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JOSEPH'S (Joe's) STORY

Joseph is a smart intelligent boy who is now in the sixth grade. He was diagnosed with ADHD in the middle of the fourth grade. He was not diagnosed by the school but instead by me his mom.

I knew there was something different about Joseph but didn't quite know what it was. He was having trouble making and keeping friends, he was more of a loner. I saw lots of bruises on Joseph and he would say he was just clumsy. Joseph loves to play outside, climbing trees and playing in the woods so I believed him. Joseph was falling behind on his school work to the point where his teacher would send home stacks of papers for him to do during the week end. I would go to a parent teacher meeting and they would say "Joseph is just not paying attention, I will be giving directions out and before I am done he has his hands up when I ask him what he wants he says he doesn't know what to do, I tell him to wait till I am done and he will know what to do. When I am done and I look around Joseph is the only one not working. When I ask him why he says he doesn't know what to do. He must pay more attention. He fidgets in his chair plays with pencils and blurts out things at inappropriate times". I heard this for over and over since the second grade. I would talk to Joey and I knew that he didn't want to be this way. The teachers got to the point of isolating him and putting him in the back of the class or outside of the class. Then they would send his work home for me to have him complete over the week end.

I am a stay at home mom and while cleaning and watching talk shows (yes cleaning and watching) I kept hearing about ADHD. I put two and two together and came up with four. I told my husband of what I suspected. My husband was afraid to label our son with any disability, and refused to hear it. Now it's the middle of fourth grade and I am at the point of tears for my son. I found out that Joseph had been labeled along time before this, he was the trouble maker, when being promoted to third grade his new teacher was told that Joey had a behavior problem and the way to handle him was to sit him in the back where he wouldn't disturb the class of send him out of the classroom. Yes he was a disturbance and the kids did get angry at him and would tell the teacher, the teacher would remove Joe. The kids saw that the teachers had run out of patience with Joe( kids pick up allot!!) the kids would be mad at him and pick on him. Some would gang up on him and kick him and push him into walls lockers etc. (That's where the bruises came from I found out later.

He was seeing a psychologist by now for about three months. We set up a meeting with 10 people from a committee to see if we could organize Joe (who is always misplacing everything) and at this meeting almost in tears I said" I know my son doesn't want to be this way, I think he has ADHD" Well all of a sudden it looked like light bulbs going off everywhere. The psychologist asked his teacher what she thought and she said "well you know what I think he does show signs of it". I had already made an appointment with his doctor and told them that she wanted an assessment from them. Well out of 10 signs of ADHD Joe showed 10. He was put on Cylert and his attention span got better. But that wasn't enough. He was still carrying the label of the bad kid and the kids still picked on him. But his grades got better.

The following year got harder many people have their own opinion about medication for ADHD or if ADHD really exists. His teacher would say is it really necessary for him to be on drugs, or they wouldn't understand it at all. They aren't trained as much as needed on ADHD. They have no knowledge of different things they can try to help these kids. He knew his times tables but when he would get a timed test he'd spend his time worrying about the time and couldn't complete his test. She didn't have knowledge that lots of kids with ADHD need to be refocused.( ex: when you give directions to a child with ADHD it is sometimes hard for them to know what's going on if this happens rather than repeat what you said alone, you should ask them to tell you what you said to make sure they understand and if they get distracted and stop working you should ask them again this way they remember what they are suppose to do).

Well we got through that year and now he is in sixth grade. Let me tell you it only got HARDER Joe is now switching class rooms with 5 different teachers, and he is in a school that combined 2 periods into one so he stays in one subject for 90 min.. No one knew about Joe's disability and I had to tell them all myself. We have been working with the school psychologist and have gotten some extra help for him. He now can go to the resource room and he doesn't have to take timed test and he gets a special ed teacher in some classrooms who redirects him and helps him. She has been around to the teachers with hints and advise on how to better help Joe. More to come...