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(July 6, 2004) -- Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder has become a buzzword in education circles in recent years, but Lisa Smith says she remembers a time when that wasn’t the case. Several years ago, Smith’s son was in kindergarten and was constantly staring out the window. His teacher suspected ADHD, which carried more of a stigma back then because of the scant research.
The following year, Smith said she was contacted by the private school who told her that her son could not return to school unless he was medicated.
“It’s horrible,” said Smith, a local resident. “They had no medical background and they were accusing him of something he didn’t even have.” Smith’s son is older now and is having success at a local public school where she says his teachers don’t view ADHD as a disorder. Instead, they focus on keeping him challenged. Many parents these days rely on the opinions of others when they think their children might have Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. New studies suggest that parents are best able to evaluate their children’s behavior and chart their progress when undergoing treatment for ADHD.
A study conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics states that parents are just as objective when as teachers when observing behavioral changes in their children while undergoing treatment for ADHD. Experts agree that this suggests that parents know their children better than other adults. Parents need to start trusting themselves said Dr. Elizabeth Louie, medical director for the Center for Precious Minds, which evaluates children with learning difficulties. This includes noticing improvements during treatment and aiding in diagnosis.
“Not always, but frequently, parents are more objective observers than teachers,” Louie said.
Occasionally teachers have a tendency to think many behavioral problems are the result of ADHD when there may be other causes, she said. Then parents report the teacher’s findings to their pediatrician and sometimes that physician recommends prescription treatment immediately just to see if the problem gets better. These parents and physicians depend too much on reports of teachers alone.
“We need to make sure it’s not just one person’s opinion,” Louie said.
Donna Horvath, a local parent whose child was thought to have ADHD, said she had trouble listening to her instincts, which were telling her that her son Andrew, now 8, was not suffering from the disorder.
“When people tell you there’s something wrong with your child and you don’t see it, it’s torture,” she said. “I was always crying and frustrated.”
Horvath said that when Andrew’s kindergarten teacher told her about his wandering eyes, distracted air and hyperactivity she decided to try and work with her son before subjecting him to medication.
She said she took Andrew to see Louie at the Center for Precious Minds to have him evaluated after she noticed his trouble in school during the fall of last year. She found out that Andrew had more of an issue with handwriting, which made him want to skip out on doing work, than an inability to pay attention. Though he was hyperactive as well, he has matured some and will enter third grade in the fall.
“The parent needs to go with their gut instinct because no one knows your child better than you do,” Horvath said. Dr. Sasson Moulavi, a local doctor and director of the Siegal Medical Weight Management clinic in Boca Raton said he sees many children being treated for ADHD who also have dieting issues. Moulavi said that when prompted, most parents give thorough reports on their children’s behavior, diet and school work. “The parents know much more about the kid ultimately than the teacher,” he said. In a broader sense the study is suggesting that parents should be in a position to take control of their children and say, ‘I know what’s best for my kid,’ he said.
One good way to keep track of the changes in a child dealing with ADHD is to keep a log of their behavior as a consistent basis for comparison, Louie said. This means observing a child more than once performing the same activity. For example, observe a young child playing with blocks and see how long they can play with the blocks without getting distracted and compare those results.
Moulavi said more parents should turn to diet when looking for answers about their child’s behavior and many parents would see changes in their child’s hyperactivity just by not allowing their children sweets, junk food and caffeine.
“I’ve taken a lot of kids off medication [for ADHD] by doing that,” he said.
Longtime Boca Raton resident and organizer of informational seminars for parents of children with ADHD, Gerald (Jerry) Sherman said he has learned through running the seminars that the best results come from teamwork between parents and teachers.
“Parents have to take on responsibility, but they can’t do it alone,” Sherman said. The seminars run at least twice a year around the beginning and end of the school year and aim to keep parents up to date about ADHD and treatment options. Sherman said he would like to organize more frequent seminars to reach more parents, teachers and care takers, but sponsorship for the events is difficult to come by.
by Brenna Fisher
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