Rayne, you sound like a concerned parent, not a bad parent, to even be asking these questions.
Medication in relation to ADD/ADHD seems to have a stigma these days and people tend to act as if “everyone” is put on it thoughtlessly and without any real evaluation. This may be true in some instances but hopefully not when we are advocates both for ourselves and our own children. Medication is useful in the right context and when prescribed appropriately, then properly monitored. Many parents have already posted about the lengths they went to in order to assure that their child received the proper response for their issues. But this is not usually advertised in mainstream. Usually–and hopefully–medication is a last resort–not always needed. But sometimes it is and usually a pill is only one of many things a parent will do to help their child cope.
There are various nutritional changes that can be made and even mineral testing that might reveal a deficiency–such as zinc or magnesium which aid in brain function, specifically memory and reasoning. (Children with ADHD usually have levels of zinc that are less than half of their typical counterparts.) Of course, the primary intervention that should always be explored both before medication and afterwards is behavioral–setting appropriate expectations and an environment for success. A child who has difficulty organizing herself and her environment is easily overwhelmed and simple instructions seem insurmountable to them.
As for appropriate expectations, sometimes an evaluation is just needed to determine what all is going on with her body chemistry and how it is influencing her behavior and choices. An evaluation is merely information, it is not a sentence to do this, this or that. You are the parent!! Information is power, but you choose what to do with it.
She may have sensory issues that cause her to LITERALLY be unable to organize her body into doing the things that she is processing being told to do. There is such a thing as Childhood Sensory Integration Disorder (sometimes DSI for short). This can go alongside of ADHD or a whole variety of other disorders, or it can be independent of those things. It includes both hyperactive and hypoactive children. A child who is very active and frequently jumping or spinning or hanging upside down or needing deep pressure (asking for backrubs or preferring to lay with heavy blankets), a child who struggles to follow simple directions, a child with average to below par performance academically (not due to intelligence but usually performance) all have symptoms of possible DSI. Impulsive behavior, emotional outbursts that seem extreme–like crying over something which should not devastate them. These children may seem distracted or unable to focus or pull their thoughts together even in the midst of a seemingly simple environment. However, to the rest of us–we don’t notice the air conditioner running while we’re at the stove frying up dinner and the dishwasher is running and the clock is ticking. The child whose sensory system notices those things doesn’t even KNOW they’re noticing those things is even out of the ordinary–because they’ve always noticed them! But it creates chaos for them internally. There are plenty of interventions to help organize a body’s sensory system, the least of which would be medication.
Sometimes a creative child is extremely fascinated with a variety of “stuff” and has multitudes of collections and odd or interesting pieces of this or that which get saved for the next creative outlet. They may love their dolls and their stuffed animals and every picture they’ve ever drawn, as well as save each and every crayon or marker which might prove useful to them.
But, having all this “stuff” readily available and within their range of sight can be so exhausting to them. Cleaning it and organizing it is a job of hysterical proportions. As much as they might protest immediately, sometimes stripping their room to bare essentials helps them visually organize themselves and calm their sensitive systems. All these items are still available to them, but in a separate room or in organized crates which stay organized but are not visually available to them at all times–usually behind closed doors.
I did not have any of those events in my life to effect my development.
