Today is better.
I didn't go to bed as early as I should have, and I didn't wake up early to work out like I should have, but it's ok. I'm limiting the commitments for today, although I realized the stickers on our car are expired, so taking care of that got added to today's list.
One of my issues yesterday was really struggling with RG to get him to do some homework. He was in a bit of a procrastinating mood, saying he was "too tired" to do homework, but of course he wasn't too tired to run around the house with TK.
Have I mentioned before that RG has ADHD? I don't think I have. He does. I think we realized something wasn't quite right early, like when he was 3 or 4 years old. I was at home with TK and him when RG was about 3.5 until almost 4.5. It was a big struggle. There was a lot of defiance stuff going on at that age too, but there was something not right with being able to follow directions and listen, etc, etc. He went to 2 different preschools when he was 4 and both made comments of, "have you considered getting him tested/checked out?" When we got to a point, maybe age 5 ish, just before starting kindergarten, we took him to a neuropsychologist for some rigorous testing. He was too early for a diagnosis but a few things were off and signs were leading to ADHD. Kindergarten and half of 1st grade were a major struggle. Every report card showed him as "unable to focus", "does not complete his work", etc, etc. We finally took him back to the neuropsychologist at age 6.5, halfway through 1st grade, and he got the clear diagnosis.
Throughout the struggles of kindergarten and 1st grade, the teachers made exceptional effort to make accommodations for RG in the classroom: wearing noise cancelling headphones, sitting him away from the children who especially distract him, modifying his worksheets to provide him with shorter spurts of work, etc. His 1st grade teacher was wonderful in all the effort she put in. During 1st grade she worked closely with the school psychologist and social worker to observe him in class, take data on his attention span and the accommodations she was making. After we got the diagnosis and the data from the teacher (showing basically that with all accommodations, he could only stay on task for something like 5 minutes, where they were aiming for 12. 5 minutes was with near constant prompting), we had an appointment with RG's pediatrician. After looking at the data, she said "ok, I think it's time we try something else."
So we started the medication process.
There is such a stigma out there about medicating children, about medicating ADHD specifically, that I had a hard time when that was the clear path. Sure we could have tried more with homeopathic type, changing our diets, etc, but that's not me. Personally, I don't think RG's ADHD is caused by the red dye he gets in his processed food.
Back to the whole medication thing, I don't regret it at all.
We had about a month of trying out medications, changing dosages, but once we found the right one.... WOW. I've heard stories like this, but.... WOW. I worked closely with RG's teacher during this time since most of the medications last about 8 hours in your system. Thus, if we gave him his medicine in the morning, it would be mostly worn off by the time he got home. Once we got on the right one, she saw huge differences in his focus and attention in the classroom. And since then, school has been a complete turnaround. We've especially noticed it this year with a new teacher, new classroom dynamic, reading really clicked for him this year, and I'm now at home. I think all those things have really helped him.
Now I should also mentioned that we do play therapy as well for RG. We aren't really a "meds only" type of household.
RG's report card this year said things like "completes his work before he plays", "attentive", etc.
When the pediatrician first prescribed the medication, we talked in depth about whether or not we'd want to try and take him off the meds in the future. It's something we can continually revisit. Since the meds only last the 8 hours and don't accumulate in your system, you don't have to wean and you can quickly see results of either being on or off the meds. We don't always give him his meds on the weekends, partially because we forget, partially because it's nice to save them for school days, and partially because they are not without side effects. RG's meds give him a low appetite and make it harder to sleep. We combat the sleep problem with melatonin (also ok'ed by the pediatrician) and the appetite thing is often a struggle. When he doesn't take his meds though, we see the difference. And he doesn't do as well at school when he misses his meds. It doesn't happen very often, but we're working on trying to make sure it never happens. Yesterday, we forgot to give him his meds, and he ended up staying in for recess because he didn't finish his work during class. I'm sure if we had realized that we forgot to give him his meds and gave the teacher a heads up that he might be less attentive that day, she'd make an exception. But how was she supposed to know?
With RG's ADHD, homework feels like a big struggle a lot of times. This is really his first year with homework, which I love about his school, but it's been a transition. Luckily they make it as easy a transition as possible. He is supposed to aim for 8 or more stars per week. 20 minutes of reading = 1 star. Then there are lots of other activities they could do: spelling, math on the online math programs, sometimes they get an actual math assignment. RG does really well with the reading part of homework, and I think the highest he ever got was 16 stars in a week. Right now, I think we haven't been as good about having lots of book options in the house from the library, so TK and I remedied that this morning. See options below.
Now I really need to stop blogging and get on with my list for today. Too much to do, too little time.
No comments:
Post a Comment