Parenting Adventures in ADHD

I think it's been a while since I wrote about dealing with ADHD and Harrison. A huge part of that, HUGE was when we decided to put him on medication when he was in fourth grade. I know as I write that, that some of you are shaking your heads in disgust, but it wasn't a decision that we made lightly. It was a total game changer for him, in a great way.

There are still things that we have to deal with though. Things that I have to remind myself that are different for him, because of the way he processes things and the way he learns. Some of these are because he's a boy, but some of them are because of his ADHD.

To those of you who think ADHD is a made up condition to appease parents.....to you I would say, it's easy to say that until you have a child with ADHD. And believe me, when they honestly truly have it, there is a difference between them and kids that don't.

For example, in school, he really struggles with knowing what is important to write down and what isn't. Sometimes these are things that other students would just naturally pick up on, kind of like noticing social norms, but for someone like Harrison, they are really difficult.

He has an English class, and I kept wondering why he didn't know what assignments were due or what he was supposed to be writing on, or the specifics of the reports he was supposed to be doing. I knew, because his teacher emails everybody, but I wondered why Harrison didn't know. Was he reading in class? Zoning out? Folding origami? No. No. No.  So, what then? After having a lengthy conversation with Harrison one morning, I told him I wanted details on what he did during a typical English class. It was then, that he told me that he usually went to the restroom during the last part of the class.

Bingo.

It was so clear to me, once he said that. Of course he didn't know what the assignments were, or what his teacher expected, or when they were due! He wasn't in the room to hear it! Maybe I'm wrong on this, but I think most kids would pick up on the fact that they didn't know what was due because they had decided to leave the classroom at the wrong time. It doesn't occur to Harrison to notice that. I had to suggest it to him and tell him that the end of class is usually when teachers are talking about assignments, due dates, expectations, etc... now that he knows....well, we'll see if it makes a difference.