Conners 3 testing...possible ADHD? Please give me some feedback

[Mama_2_Boy]

My son will be 6 next month and the school has requested us to participate in the Conners 3 evaluation.  Has anyone else gone through this?

My son has always been very fidgety.  His focus lacks in things where he is disinterested.  We had a meeting with the school last week and she told us that sometimes he gets up from his seat, and jumps up and down on the spot.  Well I know this, he does it at home to.  He gets a burst of energy and needs to release it.  Anyways, they never said "ADHD" but they asked us to participate in an evaluation process and handed us a booklet to fill out.  It's called Conners 3 and I googled it and it is pretty clear that it is a tool to determine possible ADHD, or learning disability.  Our son is great at focusing on some things, like lego or x-box, or coloring.  There are also days when he does great in school and others when the teacher writes in his journal that he had a hard time holding his focus.  So what's next?  What can we expect?  My husband is adament that we will NOT resort to drug therapy.  Our son is learning by all means, he is just a little bit behind the other kids.  Are we expected to get him put on medication at some point just to keep him up to par with his peers?  I'm really scared right now.  Myself and my 3 silblings all had difficulty in school, but we managed quite well.  We are all very sucessful, two are engineers and 1 is a nurse and i'm a financial manager.  None of us had help in the 60's and 70's for our inability to focus.  Instead we were accused of not wanting to learn, trouble makers, that sort of thing.  Anyways, my DH said he would home school or DS before anything else.  Is there a support group somewhere on these boards for parents of ADHD kids?

Thanks for any feedback!

[Emmeline II]

It's strange that the brain is the one area of the body that many parents won't consider drug therapy for; at least if it is not literally a life and death situation. Somehow medicating for low levels of dopamine is often considered excessive or for parental convenience.

My son has ADHD and possible Asperger's. He was reading at a second grade level by K and both his K and 1st grade teachers recommended him for the gifted program (different schools), so having ADHD doesn't mean one is not intelligent or cannot learn. He can play with Legos, video games, drawing, anything that is interesting for him--infinitely. Ds had a lot of problems in K, but they went beyond simple inattentiveness and "ants-in-the-pants"; he is taking Concerta, which has made a big difference for him, and getting CBT. One day I forgot to give him his medication and his teacher, who had never known him without meds, said that she wondered what had happen as he was a different child that day. Meds were not the first thing we tried.

The school cannot demand that you medicate him. There are books that have advice on helping boys with ADHD without medication.

I would also get an outside evaluation and ultimately do a 504 to spell out what support he requires.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/ADHD-ADD/15872

Low dopamine receptor availability in these brain regions was significantly linked to poorer attention scores in ADHD, they reported in the Sept. 9 Journal of the American Medical Association.

"This could provide an explanation of why the attentional deficits in individuals with ADHD are most evident in tasks that are considered boring, repetitive, and uninteresting (i.e., tasks or assignments that are not intrinsically rewarding)," the researchers wrote.

 

The findings provide further support for interventions to make school and work tasks more interesting and salient as a way to improve performance, Volkow said.

Edited by Emmeline II - 11/10/10 at 5:12pm

[karne]

Your son is very young.  I wouldn't worry too much about doing the ratings scale.  If you think that the information would be helpful to you or your son, or would be part of seeking support or accomodations,t hen it might be worthwhile.  You can do a Connors scale with the school at any time.  It basically rates your experience of your child and the teachers complete a scale and the results are measured together.  It's a ratings tool, nothing more.

I have a child who is extremely smart, very wiggly, and has a specific sensory need.  Meds aren't on the table right now.  We have however, made consistent use of OT suggestions for the classroom, and we have a lovely and flexible group of teachers.  I also must say that I only rarely see boys in this age group who are not wiggly in school!  The piece that we watch is whether, or to what exten,t the behavior gets in the way of learning or social issues.  My feeling is that we will do everything we can to support school functioning w/out meds, but if they are necessary for my child's comfort and success in an arena he moves in every day (school), we will reevaluate.  

[anj_rn]

The Connors 3 is so named since 3 people do the eval (parent, teacher, doctor/psychiatrist).  It helps get a better picture of what is going on with your child.  It is used to diagnose, not to treat.  I do however firmly believe that a pediatric psychiatrist is the one who needs to eval a connors form.  Even if your child does have ADD, you do not have to treat with medication.  IMO ADD meds are over prescribed, but for the people who have true ADD, they are a life saver (my mom would divorce my dad if he stopped his ADD meds).

[columbusmomma]

When my DS was diagnosed his psychologist also did a TOVA test. This was reassuring to me b/c it is an objective test vs. a subjective test like the Connor's.

[beanma]

I'd have a psychologist eval instead of a psychiatrist. A psychiatrist is much more likely to want to push meds since they can write a scrip. A psychologist can do the eval and can recommend meds if they are warranted, but can't actually prescribe. It's kinda like an OB vs a Midwife, IMO.

That said, I firmly believe ADHD is very much overdiagnosed. In fact, I live in the state with the most cases of ADHD according to the CDC. Check out this map of the US:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/prevalence.html

How come there are so many fewer cases in the west and so many more in the east/south. Doesn't make much sense to me. I don't doubt that there are situations where meds can help, but I do think they are likely to be overprescribed so I would not jump to meds as a first line treatment at all. I don't think many moms on MDC would, either, but I think there are doctors and teachers out there who would!

[Linda on the move]

I think evals a good thing. I'd recommend doing the eval, and going in with a positive attitude about getting more information about how your son's brain works and what might be helpful to him. My DD (who is now 14) has had evals at different points in her life, has had a variety of labels (the big one now being Asperger's) and has never been on meds. The evals have given the adults in her life more information about her to help her be more successful and happy.

If you do eventually decide to homeschooling, understanding your child will help make that venture more successful.

There are a variety of accommodations that can be made for kids at school via a 504 Plan that can make school more manageable   for child whose brain in wired differently. Refusing to do an eval means that all those accommodations are denied your child. The teachers hands are tied and they can't do a thing to address the fact that your child is different and needs a slightly different education. Schools aren't like the used to be, and No Child Left Behind means that every classroom has less flexibility without a very solid paper trail for a child.

I'd also recommend looking into sensory issues, because the jumping up and down thing *could* be a sensory seeking behavior. The best book on this is "The Out of Sync Child" by Kranowitz. It's the like bible on sensory processing disorder, which can look like ADD in some children. The kind of professional to see if this seems to fit your child after reading the book is an Occupational Therapist.

My last thought is that meds are completely and totally the right thing for some kids, and denying a child a medication that could keep them from suffering is, IMHO, cruel. There aren't any meds that make children magically learn faster, so "keeping up with peers" isn't a reason for medication. There are, however, very valid reasons for children to be on a variety of medications, and for some parents, allowing their child to be on medication is truly putting what is best for their child above their own ego/philosophy/attachments.