I just wanted to share something my daughter's doctor told her when she was 13. School was constantly a battle, she couldn't stay in her seat, she was always in trouble for talking and disturbing other kids, homework was a nightmare and a constant battle of the wills. Combine all that with having a rare disorder that left her with no sweat glands except on her nose, skin that cracked wide open in winter months so even holding something like a pencil could be painful, body temperature that could not be easily regulated -- life was one roller coaster ride after another. At 13 she was diagnosed as ADHD but could not be put on medication because there was no way to know how it would affect her and because I was dead set against medication. Her doctor sat her down and told her "you need to understand that there is nothing wrong with you ~ it is just that your brain works at a speed faster than all the other people and so while they are talking about something, you have already moved on to a whole new topic. What I need you to do for me is to work on slowing down your brain so the rest of us can catch up to you." She walked out of his office feeling confident, rather than like she had one more thing that made her different. We had a great LD teacher - we worked with her on a plan for school work, we put together a schedule that was taped on every surface of the house and she had to check off each thing as she accomplished it, we set a time limit that she had to stay on task for each day and worked at increasing that time every two weeks. She took her tests at school in time increments - one part of the test on day one, second part of the test on day two and within the task time frames we developed. Within just a few months her school work had improved tremendously, her grades jumped way up, she could stay on task for the time limits and started increasing the time limits on her own. Her behavior at home and school improved -- it was like having a whole new child!! :) When she would get off task, we'd remind her, as would her teachers that we needed her to slow her brain down so we could catch up. She is 28 years old now and to this day she keeps a list of things she needs to get done, she is the most organized person I know and one of the most patient with kids and adults with disabilities ~ because she has been in their shoes.
So ~ tell you're little one she needs to slow her brain down so all of you can catch up.