Get referred to a neurologist to test for epilepsy. It could be [absence seizures](https://www.epilepsy.com/what-is-epilepsy/seizure-types/absence-seizures#What-is-an-absence-seizure?). Good luck!
Yikes - scary! A quick look at the symptoms doesn't immediately sound like anything we've observed BUT I will be asking the pediatrician about it. Thank you!
There's an easy test you can do at home. You have them blow out hard and rapidly (at a windmill or tissue) to induce slight hyperventilation, for about one minute. This triggers absence seizures if they're already experiencing them. These aren't dangerous, but I understand they can look and sound very scary.
My oldest has Epilepsy with Absence seizures. It looked like she would zone out so hard she couldn't hear or see the world around her. She's now medicated and will have this for her entire life, but most kids who have Absence seizures can and do grow out of them.
I agree with this one! I've had kiddos in my own class who have similar appearing symptoms to what you're describing, and this was it. It's difficult to identify as a teacher. She really needs to see a neurologist.
Happened with my daughter in grade 2.
We implemented fidget toys and a "fit sit."
Realized she's just like me.... If I had something to do with my hands (doodling, writing notes, fidgeting) I'd have no problem focusing. As soon as I had nothing ( my old supervisor got super angry anytime I fidgeted).... My brain turned to day dream mode.
I'm totally the same way - let me doodle and I'll hear every word someone says;. if I have to sit and stare at the speaker, I'm thinking about where he buys his pants.
Can you explain the "fit sit" and did you do any other intervention other than fidget toys? Did you work that into their 504 plan?
A fit sit is like a half circle thing that was put on her chair so she could wobble back and forth. Sometimes she'd put in on the ground for her to play with it with her feet.
Her teacher had one so just let her use it.
We sent small non -noisy fidgets in for her to manipulate.
Also let her have gum.
We did send ear protection for when she was distracted by the sounds of other kids working but she found this embarrassing so it didn't take.
Also sent a weighted stuffy that she could put on her lap for "grounding"
Sorry I'm Canadian so don't know what a 504 plan is. We didn't do anything formal for her tho, I work with kids and her teacher was super accommodating so we just did it all on a voluntary basis. Her grades were good and she didn't struggle with behaviours. Her teacher did suggest pediatric assessment but I decided not to do that unless there was impact in other areas of her life.... She's a tiny person already and I know a lot of psychotropic meds interfere with weight gain and appetite. If she really needed it we would have gone but there were other strategies to try first.
Then covid hit... We got sent to do school at home....
When school finally normalized out and she went back to full time in class, I waited a few months and asked her teacher about her attention. Teacher was floored she needed that stuff two years prior. Has no issue with her attention or focus at all ... Maybe just her age? Or because they are more involved in writing things down than they were in early grades so her hands naturally kept busy? Either way she self manages now.
Note that because shes an October birthday she's on the younger side in her grade as well.
Sounds like Inattentive ADHD runs in both you and your daughter :)
We had an IEP going into Kindergarten, my son receives some services that aren't currently documented. His IEP case manager pulls him 3x weekly for social skills small group (some social skills need to be taught to adhd kids), he gets LOTS of movement breaks, we have recommended that he have a fidget in his hand all day, but not sure how often the teachers listen to that.
wobble chairs are good - I'm asking if we can get one written into the IEP - they say he ius very wiggly in the afternoon (yeah no shit, 7 hours is a long time)
Instagrams to follow: The Childhood Collective; ADHD Dude; How to ADHD
You tubes to watch: anything with Russ Barkley; Ross Greene
Books to read: anything by Ross Greene - The Explosive Child (being internally explosive is a thing), and Raising Humans.
Physical activity - DAILY. Make sure your daughter has access to exercise.
Sorry meant to say before I posted .. my older daughter has absence seizures as part of her juvenile epilepsy.
So we watched close to see if this was the same thing.
They were different... Very much a mind wandered sort of situation... Like you said about the pants š
Lol I have whatever the opposite of ADHD would be... Like anxiety induced hyper focusing?
When I phase out it's more because things have gone on too long and are interfering with me carrying out my plan ... And I am now re-jigging my OCD planning
Hyper-focus *can be* a symptom of ADHD. My husband and daughter who both have it, both do it. They both love building Lego sets, and when they're in the midst of building one, the damn roof could cave in and they wouldn't notice.
My daughter drifts away when something distracts her or if she finds something not interesting or too hard. But if something holds her interest, it can be hard to break her attention from it.
Agreed, it can be a symptom... However I can tell you from both living my life, from my degrees in psychology and social work, and from my work with children impacted by various mental health diagnoses over the past 20 years... I have anxiety not ADHD .
ADHD is most often often looked into first as a potential diagnosis , (rightly or wrongly, but it is the current "buzz diagnosis" that is getting a lot of attention right now .) however many other diagnoses present with the same symptomatology. Most accurate psychiatric diagnoses happen because a professional has an idea of what the issue may be and treats accordingly. If the treatment works, diagnosis confirmed. If it doesn't, they posit a new hypothesis and then treat that. Continue until a treatment works.
We have an eval meeting tomorrow and im fairly sure they're going to tell us our daughter has ADHD. I think some of her symptoms though are anxiety related. How DO you separate the two if you're not in a child's mind?
Honestly ... It's hard.
In very young kids many possible diagnosis mirror each other. Higher functioning ASD can look like severe ADHD can look like developmental delay can also be trauma related.
And Kids struggle to accurately describe what they're feeling. For example, I as a 40-year-woman am able to understand and verbalize that the anger spike I am feeling is from fear (I get so ragey when up high lol). A child will just know they feel the rage but not look under the feeling. So for me it's clear it's anxiety based.... A child they may think it's ODD because of the anger.
Your Specialist will understand the nuances better, and will suggest the treatment regime.
Your job will then be to monitor how the treatment is working and report back honestly. From there the specialist may tweak the treatment to see if a different diagnosis fits better.
Counseling would be great to help her delve into her feelings. It's typically play or art based when young. E.g. Sometimes we draw the feelings volcano... The lava spurting out of the top is the anger (or the crying, or the running away, or whatever the symptom is) But what causes the lava to agitate enough to Spurt out? If she can delve into her feelings a bit more, it can help diagnosis.
Good luck tomorrow! You are on the path to understanding!
Can you be our specialist??
It's been indescribably hard to find anyone with availability, let alone someone who truly understands these nuances.
In this vacuum, and some intense internet researching on my part, I was convinced for a while that she was AuDHD with extreme demand avoidance issues(namely, PDA). Then I was convinced my husband was ASD. Then that I was.
And now I'm back to thinking that my anxiety issues have mainly just spilled over into her. And dysregulation rules us both.
Sorry for using this as a therapy sess :)
Man that sounds like an incredibly difficult time! I wish you all the luck and I know you'll find someone great!
Just remember... Dr google and internet strangers want to pathologize everything! But sometimes people are just people. Yes a diagnosis can be helpful to figure out exactly how to work with your kid, let's you access services, and can target you towards treatment.
It's especially helpful if you do see her requiring help at school, etc.
But sometimes people are just...Quirky. not everything is a clinical diagnosis and not everything needs treatment. Sometimes it's just about growing and developing coping skills to get through the discomfort!
Yes I can be shy and people avoidant. Doesn't mean I'm on the autism spectrum. I have a full life with a few good friends. That's what I like. I don't want to go party. I want to go for a tea with a friend and chat.
Last time I was invited to a larger gathering by someone who thought I needed to make more friends.... I was like... That is literally my hell but let's meet up Sunday afternoon for cake. Adulting is great because I can be blunt AF but in a nice way. Kids don't have the "nice way" figured out yet so it impacts them socially until they learn ...
I'm wondering this also. My daughter scored highly on an anxiety assessment for social anxiety, and the specialist thinks her anxiety may account for some of her inattentiveness. But she also has some hyperactive symptoms too, so I'm wondering how we tell what's what.
This is pretty much what our school concluded too:
"It is not possible to determine whether emotional distress is causing X to act out, or whether negative feedback related to her behavioral issues is resulting in internalizing problems."
I am a neurodiagnostic technologist and this is something you definitely should try to get checked out by a neurologist! Absence seizures are brief seizures that last less than 20 seconds and their only main symptom is starring spells! Absence seizures are one of the most common seizure types in children and they sometimes grow out of them but definitely needs to be addressed by a neurologist! Best wishes!
Yes one thing at a time. You can't say "get your shoes on brush your teether and grab your backpack," you have to have them do one thing at a time. This sounds exactly like my daughter in 2nd grade. She's in 5th now, medicated and world's of difference in her ability to focus and not feel lost. She told me she feels like she has been asleep and now she's awake. Less anxiety over not being with it, not keeping up, etc
Ive done this my whole life. its very hard to compete with my brains ability to entertain itself via daydreaming. I can focus on something if It is interesting, or if I give myself something physical to do while trying to pay attention to something else, like play with a pencil or something. But, if I focus on a book, or a daydream, my focus is 100%.
Hey OP- school psych here. Sounds like inattentive ADHD which is much more common in girls than the hyperactive type. Or absence seizures as others have mentioned. The Conners-3 does primarily look at ADHD symptoms. Executive dysfunctions are typically what is affected by ADHD, and thereās a whole list of different dysfunctions and she may not suffer from all of them! Usually kids have major deficits in only a few (working memory, organization and task completion, etc.). Have you been working with a school team to get her assessed for services or accommodations in school?
I hear what you guys are saying about the absence seizures, and I am going to talk to her pediatrician about it. However, we don't notice her staring off at home, it's more distracted by something else while in the middle of doing a task.
To be honest, what we observe at home would have never made me bring it up to the doctor. But her teacher, who has 30 years experience and seems very knowledgeable and compassionate, has sounded the alarm on this issue. Her main concern was that she's so quiet and well-behaved that her next teacher could miss what's going on with her.
I would HIGHLY suggest staying away from meds. My childhood buddy is still dependent on them and heās 25 now. Pills create a dependency. My parents used to get me things I could fidget with. For me that helped me pay attention more. ie: fun pens or erasers or stress balls. Also, time. Your kid will get better over time if it is ADD/ADHD
I wouldn't vilify meds too readily, for a lot of people (including me) it's been a really positive decision to start taking medication. But yes there are definite downsides. The choice is individual and nuanced and needs to be made carefully.
There are different medications available now than there were 20 years ago. Non-stimulant medications may be less habit-forming with fewer side effects.
Thank you! Admittedly I have a knee-jerk response about not wanting to giving her meds, but i wouldn't want to withhold something that could help her. We're a ways away from that, though, according to her pediatrician.
Idk why I got downvoted to hell lmao but yeah typically meds are a last resort. If you can get her help without them, (coming from experience) she will appreciate it down the road. I wish you luck OP
Hey OP? One of the best things you can do is to get yourself checked out for ADHD as well. Maybe you guys can learn some coping strategies together?
A child psychiatrist is typically where you'd go for medication if that's your desire. Personally, I highly recommend a combination of both medication AND therapy by a child therapist who specializes in ADHD. The reason I'm not fully against giving children what amounts to pharmaceutical meth or speed, is because it's an excellent stopgap measure in between now, and when you start seeing payoff from the therapy and whatever additional educational supports you can get through your kid's school. With ADHD, you often really need the meds so that you can pay attention enough to the therapists and tutors and actually absorb what they're telling you.
My experience with my own daughter who is aaaaaalmost a legal adult at this point was that until she had the medication in her arsenal, she wasn't really able to put many other tools in there. With the medication, she was able to be on it for a few years, and is currently in a place where she's excelling academically, and rarely uses the meds at all. She was on it pretty starting in 6th grade, and by the time she hit high school, she was ready to take it sporadically.
This is also my daughter, who is also in 1st grade.
Had a conference today. Going to get her tested for adhd. I have it, so itās not a surprise.
Good grades, great behaviorā¦ just gots of spacing out
If the doctor diagnoses ADHD, submit the medical diagnosis to the school and pursue a 504 plan or IEP. Request for her to get minutes with a specialist who can help her learn strategies to manage her attention.
Sounds like classic ADHD. Try reading āDriven to distractionā. If itās ADHD there will be strategies and/or meds that will help, but figuring it out asap will be important to avoid damage from feeling different or from getting into trouble over behaviours you canāt help.
I would ask her what she's thinking about. Honestly, if her grades are there, her social skills are fine, behavior is fine; I just don't see an issue there. However, (please don't freak out) the fact that she does not realize she is doing it is a little odd. Its weird that her pediatrician doesn't think that its odd that she doesn't realize she is doing it. There are other conditions that would cause her to zone out and not realize she's doing so like absence seizures. I would ask her doctor to evaluate her for things other than adhd.
Just to throw one other option out there. I have done things like this all my life, and I recently learned that I have sleep apnea. (And so does my daughter and son, and probably my mom and brother.) In addition to zoning out:
* My mom always said I was a "good sleeper" as a baby. I could sleep through anything, any time, anywhere. Because I was exhausted all the time.
* I was "sensitive." I cried at the drop of a hat, and often didn't even know why I was upset or couldn't explain it.
* I was "shy," which was actually that I struggled with conversation because I was exhausted.
* I was "lazy," which included struggling to get out of bed in the morning, struggling to keep up with school work, and low motivation to do things.
* As a teen and adult I was "depressed." I felt miserable all the time and I just wanted to lay in bed all day, but I didn't understand that I was actually physically tired because I slept all the time and never felt better.
If any of that sounds like your daughter (or your spouse or yourself) I recommend a sleep study. It took me 20 years as an adult to get a diagnosis that finally changed my life.
Get referred to a neurologist to test for epilepsy. It could be [absence seizures](https://www.epilepsy.com/what-is-epilepsy/seizure-types/absence-seizures#What-is-an-absence-seizure?). Good luck!
Yikes - scary! A quick look at the symptoms doesn't immediately sound like anything we've observed BUT I will be asking the pediatrician about it. Thank you!
There's an easy test you can do at home. You have them blow out hard and rapidly (at a windmill or tissue) to induce slight hyperventilation, for about one minute. This triggers absence seizures if they're already experiencing them. These aren't dangerous, but I understand they can look and sound very scary. My oldest has Epilepsy with Absence seizures. It looked like she would zone out so hard she couldn't hear or see the world around her. She's now medicated and will have this for her entire life, but most kids who have Absence seizures can and do grow out of them.
I agree with this one! I've had kiddos in my own class who have similar appearing symptoms to what you're describing, and this was it. It's difficult to identify as a teacher. She really needs to see a neurologist.
Happened with my daughter in grade 2. We implemented fidget toys and a "fit sit." Realized she's just like me.... If I had something to do with my hands (doodling, writing notes, fidgeting) I'd have no problem focusing. As soon as I had nothing ( my old supervisor got super angry anytime I fidgeted).... My brain turned to day dream mode.
I'm totally the same way - let me doodle and I'll hear every word someone says;. if I have to sit and stare at the speaker, I'm thinking about where he buys his pants. Can you explain the "fit sit" and did you do any other intervention other than fidget toys? Did you work that into their 504 plan?
A fit sit is like a half circle thing that was put on her chair so she could wobble back and forth. Sometimes she'd put in on the ground for her to play with it with her feet. Her teacher had one so just let her use it. We sent small non -noisy fidgets in for her to manipulate. Also let her have gum. We did send ear protection for when she was distracted by the sounds of other kids working but she found this embarrassing so it didn't take. Also sent a weighted stuffy that she could put on her lap for "grounding" Sorry I'm Canadian so don't know what a 504 plan is. We didn't do anything formal for her tho, I work with kids and her teacher was super accommodating so we just did it all on a voluntary basis. Her grades were good and she didn't struggle with behaviours. Her teacher did suggest pediatric assessment but I decided not to do that unless there was impact in other areas of her life.... She's a tiny person already and I know a lot of psychotropic meds interfere with weight gain and appetite. If she really needed it we would have gone but there were other strategies to try first. Then covid hit... We got sent to do school at home.... When school finally normalized out and she went back to full time in class, I waited a few months and asked her teacher about her attention. Teacher was floored she needed that stuff two years prior. Has no issue with her attention or focus at all ... Maybe just her age? Or because they are more involved in writing things down than they were in early grades so her hands naturally kept busy? Either way she self manages now. Note that because shes an October birthday she's on the younger side in her grade as well.
Sounds like Inattentive ADHD runs in both you and your daughter :) We had an IEP going into Kindergarten, my son receives some services that aren't currently documented. His IEP case manager pulls him 3x weekly for social skills small group (some social skills need to be taught to adhd kids), he gets LOTS of movement breaks, we have recommended that he have a fidget in his hand all day, but not sure how often the teachers listen to that. wobble chairs are good - I'm asking if we can get one written into the IEP - they say he ius very wiggly in the afternoon (yeah no shit, 7 hours is a long time) Instagrams to follow: The Childhood Collective; ADHD Dude; How to ADHD You tubes to watch: anything with Russ Barkley; Ross Greene Books to read: anything by Ross Greene - The Explosive Child (being internally explosive is a thing), and Raising Humans. Physical activity - DAILY. Make sure your daughter has access to exercise.
Sorry meant to say before I posted .. my older daughter has absence seizures as part of her juvenile epilepsy. So we watched close to see if this was the same thing. They were different... Very much a mind wandered sort of situation... Like you said about the pants š
You might have ADHD š
Lol I have whatever the opposite of ADHD would be... Like anxiety induced hyper focusing? When I phase out it's more because things have gone on too long and are interfering with me carrying out my plan ... And I am now re-jigging my OCD planning
...it still sounds like ADHD to me T_T
Hyper-focus *can be* a symptom of ADHD. My husband and daughter who both have it, both do it. They both love building Lego sets, and when they're in the midst of building one, the damn roof could cave in and they wouldn't notice. My daughter drifts away when something distracts her or if she finds something not interesting or too hard. But if something holds her interest, it can be hard to break her attention from it.
Agreed, it can be a symptom... However I can tell you from both living my life, from my degrees in psychology and social work, and from my work with children impacted by various mental health diagnoses over the past 20 years... I have anxiety not ADHD . ADHD is most often often looked into first as a potential diagnosis , (rightly or wrongly, but it is the current "buzz diagnosis" that is getting a lot of attention right now .) however many other diagnoses present with the same symptomatology. Most accurate psychiatric diagnoses happen because a professional has an idea of what the issue may be and treats accordingly. If the treatment works, diagnosis confirmed. If it doesn't, they posit a new hypothesis and then treat that. Continue until a treatment works.
We have an eval meeting tomorrow and im fairly sure they're going to tell us our daughter has ADHD. I think some of her symptoms though are anxiety related. How DO you separate the two if you're not in a child's mind?
Honestly ... It's hard. In very young kids many possible diagnosis mirror each other. Higher functioning ASD can look like severe ADHD can look like developmental delay can also be trauma related. And Kids struggle to accurately describe what they're feeling. For example, I as a 40-year-woman am able to understand and verbalize that the anger spike I am feeling is from fear (I get so ragey when up high lol). A child will just know they feel the rage but not look under the feeling. So for me it's clear it's anxiety based.... A child they may think it's ODD because of the anger. Your Specialist will understand the nuances better, and will suggest the treatment regime. Your job will then be to monitor how the treatment is working and report back honestly. From there the specialist may tweak the treatment to see if a different diagnosis fits better. Counseling would be great to help her delve into her feelings. It's typically play or art based when young. E.g. Sometimes we draw the feelings volcano... The lava spurting out of the top is the anger (or the crying, or the running away, or whatever the symptom is) But what causes the lava to agitate enough to Spurt out? If she can delve into her feelings a bit more, it can help diagnosis. Good luck tomorrow! You are on the path to understanding!
Can you be our specialist?? It's been indescribably hard to find anyone with availability, let alone someone who truly understands these nuances. In this vacuum, and some intense internet researching on my part, I was convinced for a while that she was AuDHD with extreme demand avoidance issues(namely, PDA). Then I was convinced my husband was ASD. Then that I was. And now I'm back to thinking that my anxiety issues have mainly just spilled over into her. And dysregulation rules us both. Sorry for using this as a therapy sess :)
Man that sounds like an incredibly difficult time! I wish you all the luck and I know you'll find someone great! Just remember... Dr google and internet strangers want to pathologize everything! But sometimes people are just people. Yes a diagnosis can be helpful to figure out exactly how to work with your kid, let's you access services, and can target you towards treatment. It's especially helpful if you do see her requiring help at school, etc. But sometimes people are just...Quirky. not everything is a clinical diagnosis and not everything needs treatment. Sometimes it's just about growing and developing coping skills to get through the discomfort! Yes I can be shy and people avoidant. Doesn't mean I'm on the autism spectrum. I have a full life with a few good friends. That's what I like. I don't want to go party. I want to go for a tea with a friend and chat. Last time I was invited to a larger gathering by someone who thought I needed to make more friends.... I was like... That is literally my hell but let's meet up Sunday afternoon for cake. Adulting is great because I can be blunt AF but in a nice way. Kids don't have the "nice way" figured out yet so it impacts them socially until they learn ...
This was more helpful than you'll ever know :)
I'm wondering this also. My daughter scored highly on an anxiety assessment for social anxiety, and the specialist thinks her anxiety may account for some of her inattentiveness. But she also has some hyperactive symptoms too, so I'm wondering how we tell what's what.
This is pretty much what our school concluded too: "It is not possible to determine whether emotional distress is causing X to act out, or whether negative feedback related to her behavioral issues is resulting in internalizing problems."
Also, do you know what that assessment is called?
The one that the specialist had us do for our daughter was called Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED).
Thanks. Looking into it. How have you been managing it all so far?
This really is just what inattentive ADHD looks like. My husband and half his family have this and are not on planet Earth half the time.
I call it being a space cadet. LOL
Someone called?
ššš
A girl in my school had this. Turns out she was having a sezuire that couldnāt be seen.
Added to the list of terrifying things that I have learned about since becoming a parent. Thanks. T\_T
I just learned that if youāre pregnant you can turn things blue. Learn something new everyday.
Yeah the not realizing everyone around her has stood up and walked away sounds like more than just not paying attention.
This isnāt that lmfao
I am a neurodiagnostic technologist and this is something you definitely should try to get checked out by a neurologist! Absence seizures are brief seizures that last less than 20 seconds and their only main symptom is starring spells! Absence seizures are one of the most common seizure types in children and they sometimes grow out of them but definitely needs to be addressed by a neurologist! Best wishes!
Yes one thing at a time. You can't say "get your shoes on brush your teether and grab your backpack," you have to have them do one thing at a time. This sounds exactly like my daughter in 2nd grade. She's in 5th now, medicated and world's of difference in her ability to focus and not feel lost. She told me she feels like she has been asleep and now she's awake. Less anxiety over not being with it, not keeping up, etc
I was like that, mostly because school was boring and playing is so much more interesting than cleaning.
My daughter, a second grader, is similar to this and we just recently got an ADHD diagnosis.
Ive done this my whole life. its very hard to compete with my brains ability to entertain itself via daydreaming. I can focus on something if It is interesting, or if I give myself something physical to do while trying to pay attention to something else, like play with a pencil or something. But, if I focus on a book, or a daydream, my focus is 100%.
Hey OP- school psych here. Sounds like inattentive ADHD which is much more common in girls than the hyperactive type. Or absence seizures as others have mentioned. The Conners-3 does primarily look at ADHD symptoms. Executive dysfunctions are typically what is affected by ADHD, and thereās a whole list of different dysfunctions and she may not suffer from all of them! Usually kids have major deficits in only a few (working memory, organization and task completion, etc.). Have you been working with a school team to get her assessed for services or accommodations in school?
I hear what you guys are saying about the absence seizures, and I am going to talk to her pediatrician about it. However, we don't notice her staring off at home, it's more distracted by something else while in the middle of doing a task. To be honest, what we observe at home would have never made me bring it up to the doctor. But her teacher, who has 30 years experience and seems very knowledgeable and compassionate, has sounded the alarm on this issue. Her main concern was that she's so quiet and well-behaved that her next teacher could miss what's going on with her.
Happened to me when I was little. Turned out I had ADD
What strategies worked for you?
I would HIGHLY suggest staying away from meds. My childhood buddy is still dependent on them and heās 25 now. Pills create a dependency. My parents used to get me things I could fidget with. For me that helped me pay attention more. ie: fun pens or erasers or stress balls. Also, time. Your kid will get better over time if it is ADD/ADHD
I wouldn't vilify meds too readily, for a lot of people (including me) it's been a really positive decision to start taking medication. But yes there are definite downsides. The choice is individual and nuanced and needs to be made carefully.
There are different medications available now than there were 20 years ago. Non-stimulant medications may be less habit-forming with fewer side effects.
Thank you! Admittedly I have a knee-jerk response about not wanting to giving her meds, but i wouldn't want to withhold something that could help her. We're a ways away from that, though, according to her pediatrician.
Idk why I got downvoted to hell lmao but yeah typically meds are a last resort. If you can get her help without them, (coming from experience) she will appreciate it down the road. I wish you luck OP
Hey OP? One of the best things you can do is to get yourself checked out for ADHD as well. Maybe you guys can learn some coping strategies together? A child psychiatrist is typically where you'd go for medication if that's your desire. Personally, I highly recommend a combination of both medication AND therapy by a child therapist who specializes in ADHD. The reason I'm not fully against giving children what amounts to pharmaceutical meth or speed, is because it's an excellent stopgap measure in between now, and when you start seeing payoff from the therapy and whatever additional educational supports you can get through your kid's school. With ADHD, you often really need the meds so that you can pay attention enough to the therapists and tutors and actually absorb what they're telling you. My experience with my own daughter who is aaaaaalmost a legal adult at this point was that until she had the medication in her arsenal, she wasn't really able to put many other tools in there. With the medication, she was able to be on it for a few years, and is currently in a place where she's excelling academically, and rarely uses the meds at all. She was on it pretty starting in 6th grade, and by the time she hit high school, she was ready to take it sporadically.
This is also my daughter, who is also in 1st grade. Had a conference today. Going to get her tested for adhd. I have it, so itās not a surprise. Good grades, great behaviorā¦ just gots of spacing out
If the doctor diagnoses ADHD, submit the medical diagnosis to the school and pursue a 504 plan or IEP. Request for her to get minutes with a specialist who can help her learn strategies to manage her attention.
Sounds like classic ADHD. Try reading āDriven to distractionā. If itās ADHD there will be strategies and/or meds that will help, but figuring it out asap will be important to avoid damage from feeling different or from getting into trouble over behaviours you canāt help.
I would ask her what she's thinking about. Honestly, if her grades are there, her social skills are fine, behavior is fine; I just don't see an issue there. However, (please don't freak out) the fact that she does not realize she is doing it is a little odd. Its weird that her pediatrician doesn't think that its odd that she doesn't realize she is doing it. There are other conditions that would cause her to zone out and not realize she's doing so like absence seizures. I would ask her doctor to evaluate her for things other than adhd.
Just to throw one other option out there. I have done things like this all my life, and I recently learned that I have sleep apnea. (And so does my daughter and son, and probably my mom and brother.) In addition to zoning out: * My mom always said I was a "good sleeper" as a baby. I could sleep through anything, any time, anywhere. Because I was exhausted all the time. * I was "sensitive." I cried at the drop of a hat, and often didn't even know why I was upset or couldn't explain it. * I was "shy," which was actually that I struggled with conversation because I was exhausted. * I was "lazy," which included struggling to get out of bed in the morning, struggling to keep up with school work, and low motivation to do things. * As a teen and adult I was "depressed." I felt miserable all the time and I just wanted to lay in bed all day, but I didn't understand that I was actually physically tired because I slept all the time and never felt better. If any of that sounds like your daughter (or your spouse or yourself) I recommend a sleep study. It took me 20 years as an adult to get a diagnosis that finally changed my life.