The Road to ADHD

Since Brylie was a toddler we have questioned her being ADHD.  Her pediatrician pointed out a few of her personality qualities to be related to ADHD as well.  Some of them were her aggression, being hyper, her magnitude of meltdowns, struggling to fall asleep at night, and even the fact that she was a very colicky baby were all early warning signs that she would inherit ADHD from her daddy.

When it was first suggested to us that Brylie may have ADHD, her pediatrician informed us that she was really too young to be tested properly.  She told us that the reason Brylie struggled to go to sleep at night was because one of the side affects of ADHD is the inability for the body to calm itself.  Basically, ADHD makes the body struggle to produce proper amounts of melatonin.  So she put Brylie on a nightly dose of melatonin and to us it was a miracle drug.  Brylie was finally able to go to bed at a decent time without a power struggle.  Each visit thereafter, we re discussed the possibility that Brylie may be ADHD but her pediatrician urged us to wait until she started school before having her tested.

Brylie started Kindergarten an seemed to do better that expected behavior wise.  Her aggression subsided and thanks to the melatonin, we were still able to keep a good bedtime routine.  After moving, we noticed Brylie's meltdowns were becoming worse.  She could seriously loose it at the drop of a hat and it didn't take much of anything to bring her to tears.  We spoke with her new pediatrician who told us Brylie had all the signs of Emotional Sensitivity.  He also reminded us to be understanding to the fact that the move was a big change for her and that too could be setting her off.  We made it through Kindergarten without ever visiting the thought of her being ADHD and were hopeful we were in the clear.

Brylie made it into the gifted and talented class in first grade.  Her grades have remained all As (except in one area) and she really enjoys all the extras the class offers.   The only area she struggles with is her reading comprehension.  She has absolutely NO IDEA what she just finished reading.  She went from an A the first 9 weeks to a B the second in Reading.  Since her report card grades were good I could only relate to what I was noticing at home with homework.  Homework can be an absolute BATTLE.  Not because she refuses to do it, but because it takes forever to get through it.  Brylie seriously appears to be on another planet at times and it takes a miracle to keep her focused.

Not much to our surprise, her teacher scheduled a conference with us a few weeks ago.  Talk about an eye opener.  She told us Brylie struggles to stay on task.  (we knew this already)  She said even walking down the hall Brylie will stop and be staring off into space and have to be reminded to keep up.  She's third in line thanks to the alphabetical order so it's not like she at the end of the line.  Her teacher said that she can explain something to the whole class and ask Brylie if she's listening.  Brylie will literally jump as if she just snapped out of whatever world she was in.  Her teacher assured us her not listening had nothing to do with disrespect but because she really does struggle to stay focused.  Another problem Brylie has is her testing.  A lot of the testing done in the classroom is done one on one with the teacher while the other students work "quietly" on something else.  Brylie can be tested with a room full of working students and if one person gets up to sharpen a pencil, turn in a paper, or so much as coughs, Brylie is thrown completely off.  Her teacher has tested this theory numerous times by retesting Brylie when it's just the two of them in a class.  Brylie can go from making a 60 to a 100 on a test.  There were lots of other little things her teacher pointed out like Brylie not being able to sit in a chair, chewing on her hair, not being confident in her work, etc.  She also assured us that by no means did Brylie have any behavior issues.  By the end of the meeting her teacher, Mitchell, and I all agreed it was time to have Brylie tested for ADHD.

Her pediatrician immediately referred us to a child psychologist who we couldn't get into until March 20th.  The psychologist did send us a 150 question check sheet (one for home, one for school) so that we can begin to mark the behaviors we see with never, sometimes, often, and always.  Her teacher was great and sent it back to us the same day we gave it to her.  Between home and school, most all of our answers matched up.

So, now we wait to see the psychologist.  I'm really eager to see the improvement in Brylie.  Our biggest concern right now is that the GT testing begins March 1st.  Her teacher informed us that because the testing is done in the cafeteria with lots of restless testers, it will not be the ideal test situation for Brylie.  We are worried Brylie is not going to do well on the test.  Thankfully, her teacher has already opted for her to be tested individually.  We will see where this all leads after we see the psychologist.....