Missives from mom

[mattblakk]

My mom is packing up their house to make the move to the smaller condo in Florida to begin their retirement.
I now know why she's been so emotional every time I've talked to her while she was packing up the house. I am now in posession of my junior high yearbooks, my baby book, summer camp year books, and my school records book that she kept for me.

After reading my evaluations from elementary school, I can officially say I'm shocked as to why I was never diagnosed with ADD. Comments abound like, "She is a very bright little girl but is careless in her written work." or about how I'm very bright but spend too much time chatting during group activities and no time working and I'm distractable or something. heh.

The thing that was most amaing was a couple letters from my mom's mom. One after she found out I was born, and one a reply to a letter I'd written her. Logan and I both got all misty eyed reading them. Maybe I'll post them later.

I'm off to take the physics exam. Think good, focused, no algebra or calculator mistakes thoughts for me.

Comments

[eriktrips.livejournal.com]

this might amuse you: reading "she is a very bright little girl" startled me for just a moment.

[super-robby.livejournal.com]

I ALWAYS got "Robert is very intelligent but doesn't apply himself to his work."
I was diagnosed with major ADHD on my 38th birthday. Every book I've read looks like my memoirs.
Even though ADD has been known about for nearly a hundred years, when you and I were in school (I'm 11 years older) it just wasn't on the teachers' radar. I think some of it has to do with their generation, some growing up during the depression or WWII and the "work hard and you can do it" attitude that was applied to everything and anything.
Robby

[rarkrarkrark.livejournal.com]

Some of it's the age -- how long ago you were in school

I've read through my school records and had very similar thoughts. Certainly, if I was in school in the places I've lived as an adult (judged largely by what I hear happens to my friends' kids and their friends) there's no way I would have gotten through school without getting tested. At a minimum they would have picked up that I was LD. They *probably* would figure out I was on the autistic spectrum, esspecially if they had gotten me when I was younger (by the time I hit 12 or so I had gotten really savvy at hiding the 'real problems').

(Whether my parents knew, or what they knew, is under contention)

As it was, all they saw was a bright kid who was either 'too snobby' or 'too shy' to deal with the other kids, who was clearly lazy, who spent all their time 'day dreaming' and woudln't put the effort in to learn basic stuff like handwriting (actually, I was practicing 1-3 hours/day for much of my time in later elementary school. It just wasn't *helping*...though I don't think the teachers ever really believed me or my parents on that little fact) and, well, woudln't apply herself.

Bummer. And you've got about ten years on me, so they were even less inclined to be looking for it then.

I don't know, I have very mixed feelings on the increase in diagnosis in schools. Certainly, some of it is diagnosing kids whose problems are environmental and possibly some kids who are simply high spirited/otherwise difficult in an institutional (and schools *are* institutions) setting. And that does need to stop. But I know that a lot of the 'new' diagnoses are kids who really do have issues. And I know that my childhood was hellish in part because I couldn't figure out why things that came naturally to other humans just didn't work with me, and knowing that i was autistic would have helped this immensely. At the same time, I doubt that my education was worse for it, and I think I probably came out of the situation better for *not* being treated as autistic. I made it to 17.5 before being drugged (and then it was for 'psychosis' brought on because I 'wouldn't accept i was a girl', even the mental hospital didn't catch the autism at that point, though given their diagnosis I'm not sure they were really looking for anything real anyway :) ), so while the meds did take a chunk of my brain, at least I knew what chunk it was and at least I was old enough to deal with it by myself. At least I was never put into a class for 'slow' children despite being very intelligent, just unable to keep up with spoken language and social interaction (this happens to autistic children with some frequency -- as if somehow not teaching them the academics they are good at will somehow help the parts of life they aren't good at).

There are huge differences between "The things that could be done to help an autistic child in school and life" and "The things that would have been done had I actually been diagnosed".

I suppose the situation is a little less bleak for those with add/adhd (one of the many misdiagnoses I got in my early adulthood).

[luckykid13.livejournal.com]

"After reading my evaluations from elementary school, I can officially say I'm shocked as to why I was never diagnosed with ADD."
I'm a couple of years younger and must say- NO ONE was EVERdiagnosed w ADD/ADHAD when I was in school- they were just sent to the principal's office or had their grade lowered, etc, I don't reacll hearing about ADD until my younger cousin who is now 14 was in school ( though I know the trend of ADD diagnosis started a bit earlier).

Good luck on the exam.