Newbie looking for answers for an 8 yr old Son with Focusing issues
 

HELP! I have a beautiful, loving, very happy go lucky little fellow named Dominick. Heres the challenge. Academically he does very well. When it comes to his test he is for the most part an A- student. The challenge he has is that he can become distracted and according to the teacher he has difficulty getting back to task at hand. When he is on, he aces everything, but can become quite easily distracted. He tips his chair in class and likes to day dream. But he is at grade level in reading, math and all the other subjects. He is respectfully and socially does well as well. He is a happy go lucky kind of guy, quite popular as well. Teacher feels he has some attention/focusing issues. He sometimes gets up from his chair for no apparent reason. He raises his hands during discussions in class and his response has nothing to do with the topic being discussed at the time. At home, he has a good home life. He seems to well and healthy, except when he does not want to do something, he lets his emotions cloud his thinking and has a difficult time getting back to task. Example: he was doing a math word problem. He wanted to finish so that he can go spend time with his dad, so he got the answer wrong because he overlooked some details. I called him to task and to do it again, he was upset and cried a bit. When he finally realized that I would not allow him to go do what he wanted until he finished the math problem, he then got to task, completed it and then laughed realizing how simple it was. Unfortunately, in school, they work within time constraints and a math problem that should have taken him 3 - 5 minutes took him 20 minutes due to his feelings and coping with them. He does poorly on quizes just because he is not paying attention in class. But when he comes home and studies, he then does well on the tests and on projects. Any insight????????

Hello fparker and Welcome to NeuroTalk. My children are grown and on their own, so I'm not really qualified to give any advice here, BUT we have sooooo many members here w/small children who I'm sure will help.

Make yourself at home and take a look around..


Welcome again....:)

welcome. :hug:

how old is dominick? what type of foods does he eat?

i'm just full of questions huh?

i'm a mom of 4...and raising my grandson.

my youngest daughter is a right brain thinker. very creative...artistic...musical....and has a the attention spam of a knat if she eat simple carbs. same with my grandson who is 6.

the book carb addicted kids was a life and grade saver.

more on my best pal Dominick
 

Thank you for your prompt response, Dominick is 8 will be 9 on the 29th of this month. I have recently changed his diet based upon a book from Dr. Bob called Dr. Bob's Guide to stop ADHD in 18 days". We just started this week though.

you are on the right track. it takes time to get it all out of his system and learn new behaiver.

how he acts in school now is all he knows. he is used to not having the attention span. it will take some time for his body and mind to get used to sitting and consentrated for extened periods.

i still work on my grandson. he loves to set timers to study and read now. it's like a game. he add a minute every few days.

my daughter is 13. she does fine as long as she doesn't have music on or had snackls she shouldn't have. that is hard with a teenager.

my bundle of joy
 

Thank you so giving me some comfort. He has such a great spirit about himself. Am total against medication, which is what the school likes to do, and want to make sure that I am on track with a solution. I have changed my diet to coincide with his to keep it simple for him. Looking for recipe to make his eating fun. Any suggestion on a good gluten and sugar free bread and pancake mix?

i can see what i can find.

i try and just stay clear of pancakes and waffles. my little guy wouldn't eat them without syrup and i don't like all the artificial sweetners.

we eat only whole grain breads, but not very often. i'm not a big bread eater. the bread we have been eating has omega 3's with flax seed. that has been helping. ( the omega's)

breakfast is normally oatmeal ( the long cooking kind ) with some almonds and raisin on top. or i make eggs. mostly egg whites.

he likes chocolate soy milk. he does better on soy milk than cow.

one of our members, silverlady, recomends this site:
http://www.glutenevolution.com/

she buys a lot from them. the bread looks really good.

Hello fparker and welcome to NeuroTalk :)

What your sons school wants you to do for Dominick, well, it's not their choice - it's yours.

I understand you feelings about medicating your son but I would like to offer a different perspective....if you don't mind.

I would like to recommend you get your son evaluated by a Child Psychiatrist - you might find your son is not ADHD but this is just normal for him or he could just be bored. Not uncommon for alot of kids in school now a days.

If your son is ADHD there are other options - Ocupational Therapy (OT) can help children with ADHD (ADD). And of course the option you do not like - Medication.

Children with ADHD (ADD) are very smart and it's not uncommon for them to be up and doing things they are not supposed to do. Yet, if you ask them what has been discussed they can tell you.

The medications for ADHD allows these children to focus on what is going on and to be totally tuned in. The medications for ADHD (ADD) calms the childs mind and allows outside distractions to not be a distraction but the medication does not "hype" the child up nor does it make the child a zombie. Their thoughts are no longer scattered which happens with ADHD (ADD)

Children with ADHD (ADD) have a problem with impulse control. They tend to act or re-act before thinking about the consequences of those actions.

One big, warm, tight, hug, handshake and howdy, moose-size official type welcome to the site. This place is amazing!

Wow.
My heart goes out to you because my oldest boy, Gabriel (6), is having similiar problems. His teacher says he has trouble staying on track. Or 'changing gears', as I put it. They'll be reviewing a lesson in class and switch to the next subject and he has trouble adjusting and keeping up. He also displays a lot of emotion here at home but does well with his homework.

Gabriel was born 7 weeks early. I'm not sure if it's developmental issues or what, but I've put him in therapy. I need his mother (my ex) in there as well.:mad: She's just a worthless mommy. And by proxy; makes her a worthless human being.

Anyway, Dominic sounds sharp. The first thing that popped in my head was, "Has he had an IQ test"? He may be just too smart for the grade or classes he's in.;) Just a thought. Please keep us posted, because:

You are not alone.:)
You are one of us.:hug:
And we are here to help.:grouphug:

:hug: moose, is gabriel artistic? musical? sensitive? like quick to say...awww..when a cute puppy comes on tv..or fast to give hugs.

i ask because this is common with those who are. it takes teachers willing to work with them. more visual..animated. the lecture style of teaching can't hold their interest. it doesn't spark that isde of their brain.

my daughter can learn anything put to music. the old school house rock vidoes are a godsend.

i do agree with being too smart for the grade. they get bored.

my grandson is way ahead of his class. :wink: doing the hooked on phonics before he went into kindergarden helped. he was a wonderful teacher that knows how to keep him occupied.

I'll say that he can be, beautiful. There's some details I left out of the post earlier. I know part of it is his mother being preoccupied with her current boyfriend. She doesn't make either of our sons a priority. (Whereas I had dogtags made with both the boy's names and birthdays on them. They are always around my neck, because my sons are who I fight for now).:cool::mad::D

By putting him into therapy I hope we, (yes, me and him) can find a real solution to it.

The jury is still out on his teacher. :o She's supposed to be top notch. Winning all sorts of awards and what have you. I don't specifically care for her. Not real big on positive re-inforcement. (At least where I stand she isn't. I'm all about pushing the positive. And have plans of becoming a teacher myself one day).

But enough about me... fparker and Dominick need us. :)

Hi, and welcome to the group.
 

I can relate in a way to what you are saying. My youngest Grandson is 13 and in the 7th grade. He has always been just like you described your son to be. We thought he might be ADHD at one time but as he got older he has learned to settle down more in class. He keeps his grades up to stay in sports. He's in wrestling now. He weighs 95 lbs and won all 5 of his matches so far. He will go into soccer next, then football, then basketball so he keeps busy that wear and it wears him down some.

With him, at times I have him to sit down and look me in the face so he will listen to what I am saying. It's very hard to keep his attention or get him to answer a person at times.

He is very popular. He has been the Class president for the past 3 years and good at art.

I am thinking as your son gets older he may become more focused like Devin has. As I said, I still have to turn him to look at me at times to get an answer out of him. He use to act up in class also. He was known as the class clown.

Hopefully they will find out what is going on with him soon.

Ada

i have an 8 yr old son same EXACT PROBLEM! my first thought is adhd... the meds such as ridalin, however you spell that, its scary so we try to cope w/out. Watching him closely for worsening signs. but i've found that w/ distraction getting him back on task is not as simple as just remiding him but most times is as simple as touching him i.e. on the arm or knee when talking and making him look at me if i remind him that he needs to stay focused and that he fell off track he seem to do very well at picking up where he left off. i have also told his teacher about it and the one he has now seems to be a match but we have switched teachs over the years. look for smaller class sizes even if its only 1-2 kids less and request is dsk be in the front row close to the teach, less distraction. w/ small quizes we have him open a empty plain folder and stand it on the side of his desk to block out the other kids. bi tests like taks or s.a.t. type tests we have spoke to the counselor and principal about him testing in their office som schools have a class designed just for kids and those tests usually only 3-4 kids per rm. hope that was helpful . would be glad to help further but im new and dont know how to tell you to find me i'm desiree3 if you can figure it out . Good luck