ADHD kids are being failed

my 13 year old has adhd diagnosed at age of 11 after 9 years of knowing somethin wasnt quite right ...im sick of the stigma attached to adhd...

sick of these kids bein labeled as naughty bad kids from broken disfuctional homes..

its not true ..these kids are lovin affectionate kids wiv a disabilty who find it hard to control there behaviour they are impulsive and at times hyperactive find it hard to grasp consequences of there own actions and difficulty in consentratin.... ..they do not enjoy being like this ..i am no expert in adhd all im sayin is ive lived wiv a child wiv it for 13 years an see the heartache my child goes through..with no outside help...i even think the so called specialists..are no help wats so eva all they want to do is dope these kids up wiv ritalin..which has large side affects and doesnt always work there isnt enough alternitive help out there....

school life is very difficult for a child with adhd..the do not qualify to be statemented ..whichs means they wud get more help...but someone high in authrotiy has decided these kids arnt worth the money...school teachers dnt always understand these kids they are too quick to judge although life at times with a adhd child is difficult an can disrupt a classroom in seconds these kids deserve a good education as much as any other child does with a disability does ..children with adhd have a brain defect....part of there brain which helps control behaviour and impulsiveness doesnt work properly and there concenration is affected by mixed msgs its like watchin 10 tvs all at once and not knowin which one to look at the longest....and these kids are being failed...the out look as it stands for a large number of kids with adhd isnt very good alot later in life turn to drugs an crime surely helpin these kids now will save the goverment money in the long run ???

im a very angry parent because my child id bein failed by the goverment..eg(hosp and education ) because the stigma says there just bad kids !!!!!

dee.xx

it's disgraceful. ADHD parents need much more support.

I would say that you are lucky, to get a diagnosis, though. When I was a child, with ADHD, 40-odd years ago, my parents had no diagnosis of my adhd, no support, nothing. ADHD were just "naughty" or "disruptive" children. It just wasn't diagnosed.

When I would not sleep, (which was most of the time) as a baby/ toddler, they went to the doctor with me about it.

What did the doctor do?

He gave my parents "knock-out-drops" for me, to drug me to sleep.

Now, I can perfectly understand my parents' desperation to get some sleep. It must've been torture for them. But to drug a one-year-old! Shocking!

Hi Dee,

I really feel for you going though all this .

Can i just ask you why you feel that your son wouldnt get a statement? If his condition is effecting his education you as his parent have every right to apply for a statement yourself.

Take a look here,

http://www.ipsea.org.uk/

Have you been intouch with parent partnership ? ive resently had a meeting with a lady from there and i have found her really helpful and supportive.

I hope this helps and if i can help any further just shout.

i was told by school that adhd children dont get statemented ???

i have been in touch wiv parent partnership ...an although they are very helpful

i just feel its a matter of time b4 a permenant exclusion is put forward ..there is no dispute that my daughters education suffers ..but still been told she wouldnt qualifiy for it

thanks ...dee..x

Hi there Dee

I know how you feel about the issues you raised.

It is disgraceful that the majority of ADHD kids are not eligible for statementing.

I have tried for a couple of years through school to get more help for my 9yr old son.

He was assesed by the educational pyschologist and they said he didn't qualify even though in the past 3 years his work/development has seriously gone down hill.

We went to parent's evening last week and was told they know he's got the potential but is only managing occasionally to get maybe 2 sums wrote down (not always worked out). On the other hand he can do a page + when he's at home and sometimes a higher level than he's doing at school.

Writing the title and a date is the norm in his english book. We went down the root of seeing if he could use the computer for writing as he seems to get more done by typing then writing but that can only happen every so often as the other chilldren were wanting to do theirs like that (which is explainable) and also it is not always available to use.

I feel like we keep hitting our heads against a brick wall so can't even imagine what my son's head is at when all he wants is that little time for someone to spend some more time explaining and working through what he's got to do.

The school has been very good in some of the areas regarding his problems. His teachers have listened and read up on the condition and tried working their own strategies but the SENCO is not much help at all.

It is really bugging especially now when the government is wanting children to stay on in education till they are 18 when at the moment I can't even see him passing SAT's never mind GCSE's or whatever they will be when he's old enough.

With the experts and medication. When he was diagnosed I was dead against him taking Ritalin as I saw the effects from a friends older son but was told by the school if he carried on like that we may have to exclude him for good. I finally decided to give it a try and yes it helped him calm down somewhat in school and stop him being so disruptive. I had lengthy discusssions with the specialists about the dosage as I didn't want him as a Zombie. He still has a personality!!! Finally they agreed that we started him on a low dose of Ritalin and take it from there. He only needed that low dosage to bring some improvement. I just kept saying to them all 'Are you on commision from Equasym?' which didn't go down too well.

He also suffers from ODD (Oppositional Defiancy Disorder) where up to know we have found no help for.

It would also be great if the media didn't portray ADHD as it does. e.g. one parent families, naughty, out of control, rude, swearing, violent There are so called 'normal' children who are worse than ADHD children.

Thats my rant and putting the world to rights for now.

Ang

x

i was told by school that adhd children dont get statemented ???

i have been in touch wiv parent partnership ...an although they are very helpful

i just feel its a matter of time b4 a permenant exclusion is put forward ..there is no dispute that my daughters education suffers ..but still been told she wouldnt qualifiy for it

thanks ...dee..x

There are no hard and fast rules about who qualifys for a statement or not, this why each case is assessed individually, It is better if you apply for it yourself rather than the school because if your daughter gets turned down for an assessment which is highly likely (i think that they do this to maybe scare you off at the first hurdle). you as her parent have the right to appeal, but if the school applys then they dont.

You need to write to the LEA asking for your daughter to be assessed. write to the Chief Education Officer at the LEA (his/her name can be obtained from the local council offices) and give them six weeks to reply. Mark that date on your calendar.

IPSEA are very good at the whole statementing process. There are model letters too on there you can use.

You are your daughter best - and only - advocate. No-one else is in a better position than you to fight for her special educational needs.

And the fact that you feel that school may permanently exclude her actually stands in her favour as it proves that the school are failing her. As she been excluded before ?? Have you thought about finding her another school (a more simpathetic one).

This website is probably worth a look to.

http://www.adders.org/

its a forum for people that are effected by ADHD.

I really hope it works out ok for you all, Good Luck XX

I think some teachers are better with ADHD than others. Probably what is needed most is more training for teachers. Statementing a child is quite difficult and isn't necessarily the best way. A child that is already finding it difficult to conform being divided off from the other children isn't always the best course. I know it's difficult for you but I don't think there is an easy answer. My son has driven me mad for years but I was determined I wasn't going to have him labled. I built up a reward system which is still in existence now he is at the end of Secondary schooling. Together with his schools we set objectives and rewarded him everytime he reached them with a token. The token is exchanged for money, a computer game he really wanted, or time on the computer. It's hard slog but it builds up a more positive view of himself because his good behaviour is getting the most behaviour not the worst.

As a parent you can ask for an assesment for a statement ,do so by contacting LEA special needs section. Yolanda from parent partnership is very imformative on such issues. Another way of finding out info is to join a support group ,I happen to know of one , The Ray of Hope is increasing in numbers and arranging more meetings . pm me for details.

hi dee, i know where you are coming from....

my son 11 now, was diagnosed at 4 yrs old. i noticed he wasn't achieving his social and fine motor skills. he has ADHD, Dyspraxia, Dyslexia and slight autism.

i put him through the Dore Programme, DDAT in Sheffield, cost £2,000 but as you can't put a price on health, then i think for us, not everyone, it was money well spent.

chris and i have had to fight school senco and teachers all the way though his schooling.

Rygate in Sheffield has been very supportive, but only able to do so much.

chris has now built up his self esteem and confidence so much through the programme at dore centre that he is able to interact with his peers without "standing out" like a sore thumb.

his school work however is a different matter. he has struggled with sequencing and hopefully the School Action Plus team will help him.

he takes 54mg of concerta, which for chris is his lifeline. he won't go anywhere if he isn't able to take his daily dose.

he ran out of meds at his dads, and went to school. 1 hour later i was being informed by the school that chris has done a 20 foot skid into a boy in drama and knocked him up in the air, he was ok, but they hadn't seen the impulsive behaviour before. 10 mins of "quiet time" and his meds put him back on track. i think now after this incident, the school realise the reality of his ADHD. they now, treat me with less contempt.

he is doing well in science, but struggles in english, but on a posative note, i focus on the things he does well and praise the not so well tasks.

i think schools are underfunded, understaffed, incompetent, unprepared or simple couldn't care less. there are a few that do care, and some who don't like being told that there attempts to teach him aren't working. some teachers will revise there methods, but some won't. it took months to get his homework reduced to enable him to cope better.

all i know is that my child is entitled to a suitable education, " a fair chance" with what the education system can provide, but as mothers with these hurdles in front of us, is what they get at school really enough? in my experience, No.

We see a lot of children with adhd, autism and other disabilities coming out of school to be home educated, because often it is a matter of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Schools often just cannot change their systems enough to accomodate these children.

They usually fit in well at the home ed group and tend to do much better at home, as with far more one to one parents can build up their self confidence which is often very damaged by the school environment.

The local home ed group is very welcoming to all children, whatever their abilities.

thanks hennypenny

who is the local home ed group???

how do i find out more?

what can they do?

Hi Gillybob

We are a group of parents in Sheffield who don't send our children to school, but instead retain the responsibility to educate our children ourselves. Every parent has the right to educate their child at home if they wish. There are about 200 families home educating in Sheffield.

You can find out more by looking at

http://www.education-otherwise.org which has all the legal details of how to remove your child from the school roll, if you decide to do so - it is as straight forward as writing a letter telling them to remove the childs name.

If you decided to take your child out of school and educate them at home then we would be able to offer support, friendship and access to various activities that we organise as a group. We would not be able to do the educating of your child for you though

We do not get funding from anywhere so it is all run and paid for by the parents themselves. Things are slowing down now ready for xmas, but usually there are various activities running such as drama, skating, swimming, computing group, climbing, music group etc, and we also meet as a group each week for fun and crafts.

I hope this helps, feel free to ask any more questions.