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Part 1 What do you notice?
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Horace
Horace lives in a blur of activity and noise. In nursery school, his constant running about didn't matter so much, but now he has to sit still longer in class, he is always getting into trouble for being ‘disruptive’. He talks incessantly at home and in class and is always interrupting, but it's never to the point. When he has friends round, he's the one being rowdy and making a racket; not that he has so many friends any more. The other children say he's nasty and doesn't stick to the rules properly when they play games. You can't let him go to the park on his own, either. He's always falling out of trees or roller-blading on the busy road.
His parents say:
• ‘He's like Tigger in Winnie the Pooh—always bouncing. We just don't know what to do with him.’
• ‘We should have guessed he'd be like this: it was like a Manchester United football match while I was carrying him.’
• ‘If he'd been our first, he would have been an only child.’
• ‘What wears us down most is his non-stop talking. We never get any peace.’
• ‘I tell him off for something and he goes and does the same thing again within two minutes.’
• ‘He becomes bored so easily.’
• ‘We have been through so many babysitters.’
His teachers say:
• ‘If he wasn't in my class, life would be so much easier—he causes me more stress than the rest of the class put together.’
• ‘He needs supergluing to sit still at school.’
• ‘Everybody laughs at him—the other children set him up to do naughty things, yet he seems to have no real friends.’
• ‘He is always calling out in class and often has his hand up, but rarely knows the answer.’
Horace says:
• ‘I wish I was asked to parties more and had more friends.’
• ‘It's all mum's fault.’
Horace has Hyperactive/Impulsive ADHD
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Ingrid
Ingrid lives in a dream world of her own. If you are talking to her she looks right through you or switches off halfway through, especially if she's bored by the subject. She never gets around to starting her homework, let alone finishing it. She always has an excuse or she gets distracted by something else. If you ask her to fetch things, you have to repeat yourself several times, and then she comes back with only one of the things. If it were up to her, she'd always be late for school and clubs. It's not that she doesn't want to go. She gets distracted and forgets the time. One day, she can concentrate, especially if she's interested, the next day, she loses her pencil case, forgets to pass on notes from school and takes hours to do one page of homework.
Her parents say:
• ‘It's as if the lights are on and no-one's there’
• ‘We repeatedly ask her the same question and get no reply’
• ‘She could not even look into my eyes long enough to say goodnight’
• ‘She never has any idea where she has left things’
Her teachers say:
• ‘She needs to put her mind to it and take notice of what is happening in class’
• ‘She knows the topic, but makes silly mistakes’
• ‘She seems to be drowsy during the day. Is she getting enough sleep?’
• ‘Please make sure Ingrid brings her sports kit to school. I have had to excuse her twice this week from games.’
• ‘She is a brilliant reader, but she can't be bothered to pick up a book because she can't concentrate.’
Ingrid says:
• ‘I know I am not concentrating but I just can't seem to help it.’
• ‘My friends tease me and say I am off with the fairies.’
• ‘The boys say ‘well you're only a girl, what does it matter?’’
Ingrid has Predominantly Inattentive ADHD
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Gilbert
Gilbert's parents had always known he was very bright and before he started school he could write his name, read books easily and understood a great deal of what was going on in the world. However, he never did well at school and whilst he could put his energy into sport and other activities, where he was clearly very confident, in the classroom he was average in some subjects and below average in others. Although his parents were very concerned, they were seen by the school as being over-anxious parents. His teachers found he could concentrate really well in some subjects, like Science and Information Technology, but in English, History and Geography, especially where he did not like the teachers, he did very badly indeed. He had difficulty in concentrating in those subjects but in other things he could over-focus.
His parents eventually transferred him to a private school with small class sizes and increased structure and support. Gilbert did very well for a while and was at the top of the year for the first two terms. However he gradually slipped back to his old ways and was in the lower part of the year.
An educational psychology assessment showed he had an IQ of 140, putting him in the top 1% of children for intelligence and thus of tremendous ability.
His Parents Say:
• ‘Gilbert has so much ability yet he is often switched off and not with us and does not seem to concentrate very well.’
• ‘He can concentrate on things like dinosaurs and computers and astronomy, which he remains interested in for hours and hours.’
• ‘He knows so much about certain things—if only he would put it into practice, especially at school, and use his...
