Tough times....

and we have seen little progress since my last update in July. In fairness, there have been quite a few upheavals for George and his routine has been disrupted on many occasions. Parents of ADHD children will know how important routine is. School holidays meant his routine changed and we always see a change in his behaviour when school breaks up. Our family holiday caused another routine change. Since returning from that, there hasn't been a month without some sort of disruption and there have also been family illnesses to deal with. Not a very settled period and I think this is why progress is so painfully slow.

In the middle of all that, we were able to go to the Kenilworth centre for a follow up assessment. We were delighted to get the appointment and I feel we got quite a lot from it. I explained the astounding improvements we saw, earlier in the year, and the rather disappointing fall back which followed. George's scores on the balance machine continue to improve, so we can see there are still improvements taking place. He was given an entirely new set of exercises, much harder than before. It's quite possible that the lack of progress had been because the previous exercises were far too easy. Since starting the harder ones, along with mental exercises with the ones he finds easy, he is trying harder to complete them to the best of his ability. He never ceases to amaze me with his incredible hard work. He still NEVER complains about doing these exercises. Occasionally he gets frustrated, if he can't quite get the co-ordination right, and this sometimes develops into a war of words between us. If I suggest that he doesn't do the exercise, he immediately calms down and he tells me that if he doesn't do the exercises he will never get better. He is totally committed to the programme.

There's been so much written about ADHD over the years, and I still get very cross when I come across statements such as "ADHD is just a label for a naughty child". Children with ADHD are not naughty. They recognise their problems and get frustrated because they cannot overcome them. Sadly, there are some badly behaved children who are just that. Badly behaved. Mis-diagnosis is a fact of life but it doesn't mean that ADHD does not exist. I see it in him every day. He still often refers to himself as "stupid" because he cannot control himself. I try hard to reassure him that this is not the case. He's not stupid, he's very bright. The suicidal feelings that he suffered from whilst he was on Ritalin, and before he started Dore (having not had Ritalin for 6 months) have not returned. The relief I feel cannot be put into words.

Recently the Government made a statement about treatment of ADHD and the use of Ritalin. Why did it take them so long? This information about the long term efficacy of Ritalin has been available for over a year. I would be interested to know how they are going to tackle this issue now. I'm guessing they will return to psychology. If they do, I will not be getting on board with that. Research using fMRI scans show that children with ADHD have smaller than normal cerebellums. Psychology is not going to change a physical/biological problem. I listened to a short debate on the radio, and got angrier as it went on. The Government say don't prescribe Ritalin until you've tried everything else. What is the "everything else?". Who knows.....?

Following on from that, the e-petition that was presented to Downing street asking that The Dore Programme be evaluated for consideration in the management of specific learning difficulties has been responded to.

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to take action to prevent the loss of the Dore programme which is proven to help children with learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD,enabling them to reach their full potential. We believe the programme should be made available to every child in the country that needs it.”

The most important part of the response is as follows:

"the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has recently asked Sir Jim Rose to make recommendations on the identification and teaching of children with dyslexia (some of whom also experience difficulties associated with dyspraxia). As part of developing his recommendations, Sir Jim will look at the methodologies which underpin approaches to overcoming dyslexia, including the DORE Programme."

So, on the face of it, good news for parents of children with Dyslexia.

Nothing, absolutely NOTHING good there for parents of children with ADHD.

If I could go back to when George was 7 and recently diagnosed, I would approach his difficulties in an entirely different way (knowing what I know now). It's not the same in all cases, but for us, drugs don't work in the long term. Psycho-babble is a waste of time and effort and can be soul-destroying as you repeatedly fail to make progress. It erodes your confidence in your abilities as a parent. The problems my child faces are caused by an underdeveloped part of his brain. I need to find a way to help him develop it fully. I still don't know it if will work, but The Dore Programme is all I have. The professionals have offered me nothing except Ritalin.

Finally, I want to bring up the Goverments famous statement of "every child matters".

Really?

Not from where I'm standing.