Does anybody have an ADD child?

Exalted Shrimp

New member
My son has ADHD and I am looking for some ideas on handling this in HK. He is falling through the cracks education wise. I'm not able to pick up and go back to the states at this time. Kathy
 
Kathy

No I dont, but I have read about it a fair bit in the past. The medical community is sometimes criticised for being too quick to diagnose ADD. In some cases what is considered ADD ends up being pent up energy. I have read cases where parents have introduced more structured exercise regimes and the kids often settle down and/or become more focused when needed.

For what it's worth you might want to look into it.

Regards

Charles
 
Depending on the age of your child, you need to contact Matilda Child Development Centre or Watchdog. Both schools are on the Island and provide excellent care for children with a variety of special needs.
 
Thanks for the imput!

At the moment I am dealing with the education department:haha: :haha: If my son was mentally retarded or autistic he could go to a nice school with lot,s of resources. They dont have a category for him. I want him there where he can have the educational benefits he needs. He is behind his class and has been offered 1 hr a day at school if not on meds. He isn't because the one that he tried wasn't the right one. At some point he will be able to have 1 and a half hrs per day red cross training school in Tai Po. Only other offer inpatient care for 1 year in Tai Po hospital which is ridiculous considering he's not a danger to anyone. I'll keep fighting! Kathy
 
I know that autism is not the same as ADD, but you might try contacting Autism Partnership (located in Central), they have a unique approach to handklng children who have difficulty attending and offer home tuition as well.
 
You may wish to try getting some good advice from Glen Doman institute, www.iahp.org, in Philadelphia. They run courses for parents to home school their children. In their graduate course, they talk about how they use PHD (activity programs such as swimming, brachiating, crawling etc) to help ADD kids and some of them become "normal" after 6 months.
 
Hi Kathy,

I am a special needs teacher at Watchdog Early LEarning and Development Centre. Your son has to be below 5yrs of age to apply there and there is a long waiting list. However, he will get the necessary support there.

If he is over 5yrs, some ESF schools, Springboard at KIS, and many other international schools have support units. This is the international English medium curriculum.

There are also other specialists/services in HK. I have attached a compilation for you. Hope this helps. If you need any more information, please feel free to contact me.
 

Attachments

Learning Disorder

The followin is an excerpt taken from Glenn Doman's Website:

"Learning problems" is not a diagnosis but rather a description of a collection of symptoms that includes hyperactivity, reading problems, language problems, math problems, writing problems, behavior problems, and a host of other symptoms. These are all typical of brain-injured children.

There are more than 300 different labels that are commonly used to describe brain-injured children "dyslexia", "ADD" (Attention Deficit Disorder), are amongst these . The vast majority of these labels are not proper diagnoses but rather are descriptions of symptoms of brain injury.

A proper diagnosis describes where the injury exists in the brain, the degree of the injury to the brain, and the extent of the injury to the brain.

To be successful one must treat the brain, where the injury actually exists.

For full text and related articles please visit http://www.iahp.org/institutes_report/learning_problems/index.html
 
Kind of OT, but might be helpful

I had pretty severe ADHD as a child - basically had to sit at a special desk next to the teacher and was just allowed to do what I liked (mostly reading novels.....). They didn't have ritalin at the time and the most popular treatment was mild ECT (eeeek). My Mom opted to take me to a holistic MD who prescribed a wacky diet of

- no wheat
- no sugar (including fruit sugars) - could have high fiber fruit in moderation
- no dairy

I was on a strict form of the diet from age 11 to 14, then just ate those things in moderation. It made a HUGE difference in my mental and emotional state. I graduated third in my class (small class, but still much better than before the diet).

Have you considered a change in your son's diet? They've also done recent studies that show that LCP supplements can really help ADHD kids.

This looks like an interesting book

http://tinyurl.com/633sw

The Feingold diet (eliminates preservative and artificial colors from the diet, and has some popularity in the States

http://www.feingold.org/aboutus1.html

I can't help you with the school system, but I do know the pain of being behind and having teachers irritated with you/administrators just acting like they want you to leave.
 
Hi There,

I also have an ADHD son who attends the Australian International school Hong Kong they have very good recources if you can get your child in. Alternativley there is a new Australian Learning centre in North point that runs various programs and they advertise as catering for special needs. When I rang them about getting my child into a reading program they were able to offer one on one tuition at quite reasonable rates. The head teacher has had a lot of experience with ADHD and is primary qualified. Their website is www.koalakinder.com.hk

Hope this helps.
 
diet may help

Hi,

My brother was pretty severe ADHD up to about the age of 11 when my Mum took him to a naturopath who put him on a very strict diet and exercise regime, very similar to what's been described by Ozmaofoz. Within 6 months he was nearly at the top of his class and became totally addicted to swimming (good for getting rid of loads of excess energy!) He's 20 now and about to graduate from the uni of Georgia, and he just competed in his 2nd Olympic Games as a swimmer.

It's worth a try if you haven't gone down that road before.

Best of luck!
 
Apparently, ADHD can be neurological and can be cured. Pls visit www.iahp.org or The Family Hope Centre website. They have cured many ADHD children and even brain injured children.

Hope this helps.
 
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