ADD

I don’t have a child with ADD, but I do have a ds 11yo with mild autism.  For us, it is all about having structure and routines.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that we always do math first or that we always start at 9 a.m. on the dot, but there are certain things throughout the day that are well-established, so he knows what to expect.  For example, all 3 of my kids thoroughly enjoy our literature selections, so we always have a literature read-aloud at lunchtime.  Of course, then I don’t get to slowly savor lunch along with them, but I usually eat after them while they do a chore or two.

Also, it helps that my girls can work on independent work with little supervision now.  I try to get things ready the night before so they can just grab a copywork sheet or check what needs to be done in their file slot on my desk.  In fact, my 12yo dd likes to disappear into her room to read her assignments, away from the sometimes stressful situation of a special needs sibling.

Keeping with the short lessons that Charlotte Mason advocated works very well for my son.  In fact, his behavioral psychologist was very approving when I told her we were using CM methods this year.  I do have to keep close watch for signs or comments from ds that he is hungry or tired so we can take a break to tend to those things before he starts having a meltdown.  Having said that, some days are longer than others, and we all usually rejoice when Friday afternoon arrives!

Every so often, though, we have such a tough, out-of-sorts day that I just have to give us all an extended break.  Sometimes this means dropping everything and driving down into the park system for a lot of fresh air and river wading.  I no longer worry that this kind of school day will make them refuse to do much schoolwork on subsequent days.  I simply tell them, “Look–if you want to have pizza and watch a movie on Friday evening, we have to get thus-and-such done during the rest of this week.”  Or, “Since we didn’t get everything done yesterday, we have to work a little longer today or tomorrow so we don’t have to do school on Saturday.”  They seem to get it.  Plus, we can easily grab a book or two to take along out of doors.

Finally, what helps me a lot is talking about my son and our family’s situation with supportive homeschooling and church friends.  They know and love my children (and me!), so they will often tell me what a great job I’m doing as a mom.  I really need to hear that now and then.  They also tell my children that they are blessed to have such a great mom.  Now, I don’t always feel so great as a mom, but surrounding yourself with people who lift you up like that on occasion helps a lot.

HTH,

Sue

pangit,

Our dd has never been “formally” diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, and I would never want her to be. Nor will we ever give her medications to change her behavior. She is who she is because God created her that way, and He entrusted her to me for my own character development as well as hers. That said, I did quite a bit of research on natural ways to help alleviate some of the symptoms of ADD/ADHD such as hyperactivity, “the wiggles”, easily distracted, lack of focus and attention, and what I found was surprising.

There are many different websites pointing to what we eat and drink as major contributors to behavioral issues. Artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives like BHT and TBHQ are well-known for their effect on behavior, especially in children. So I thought, “I have nothing to lose. I might as well take this stuff out of her diet and see what happens.” I was amazed. Within a week, she was acting like a totally different child. Of course, she wasn’t able to sit still right away because she was only four years old then, but she wiggled less, needed less redirection, and overall there was just something positively different about her. It is also amazing and distressing to visit friends or family who will feed my children snacks and meals full of those off-limits ingredients. Both my children seem to transform from their usual sweet, even-tempered selves into crazy, off-the-wall, misbehaving monsters (tongue in cheek here). That tells me that those food additives are definitely the cause of a lot of behavioral issues, and removing them from the diet along with a lot of patience and gentle habit training will go a long way.

If you don’t already eat organically or naturally, I would encourage you to look at the chemicals you and your family might be ingesting. Pull some items out of your pantry or freezer and read the labels. Read labels while you’re grocery shopping, or just buy what’s already labeled “organic” to make it easier. 

A few things to watch out for:

• Artificial Colors: Red 40, Yellow No. 5, FD&C labeled colors (stands for food, drugs, and cosmetic…yes, manufacturers put the same coloring in our food as they do in our eye shadow and lipstick!)
• Artificial Flavors: Vanillan, any ingredient list that says “artificial flavors added”, 
• Artificial Sweeteners: Sucralose, Aspartame, Saccharin or their commercial names (Splenda, Sweet-n-Low, Nutrasweet, Equal)
• Preservatives: TBHQ, BHT, MSG (monosodium glutamate), and others

I’m not saying that changing your child’s diet will fix everything. I realize that this is real, and can be very difficult for the whole family, especially the mother who can’t seem to understand her child. I just know changing our diet helped tremendously. Now we just stick to a solid routine, stay consistent with discipline and habit training, and pray over our children every day.

Blessings,

Lindsey

Hi Pangit,

I agree with what Lindsey says about diet, it makes a huge difference.  My son has dyslexia as well as ADHD combined type.  He is very distractable and his concentration is very limited, although as he has gotten older it has improved… (he is almost 10 now).  There’s a very good book on diet related to ADD and various other issues, called Gut and Pyschology Syndrome (can’t remember the author off-hand sorry).  Anyway, having said that, we make it through the school day, by varying the subjects, keeping lessons short, using lots of manipulatives and having frequent small breaks.  Try to make your lessons active where you can…  And when the going gets tough, I just imagine what it would be like for him, if he was stuck in a classroom all day!

Hope that helps.

Lisa

If you want some more information, there is a book called “The ADD Answer”.  It is mostly about diet but also recomends good sleep and plenty of opertunity to burn energy. 

I have had similar feelings about my son.  He was diagnosed on the Autistic Spectrum (not classicaly autism or aspergers, but enough symptoms of each to diagnose) at 3 yrs.  I have begun to suspect ADD as well, but like you don’t really want to go through the testing.  In addition to the gluten and casen free diet we have been on since his diagnosis, we added sugar and food coloring (particularly red 40.) 

We don’t have much issues with school, but we are only doing kindergarten and it is only about an hour.  As I wrote that I recalled he does get extreamly fidgety when we do copywork.  He is tracing letters now and we just keep it really short and work on perfect execution.

Hope this helps a little.