Some include an excessive amount of energy, has trouble settling down, difficulty falling and staying asleep, low frustration tolerance, temper tantrums past the age when they should stop, impulsive, distractable, trouble focusing on more than one task, difficulty regulating their emotions, difficulty organizing tasks and materials, lacking motivation for tasks that are boring (chores, homework, etc.) hyperfocus on video games, television, and other stimulating activities. This is only a small list there are many more.

 Between my 4 kids, the two oldest are most like each other. Both have non-stop energy and can’t stand to be bored. They are the best workers in their jobs because they are fast and always moving. My daughter is more like me, quiet and reserved and a little slow to be motivated. She does tend to be more organized and accomplishes things on her own timeline.

 My littlest one is the most like me and probably why we butt heads a lot. He’s a sweet boy when he wants to be but has his days when he just doesn’t want to cooperate at all to anything I ask him to do. I know I’m going to have to endure a half hour or more of whining and crying when I tell him he needs to pick up his toys or clean his room. Neither one of us is very organized (you should see my desk) it’s an effort to get him to clean. It just goes to show how kids with the same disorder can show different symptoms.