My son is 8 years old and has been diagonosed with ADHD since he was 5. We didn’t beleive in medicating him, however, his symptons got progressively worse and we would get constant complains from school. A year ago, we started him on Concerta and it has helped tremendously with his attention span and hyperactivity. However, I am now concerned with his language processing skills. He speaks very loudly, in a lisping singsong voice and has difficulty explaining himself in more that 3 sentences. At school, his math skill is excellent and he has average reading skills, however if was to describe his day at school, he has difficulty expressing himself. Another thing I am starting to notice is, he is overly sensitive to loud noise and often covers his ears, if he is in a crowed place where people are talking or kids making a lot of noise.I am wondering if maybe there is something else going on with him. Has anyone come across this before?
Re: ADHD and Speech Processing
If you can, find a good speech pathologist in private practice and call to ask about getting a complete speech and language evaluation. The clinic may be able to tell you exactly how a referral needs to be worded to ensure coverage by medical insurance. Private evals tend to be more thorough than what a school can offer, although you can ask the school for an evaluation also. This type of eval will assess receptive language, expressive language, articulation and reading level. Sometimes they also include a screening for auditory processing disorder.
For the sound sensitivity, I would advise getting TLP (The Listening Program) and having him do that program at home. It requires 15 minutes of listening time per day. A good place to order it online is at http://www.rmlearning.com/auditoryprocessing.htm . This program systematically conditions the auditory system and has a very good track record with normalizing sensitivity to sound.
Nancy
Yes, this could indicate several things such as problems with expressive language, audiorty processing and sensory integration. Has he had any testing done by the school? If not, I would recommend requesting he be tested.