13 yr old Son ADD?/ what about tesitng accomodations?

[jym626]

sbmom-
I forgot to mention- when you use Ritalin, remember that your goal is to find the best dose, not the least dose. Many people try to keep the dose as low as possible and it ends up not being effective.

One *fun* exercise to see the efficacy of the med is to drag your son shopping with you, and go to both a store full of things he loves and things he could care less about. If the meds are having a benefit ( and if he is the impulsive or inattentive type), you shouldn't have to find him distracted by all the stuff in the fun store or totally irritible and impatient in the boring store.

Emeraldkity-
If your d. wasn't on a high dose of xanax, the tapering off of the meds should be pretty straightforward. If she was on a high dose (say over 3 mgs/day) you want to taper down slowly.

[mootmom]

Ritalin caused my younger S to become aggressive and antagonistic and we had to stop it immediately: it had a horrible effect on him. Adderall has worked quite well for him, however. It, too, is fairly fast out of the system (he does not take the extended type), from what I've understood. Have I been wrong about this?

[irishbird]

I have a relative who was diagnosed with ADD at age 4-5, I think, after extensive evaluations & testing by physicians, neuropsychologists, teachers. Anyway, has had meds for most of his life, starting with Ritalin and maybe moving to Adderal. Hasn't had any other accomodations for academics that I know of and is currently finishing first yr of high school with a solid group of courses - some Honors & some regular College Prep and good grades.
Eats like there is no tomorrow, is well-mannered, polite (most of the time), hard-working, likes to sleep late, torments his younger sibs, etc. Basically like a "normal" teen...you would probably never guess he is ADD and on meds.
So anyway, good luck in working with the various professionals and using support systems and meds to help your son reach his potential! It can be accomplished.