Children and Teens with ADHD

Do you think that your child has ADHD?

​There’s no such thing as a routine in your house. Mornings and evenings can be a nightmare of cajoling, nagging and even shouting to just get out the door or into bed. 

Finding food that they’ll eat, let alone that’s nutritious, is the next challenge. And that’s only if they sit for long enough to eat it. 

While they make friends easily, keeping them is another story. Playdates go more often than they come and you’re not sure how often other parents hear from their child’s teachers, but you seem to hear from your child’s teachers regularly. 

Melt-downs are a common after-school occurrence and you’re torn between succumbing to their requests for more screen-time, because you know it helps to calm them down, and the guilt of wondering how much screen-time is too much.

Getting your child assessed for ADHD

​By getting an assessment, and getting diagnosed with ADHD, you can start to understand that there’s a reason for the on-going challenges you and your child have been facing.

This can be an enormous relief as well as help you, as a parent, to know when your child sincerely can’t help a behaviour versus when they are being a “little monkey”.

To get assessed for ADHD, children (up to the age of 18 years) need to be seen by a Paediatrician or Child Psychiatrist. There are two ways you can go about getting an assessment for ADHD:

• see your GP and have them refer you to a specialist within the Public Health System (which may involve a longer waiting time, but is free), or
• see a private specialist (the waiting time may be shorter, but costs more).

Understanding this as a parent or caregiver and accessing the treatments and strategies available can help your child to go on to make extraordinary contributions to society.