Teachers

Today I did a conference call with each of D2 & D3's teachers.

D2 has been getting up during class and speaks up when she isn't supposed to. Her teacher seems (on the phone) not mean but not extra friendly either. She asked me if I knew what medications D2 had been on, and then asked THE QUESTION, whether I knew if D2 had been on medication for ADD. SIGH. Here we go.... I have learned that trauma is frequently misdiagnosed as ADD. I also read that treating trauma as if it were ADD doesn't work and actually works against the child.

I have already gone around and around with one teacher over the ADD mess with Son. She was determined he had it and I was determined he didn't. He doesn't. He has "energetic little boy who is bright and doesn't want to sit in the boring classroom" syndrome. He has mostly outgrown that and has always had good grades. I will not drug my children just to get them to sit still. Anyway, I will not drug D2. She's seen enough of that from her birth parents, and I don't want her to think that drugs fix your problems. D2's teacher says that D2 gets up in class and talks when she shouldn't. We're working on that. We have to come up with enough consequences to make her not do that. We have to be very creative. The thing she hates most is going to bed early, but even that is not enough.

D3's teacher seems like a sweetheart. She said that D3 had been a delight for the past two months until last week. For some reason she was sticking out her tongue and cutting in line, and she also cut a bit of faux fur off her coat with her scissors. Then she threw away the first note that the teacher sent home. But otherwise she is doing great. Both girls have issues with handwriting, language and spelling.

Yesterday I took the girls for what will be their very last appointment with the psychiatrist. I had to have a doctor's permission to stop giving them the prescribed medication. Both girls are now medication free. When they first came, D3 was on four medications and D2 was on two. All of them were completely unnecessary.