Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Matthew update

Well, it took until Tuesday, but I finally heard back from Matthew's therapist with results from teh ADHD evaluation forms. Surprisingly, none of them showed a high liklihood that he has ADHD. However, he still wants to do the Conner test because that is the most conclusive one apparently. So we are now in wait mode while he gets pre-approval from the insurance company.

In the mean-time, I have started putting some of the tips from the ADHD reading materials into practice. Even if it turns out that he does not have ADHD, some of the tips have already seemed to work. For example, rewards work much better than punishments for ADHD kids. I had been in the mode of taking away things like Wii and computer time, his Nintendo DS, MP3 player and such when he misbehaved. The therapist said it actually is a bad thing to take away things like Wii and the computer, because those are the things he really enjoys doing and CAN sit and do them for long stretches (unlike things that are "work" for him). So he recommended a reward system instead. Although we still need to hammer out the details of a formal reward system (probably tying allowance into it), I have seen a positive change just by NOT taking away the things he enjoys!

Also, he struggles so much with writing in school. I read that ADHD kids usually do much better when you let them use a keyboard. Yesterday after Matthew finished his math & reading homework, we were talking about the writing, and I asked if he'd like to use the computer to work on a story. He was all over that! He literally ran to the computer and began to work on a story. He worked until supper, then after supper until bath time. He never even ASKED for Wii time yesterday! Then he woke up this morning, and the first thing he said was "I want to work on my story!" And when he got home from school today, again with the story. The only problem now is tearing him away from working on his story so he can get his math and reading done. He promised to do those immediately after supper, and he knows he will need to follow through with that if he wants to work more on the story, or even have Wii time (which he hasn't even asked about yet today!)

So, while we wait on the ADHD issue, at least we're making some positive progress. It's a start!

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