Jas said:
Eos...are you Albertan as well?
Although I'm sure you've heard of/tried this, but I've heard some of the best stuff for kids with any sort of ADHD-like symptoms is sports. I think individual (ie. karate, snowboarding) over team sports. I guess all the benefits (burning off energy, focus, self confidence, etc), are supposed to be even more pronounced. I think Universities and science centres offer all sorts of weekend/afterschool programs as well for gifted kids (I don't know if yours is or not, but it might help, on top of meds).
Yep, I'm Albertan. My son is in Army Cadets and doing okay so far. I guess a few kids with ADHD haven't lasted as long as he has. He also does physical activity constantly. Skating, tobagganing, shovelling walks for money. Not much in my city for anything else. We only have a college, and no science centers. We get more wooism than science aroud here (drives me nuts).
The kids is still exceedingly hyper and everything else, just toned down enough to help him relate to others. Not too good with team sports since he gets mad too easily. He also has double standards. He can break the rules but no one better try it
He's also hypersensitive to pain/noise/stimulation. He's better doing things without have to worry about a team.
The meds he takes causes some kids to get fat. Not him. He's scrawny and he eats me outta the house
If you look up ADHD symptoms associated with tourettes compared to ADHD in the real sense, you get different pictures. Ritalin makes my son even more hyper and freaky. It was easy to see that wasn't the real problem.
How many kids with ADHD see and smell things that aren't there?
He's also got paranoia. Very interesting. Most other kids have to get used to him before they can either be around him or just decide not to bother. He can be pretty oblivious to the feelings and emotions of other kids. He'll be quite self centered and bossy most of the time.
That's why it's so important not to think "possessed" and get to the root of the problem and help the kid. That way they get to live a fairly normal life. My son also gets a mentor once a week at school. His classes are more hands on. He gets gym class every day. The teachers are also so wonderful. They use just one word, and my son stops in his tracks and actually starts to think about what he's doing.
You see, he'll be darn convinced HIS dictionary is the only one in the world without the word he is looking for. He'll be ready to chuck it across the classroom (which he's done before with things like his pencil case), and his teacher is able to turn it completely around so that my son actually sees the humor in his reasoning.
Now if this was a priest trying to scare demons outta him, I could only imagine.
Army cadets is an experiment. It's going fairly well, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. He's gotten so much better the last few years when it comes to dealing with others.
