Dealing with ADHD and Other Problems in Young Children?

A Worried Parent asks: "My 6yo daughter has been diagnosed with ADHD and is currently taking a certain stimulant whose name starts with R. I don't like it, but for the moment her happiness has improved, as opposed to when she's not medicated where she appears unhappy and frustrated with her inability to find her way in the world. She's sat through an IQ test, and the result was 147, which means she's better at doing IQ tests than 99.9% of 6 year olds. I wasn't that surprised but her teachers were, she's very clever but has difficulty following instructions - which is kind of a requirement in a classroom environment. If she's in a group of kids being given instructions she'll be looking at something else, playing with the grass, singing quietly to herself, etc. She'll suddenly become aware of all the kids wandering off to follow said instructions and then panic because she wasn't paying attention. In a group of people her attention just sort of switches off. I don't think this is something she can change. Any thoughts on how to help? Don't bother quoting the books on this one, i'm after first hand experiences. (i've read enough books :p)"

"Whatever the cause, she is quite different than most kids her age. I was much the same at her age and it was a pretty difficult way to grow up. I'd like to do what i can to make things easier for her.

Given that the Slashdot audience appears to mostly belong to the geekier end of the curve, is there any advice you can impart on parenting the geeky child... whether it comes from what did and didn't work for you as a kid, or what does and doesn't work for you as a parent of an obviously 'different' child.

Discipline is a bit of a problem but nothing that can't be handled. My biggest concern is that she'll grow up resenting her intelligence and being generally unhappy with who she is. The statistics are fairly clear on what happens to kids who grow up unhappy and with a low self esteem. Especially for a girl, in whom geekiness is seen as less socially acceptable.

Any advice?

Comments

Re:Doers it really exist?

[Chacham]

For a basic introduction, go to http://www.keirsey.com. He based his work on the MBTI. The MBTI is Meyers-Briggs Type Inventory. Their book, printed many years after the MBTI came out is Girsts Differing.

The rest of the letters are types. Each of the sixteen types has four letters. Keirsey groups them into four groups, with the SP being the energetic Artisan, and the NT being the scholarly Rational. The two introverted (hence "I") of the NTs are INTP and INTJ. INTP is the space cadet, or the absent minded professor. Albert Einstein was a classic INTP. INTJs, Keirsey's "Mastermind", are the rarest type (for women or overall, for men the rarest is INFP). Neils Bohr was an INTJ.

Re:Doers it really exist?

[elmegil]

I have a fair amount of sympathy for your perspective, and a few years ago, I probably would have said almost exactly the same thing (except I'm lucky enough that the mother of my son is not unstable).

However, I think there's a middle road. I have chronic depression issues. USUALLY they are manageable by willpower/behavior mod, but, in the winter, and under times of extra stress, those things do not suffice. After making my wife EXTREMELY miserable one season, we started investigating other means to deal with my issues (keep in mind that I think 99% of all shrinks are quacks who went to school to try and fix themselves, and I hate the idea of a drug that dulls my mind--my brother has a more severe version of my problems, and spent quite a long time on many "fine" drugs).

Turns out, if I get regular doses of vitamin B (standard stresstabs) and 5-HTP (a mood stablizing supplement) I only become unbearable every once in a great while. In the winder, a full spectrum light also helps a lot.

While I cannot absolutely rule out placebo effects, since a study of one individual is meaningless, I'm pretty convinced that there are brain chemical issues involving seratonin that do predispose you toward certain mood disorders. It is probably also useful to note that I also once experimented with Choline, a so-called "smart drug" that affects your seratonin levels, and ended up in one of the blackest, foulest depressions I've ever had, and ended almost as soon as I stopped the Choline--that can't really be written off to placebo effect, since I expected something quite the opposite.

I absolutely agree that the pharmaceutical companies are not in it for my best interests, and if they could, they'd sell us all the soma they could make. But that doesn't mean that all the science is junk. It just means that, like everyone else, they're using the facts and statistics to lie for their own benefit. The right stuff, in my opinion, is that serotonin is a key mood regulator. The wrong stuff is that we need their drugs to control it. There are means that don't dope you and don't cost a lot (diet, supplements, sunlight or equivalents) that are as effective if not more in all but the most extreme cases.