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News 8 Austin: What Parents Think May Be ADHD, May Not

Link: News8Austin.com

Myles' mom thought he had ADHD; and so did his teachers. But, when three different medications didn't help, even Myles knew something else was wrong. It wasn't until doctors performed a sleep study that things started to become clear — Myles Dumas had a sleep disorder.

SeattlePI.com: Working Dad: Rise in childhood mental illness is perplexing

Link: SeattlePI.com

Scrambled eggs and toast were on the kitchen table, a soccer game began in an hour and October sun poured into Elizabeth Coplan's Seattle-area home.

Yet it was 11 a.m., and her 10-year-old son would not get out of bed, remaining tucked under his covers more like a teenager than a fourth-grader.

It was the latest of yellow flags that had been waving since Mark Coplan was born that something was wrong: night terrors, lips rubbed until bleeding, recurring stomach aches, aversion to smell, and never much sleep, maybe four hours a night for mother and son.

MSNBC: Hyper kid? Sleep apnea may be the culprit

Link: MSNBC.com

When Benjamin Kidd was in pre-K last year, his teachers marveled at how bright, attentive and well-behaved he was — in the morning.

Later in the day, Ben was a different child. He was fidgety and he couldn’t focus. He couldn’t sit still for a story. And he burst into tears and temper tantrums at the slightest provocation.

After taking him to one specialist after another, his mother, Michelle Kidd, who lives in Hillsborough N.J., finally figured out what the problem was: 5-year-old Ben was exhausted. Doctors who ran an overnight sleep study on him last fall said he was suffering from obstructive sleep apnea, a sleep disorder associated with middle age but not uncommon in preschoolers, where it can lead to behavior easily mistaken for hyperactivity — even though it’s actually caused by fatigue.

MLive.com: Not every fidgety child has ADHD

Link: MLive.com

"I really want to get across to people that treating ADHD is not bad, but every kid that moves too much does not need Ritalin, because it might be something else," says child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist Dr. Carolyn King of Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services. Children with speech problems, or tick, bipolar and obsessive compulsive disorders often are misdiagnosed as having ADHD, as are children with autism and those suffering from lead poisoning or emotional trauma. Since ADHD symptoms are similar to those of many other disorders, King advises parents to make sure other possibilities have been ruled out before putting their child on medication.

LATimes.com: Kaman recalls frustrations of childhood

Link: LATimes.com

Los Angeles Clippers center Chris Kaman was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder at age 2-and-a-half and began taking Ritalin and Adderall soon after and through high school. He disclosed Sunday that he was misdiagnosed and actually had an anxiety disorder that caused him to over-analyze situations and scenarios. Kaman is hoping to become a spokesman for children who are misdiagnosed or are simply looking for another alternative instead of taking medication.

NYTimes.com: Pros and Cons of Giving Adult Drugs to Children

Link: NYTimes.com

The attention-deficit generation has been supplanted by the bipolar generation, we learn in Tuesday night's "Frontline" on PBS. And overmedication of children is not the only concern these days. Parents may now be turning their youngsters into guinea pigs. The report, "The Medicated Child," revisits territory "Frontline" first examined in 2001, raising some familiar warning flags and some new ones. But it's not a knee-jerk treatment. As the program points out, there are pros as well as cons to the increased use of prescription drugs on children.

KTBS News: Sensory disorder often misdiagnosed

Link: KTBS 3 News

When she was two, Avereigh Dill couldn't stand for her feet to touch the ground. Peyton, who's six, has trouble judging the space around him. That resulted in Peyton getting in trouble a lot last year at school, and, in turn, made it difficult to make friends. Suzanne McMillian, an occupational therapist, says often the condition is misdiagnosed as ADHD.

US Dept of Ed: alternate assessments for certain students with disabilities

A message from:
John H. Hager, assistant secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS)

Next month, our office will be providing states with a "Tool Kit" of information and resources to help them improve instruction, curricula and assessments for students with disabilities. The Tool Kit will be updated on a dedicated Web site so that as new resources become available, they will be made available to those who need them. One of our goals in providing this information is to help schools, teachers and parents improve outcomes for students with disabilities. An important guidance document has become available in advance of the release of the Tool Kit. On August 9th, the Department of Education released new non-regulatory guidance on alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards for the 1 percent of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. This guidance is now posted at http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/saa.html. The regulation on alternate assessments for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities was first released on December 9, 2003 (and may be found at www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/finrule/2003-4/120903a.html).

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to direct them to us at E-mail: OSERS.OAS@ed.gov   Phone (V/TTY): (202) 245-7468