A Reader's Viewpoint on Medication
From Catherine at A Week In the Life of a Redhead:
My son struggled in grade school and to keep this short I was told over and over BY TEACHERS that he should be drugged for ADD (the daydreaming type). I had him put through a battery of tests, but refused all suggestions of medication. Everything changed when he landed a GREAT teacher in 5th grade who got her teaching creds late in life after a career as a corporate trainer. Her class was geared to all learning types. My son made honor role. It was eventually discovered that he has an auditory processing problem, but with behavior modifications in the classroom he has flourished. He is now in junior high and doing great. His favorite classes are drama, where he gets to us that "daydreaming" imagination of his and is rewarded for it and PE where he gets to move (something many children need desperately). I am glad I listened to my gut, ignored the drugs and went for the more difficult parenting solution of modifying his environment and working with my son as he was.
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Comments
What you are trying to accomplish with this site is a wonderful thing. What really helped me early on with Brian was a special by PBS: Misunderstood Minds http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/intro.html
I had my son look at one of the classroom scenarios. He looked at me and said, "Mom, that is exactly what is is like for me." It broke my heart, because I had this window into his world at school and realized how brave he is - to face school every day when it appeared that way. From that moment on I made it my mission to help him understand his way of seeing the world and dealing with surviving in it. Please do not think that I judge parents who choose to drug their kids. It is their willingness to share their brave stories about medicating their child that helped me develop my own solutions for Brian. I do believe there are kids who benefit from drug therapy. I have Hashimotos disease and know what a difference the right thyroid medication has made in my life ... so who would I be to judge another parent for trying all therapies for their child? I just want those parents who choose not to do the drugs that it can turn out ok.
God bless your site - I hope it is a huge success. I have set up a link to you.
Catherine
Posted by: A Week In The life of A Redhead | January 15, 2008 11:34 PM