So, its been a while simce I posted and there is a really valid excuse for that which I will expand on in my next post, but for now a recap and an update on Miss Freyja.
Freyja was probably about 4 when me and Lee kind of thought she was ADD. She had trouble listening and remembering things you'd ask her to do, yet her memory in other ways was amazing.
She was talking early and knew her alphabet and numbers up to 40 or so by the time she was 2. At 3 she could write letters and numbers (though occasionally she would write like she was mirror writing - funnily enough as a side note, Da Vinci did that and they say he was classic ADD!)
When she was 4 she started preschool and was already ahead of the kids, so we thought we would try to teach her to read at home and she seriously railed against it. She just wouldn't do it, even though we knew she could if she tried. She would always mess around in dance class and swimming class, never listening to the teacher, talking over people, interrupting constantly.
My parents said she was just like me as a kid and she'd grow out of it, but she didn't. (Turns out she was just like me and I'm ADD too! I told you I had a valid reason!)
At 5 we put her in French Immersion Kindergarten thinking that would help her as we thought maybe she was just bored in the preschool as she was so far ahead, but she struggled and hated it. I suggested to her teacher that she may be ADHD/ADD and she virtually laughed at me.
As soon as she moved to Grade 1 in the english school, she came on in leaps and bounds but always the same comment from her teacher, Freyja didn't finish her work, Freyja missed recess to finish something, Freyja is always the last to finish. At the Parent Teacher meeting at the end of the first term the same things were said again and I told the teacher that I thought Freyja may be ADD, she didn't laugh but said she wasn't sure. The following week we called and made an appointment with our family doctor and were refered.
She was diagnosed ADD just before the Easter vacation. She hated being different, but to me it was a relief. It was a relief to find out I was ADD too. It explains so much, and it also gives you a foundation to work from, rather than your child is lazy, your child is rude, your child is too rough with her classmates etc. I try to tell Freyja, ADHD is not a catchall excuse for everything, but knowing you have it reminds you that you have to watch what you do in certain situations so you don't do or say something wrong.
I felt very guilty for giving my daughter a label, but at the same time, ADD is also often a label for people labelled as gifted, imaginitive, independant, innovative, really, I can't wish she didn't have it, or I didn't have it. Its there and you either work with it or against it. Pretending it isn't there does not make it go away, it just makes you more and more frustrated with your own failings. I'm nearing 40 and I still remember my disappointment and frustration with every report card and teacher meeting - could do better, needs to concentrate.
Freyja is being treated, and after a glitch with the first medication Vyvanse, we switched to Concerta just as school was coming to an end in June. The difference has been amazing, at school and at home. There is less anger and arguement at home (though like all 7 year olds she still tries to push the rules and boundaries occasionally).
Last week we went in for her first parent teacher meeting with her brand new teacher, new to the school, no one had told her Freyja was ADD. Her description of Freyja, helpful, clever, ATTENTIVE, CONCENTRATES AND LISTENS WELL IN CLASS!!!!! We are working with her ADD, using meds and techniques to help, and she is already forging ahead, proud of herself because she is reading a chapter book by herself - in her own words, I am taking a long time as I read it slowly but I am reading it all by myself! A year ago she would have been raging, screaming, throwing the book in frustration at not being able to do it.
And there you go. I apologise for rambling...... I am ADD you know! :D
