Is 5 years old too early to haveyour child diagnosed?

Stephanie - posted on 07/12/2010

My 11 yr old son had the same problems at 5. We got a note or phone call from his kindergarten teacher every day, and she wasn't a new teacher.(She had at the time over 15 yrs teaching exp) We ended up getting him evaluated and started on medication near the end of the school year. I moved him to another school for 1st-5th grade,still on meds, and he thrived. He made the honor roll and was even placed in the gifted and talented program in 5th grade. I say talk to the teacher and maybe do pop checks on the class.Talk with your dr as well. If things don't get any better see about moving him to another class just don't give up on him. Good Luck.

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Jennifer - posted on 02/10/2010

my son was diagnosed in 1st grade and went on meds, years later we found out that doing it so early made him develope even more problems.

Cindy - posted on 02/01/2010

I forgot to mention that Shawn is on Dexedrine and boy does it help.

Cindy - posted on 02/01/2010

Hi Sandi, I`m a mother of 4 kids three girls and 1 boy. Shawn was three years of age when the Dr. had told me that he had ADHD. As you know there are good and bad days with it. But I found I had good and bad days with my girls when they were small.Now they are 20,18,10.Shawn is now going on 9 next month. We all know it`s not a easy task. 5 is not too young to be checked. Sandi to ease your mind you may have to get him checked. I wish there were groups around so we could get together with other parents and talk about this and Autism,etc .

Cynthia - posted on 01/28/2010

My grandson was suspcious of having adhd when he was only two years old. but they shared that they want to wait till they are at least five year olds before they start med.s but go ahead and get him into behaviour counseloring for as I did.

Holly - posted on 01/27/2010

My child actually just started to get diagonsied at five years old. I think once there start kindergarten and are forced to adapt to a world that requires them to sit still for a bit long then what they are caple of is the exact time to start researching the causes and things that can help. Your childs teacher can be a big help with this by personally writing a little to the dr that describes the behavior in the classrooom. I know this is exactly what it took for our dr to stand up and pay attention. I don't know why. I had known there was not something quite right for awhile....grr...good luck with everything!!

Jeannine - posted on 01/24/2010

i was 42 when i had my son. he came out screaming & never slowed down. went thru multi prek schools & experiences. our god-sent @ 3 was getting to a pediatrician who was willing to treat @ that age. she then referred us to a pedi-neurologist who turned life around for us. he also happened to be a behavior specialist. 2 books that i highly recommend that were like epiphanies for me were, dr. green's bk---the explosive, inflexible child & the bk--the out of sync child. both became like bibles for me. best of luck. i know so well what that label of bad kid or bad parents feels like. life will be better with maturity. just know you are not alone! getting a diagnosis was a huge weight off my shoulders. it affirmed that i'm not a bad parent w/a bad child. be your child's advocate & meet & educate your child's teachers @ every chance you get. play therapy & music therapy helps as well as occupational therapy. talk w/your md. my son is now in g&t school, doing 6th grade reading in 4th grade, runner up in his school spelling bee & nominated for an honor that the top 5% students get. this from the child who never slept thru the night until 2 1/2, was biting til age 5, and went thru 8 schools! hang in there momma!

Susie - posted on 01/21/2010

Of course not. It's never too soon to know there's a problem that can be resolved. As a mother of an adhd daughter, I should have seen the beginning signs a lot earlier. 5 month old babies don't scream from boredom, normally. But mine did. And by kindergarten was having those same problems and they just got worse until the third grade. That's when we finally got her tested. She was in the gifted program and those problems, except the defiance part, that she kept for home, were not tolerated any more. She passed her adhd test with flying colors! lol In the words of her life-long doctor. He put her on a low dose of medication and she felt like a whole new person.
When she didn't act up in class, her classmates asked her why? She said, "My doctor put me on the pill and I feel so much better now!" LOL!! Her teacher nearly split a gut. She's the one who told me.

Christina - posted on 01/21/2010

Get him help as soon as you can. I had my son tested thru the school last year he had just turned 4. It was the best thing I did for him. They didnt want to test him and when I took him in with me for a meeting with the principle they decided it would be a good idea. There was a team of people that observed him in his preschool and talked to his teacher at the time and they found he was adhd. They enrolled him into a special preschool this year to work with him, because I refused to put him on anything. We are now taking him to counsiling and working twards getting him on medication. He is really smart he was off the charts when the school tested him but like many couldn't sit still or blurted out things at inapropriate times. He still does that but I've seen things that he is getting held back on like learning what 123's look like or ABC's. He can count to 70+ and knows what #1 is by looking at it. He will be 5 and he has a vocabulary out of this world he corrects adults when they say something wrong. I just think that it is important to deal with it when they are young so they dont have problems. They can't help things they do and I've learned alot of people cant deal with the extra stress from these kids. I didnt want him labeled either. Good luck

Anna - posted on 01/19/2010

We knew when my daughter was 2 that she was probably ADHD (both of us are teachers). Had her diagnosed at 4.

Melia - posted on 12/20/2009

It is hard for people to understand an active child unless they experience it. The ped. doctor can give you a vanderbuilt questionarre. My daughter is adhd and on a patch which does helps. If she is not on it she always wiggling, jumping and running down the hall to her room. It is tough to know what to do. We did not want the school to do it to label her.

Nichole - posted on 12/14/2009

My daughter severina was diagnosed at age three and now gets disability bennifits. She was kicked out of 3 daycares and I lost my job. So, to aswer your question, it isn't easy, but possible.

Leila - posted on 12/02/2009

have you had hisr vision checked? I mean not your yearly eye exam - an eye exam with a Neuro-Developmental Optometrist. My daughter's school was hinting around that my daughter was possibly ADHD. Since I was a pediatric nurse and worked with a physician that did the testing for ADHD I really felt they were wrong. I searched for a possible answer - I found a simple "test. I covered up one eye and had the other eye follow a pencil while I moved it in a circular motion - her eye movements were really irratic. I then had her vision convergency tested and found that her eyes were not focusing and working together at all. We have since been in vision therapy for about 3/4 year and her attitude (crying during school) and reading ability have greatly improved. The doctor told me that a majority of children with "learning disabilities" and questionable ADD ADHD more than likely have a vision problem. Kids with this eye problem will respond with the "fight or flight" mode. Just a suggestion

Nicole - posted on 11/22/2009

My son was diagnosed at the age of 3! If you have any questions feel free to hit me up!

Christy - posted on 11/22/2009

My Nathaniel was diagnosed at 3 1/2 and Shawn at 4. So, I definately don't think 5 is to early if they are showing signs of adhd. But Shawn was diagnosed ADHD, ODD, CD, plus possible bipolar. And I have the same problems with school and behavior which doesn't happen at home.

Sandra - posted on 11/12/2009

Sandi~

I know exactly how you feel, but I would go and talk with the school and see if they have a social worker who can test him for signs of adhd or add. I have a 10 yr old how had the same problems in kindergarten and they wanted to hold him back, his teacher was new and I would not allow for that to happen so I went to his peditrician and had him check and they though he had it and has been on meds since april of 2005. Now my 5 yr old is showing small signs of adhd and I made his kindergarten teacher aware that his brother had it and if she could let me know. we are now going to get him checked by the councler. also if you do not want to do that you can seek outside help. But the school should be willing to help.

Jennifer - posted on 11/09/2009

My 5 year old was diagnoses with ADHD. The doctor said that it runs in the DNA and so if you have one child with it the chances are good that others will also. From what you say,.... he sounds just like my lil guy.

Heather - posted on 11/03/2009

My son began to show symptoms in preschool at age 4 and we started the process with our doctors office at that point. It was not until K was almost over that he received his labeling of an ADHD child. By first grade he began on Ritalin, which has definetly helped him a great deal. We tried other pills that made him depressed & quiet. For US the Ritalin has worked best. He is now in 4th. grade & takes meds 3X a day & has counceling in school. We are also testing him for a Bi-Polar disorder, as if having him 8 weeks early wasn't enough. If you can have good communication with both your Dr. & the school - you'll do fine at finding the answers you need. Best of luck

& Brightest Blessings, Heather

Dawn - posted on 09/23/2009

my son was the same way... and i thought that he was gonna be labled the bad kid and i wud cry bout near every time he came home w/a sad face on his folder...but his probs were at home as well so i asked his doc about it and he said he wanted to c how he did n school first b4 he wanted to try anything...so we went thru pre-k(he was 4 at the time) and it was pure H***...he was n trouble constantly...i mean dont get me wrong he did have his good days but those were very few and far between...so we had moved and then when i finally got them a new doc she said lets try the first 1/2 of kindergarden out and c how he does...so we did and once again it was pure H***...so we finally got him diagnosed w/ADHD and we started meds...we were on Vyvanse 30mg and for the first 2 wks he was like the perfect child a parent cud ever ask for...well it was like the very day after the 2wks is when i started to c him back to his normal self again and so we had to change to Adderall 10mg and that sure didnt wrk so we have had to bump it all the way up to 30 mg and still tryin to c if that is gonna wrk..he has also had to repeat kindergarden and is n speech therapy because of his ADHD i think...the repeat of kindergarden had to do alot w/his behavior and him not listening and the speech is cuz his lil brain was always runnin 90 miles to nothing that he didnt hear all the sounds...had him tested at school and they said that was just his age(he is 6 fixing to turn 7 n dec) and he will grow out of it...i knew something was different w/my child so i took it to my doc...and when we had our eval for speech his therapist said she couldnt believe that his school said that...so we go twice a week for 30 min...i know thats not alot but i can tell a big difference in him!!! the best thing that u can do is talk to ur doc aobut it and ask them for the behavior sheets...they will give u one and then they will give u one to give to the teacher...and then once u turn them in u will have to schedule an appointment just so u and ur doc can talk about the papers and then decide wut to do from there!!! i hope this helps u in any kinda way!!!

Rabecca - posted on 09/21/2009

I know yes maybe most of there issues do start after they start school my sons did as far as being rough and not invading personal space and sitting still well he just never really had to do that fo rany long peroid of time before he started school.

But Gods truth I knew he was ADHD by 6 months old he never slept and he was so wild not just normal happy baby but crazy funny and always on the go I had friends with kids the same age and he was way different then them .By two years old my son talked alot and very well no little word full on sentences and he even could throw some sarcasim at you lets just say he had and has a strong grasp on vocabulary when my friends kids were saying I no cookie my son was saying lady dont talk to me like a baby seriously!! Hes highly intellegent and a huge handfull by two it was really aparent to everyone not just me that he had some things he may need some help with in the future and by 5 hed mellowed down a bit but once he started school it was overwhelmingly so that he was ADHD hes great and more worjk than I thought ever possible but so worth it once we got all things in order as far as doctors therepy I can say in some ways his ADHD can be a benifit in the future even though at one time I would just break down with the why my kid thinking and you know they ar ehard to handle kids but strong independant thinking adults are not a bad thing they get ahead and dont let conventional ways of thinking stand in there way and alot of smart and genius people had ADHD

Lori - posted on 09/20/2009

My son was diagnosed at 4, just before starting school, as our pediatrician is a family friend. If he is unable to remain seated then definatly go to your Dr and ask for the behavior sheets to be filled out by both parents and teacher. As you have been thru this once, you dont want your son to be left behind, or have the other kids pick on him because he is always in trouble.

Martha - posted on 09/19/2009

It sounds to me like your son may have adhd, usually once they are in school is when the biggest problems come to light, and 5 is not to young to notice. The sooner you find something out the better for you , your son and his teacher. If he is having all the problems you listed in school he is also taking about from the other kids in his class. I would make an appointment with your doctor and the school should have a form for you to fill out as well as on for the teach as to behavior that you and she are observing (at least my kids school did) once you have this information then take it to your doctor. I think it is very important to have this because it allows the doctor not only to see what you are seeing but also some one who deals with him on a daily basis.

Martha