Has anybody found scientific research that these weighted belts, vests or blankets truly work for sensory issues? DD's teacher mentioned that the OT assessing her at school may recommend a belt, so I'm assuming it would be something like the Miracle Belt. I have started reading about these weighted therapies, but so far none of them mention any research evidence. Edit: I just found a study - "The Use of Weighted Vests with Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Other Disabilities": :sad:

Who do I look for to have my DD tested for gluten/dairy/casein intolerance? I asked the paediatrician and allergist if DD should be tested, and they both dismissed it. The allergist found DD to be allergic to only dust mites and cats. DD is also a very picky eater, and we have to force her to try a vegetable or fruit. Her appetite is worse with ADHD medication, so we assumed an elimination diet would not be worth trying. The 11-year old's favourite cereal is still baby cereal (Simply Kids Mixed Cereal made of oat, wheat and rice flour) which is supposed to be for 6-month old babies! :blushing:

None of us drink coffee or caffeine, and the disadvantages seem to outweigh the anecdotal benefits of giving caffeine to a child.

The first ADHD diagnosis came early from a paediatrician, and we got the same opinion from two psychologists doing psychoeducational assessments, a doctor and most recently, a pyschiatrist who specializes in youth ADHD. Is anybody aware of studies that indicate that ADHD medication is less effective the more co-morbidities you have? The neurofeedback director is a clinical psychologist who has written a book on ADHD. DD has started getting free visits from an occupational therapist through her school, so we'll see how that goes before making the FIVE-FIGURE commitment for neurofeedback.

:grouphug: It took a lot more than one doctor, but my child has received similar diagnoses, plus dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia. Omega-3 is a quick one to start with. My child takes 1,000 mg total of the EPA and DHA active ingredients daily. One of the best books to start with may be The Mislabeled Child: How Understanding Your Child's Unique Learning Style Can Open the Door to Success by Brock and Fernette Eide, which I have just started, but others can give reviews or suggest a better starting book. For ADHD, one of the best places to start with are the videos for parents at CADDAC (Centre for ADHD Awareness, Canada). Some of them are so information-packed that I kept understanding more after repeated viewings as my journey continued. I recommend printing a copy of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Evidence-Based Child and Adolescent Psychosocial Interventions. As parents who will pay for almost anything to help their child, the overwhelming research you are about to undertake will expose you to thousands of well-meaning entrepreneurs selling their unscientific/unproven "cures" with glowing testimonials from the minority of people that were helped in the short run. Since we don't have unlimited money, time, effort and other resources, it is better to start with a "Level 1 - Best Support" intervention than a "Level 5 - No Support". For example, certain types of behaviour therapy (Level 1) can be a great "natural" method to try first before putting our child in a hyperbaric chamber a la Michael Jackson (Level 5). :eek: I am relatively early in my journey compared to others here, but below is a list of treatments that I have tried so far. Behaviour therapy: after-school program 1 night/week, summer therapeutic camp, social skills training; parent management training. Medication: Vyvanse, Concerta, Biphentin, Strattera. Brain training: n-back training, Lumosity; AttenGo (rip-off). Dyslexia: Orton-Gillingham based Language Tool Kit At Home. Dysgraphia & SPD: started seeing an occupational therapist. Neurofeedback assessment. Exercise: karate and/or yoga are probably my child's next courses.

I would also love to hear more about your qEEG experience later when you are feeling better, maybe in a new thread or if you have discussed it before in an existing thread (search does not work well). We went for a neurofeedback assessment, but it was one-cap so I'm not sure if that can be considered a qEEG. I was shocked that DD did okay on the ADHD-related tests and her theta/beta ratio was lower than others with ADHD. It seemed that she may fit the EEG profile of Asperger's Syndrome more than ADHD, which is one possible explanation why none of the four ADHD medication we have tried seems to have significantly improved ADHD symptoms. We are also told that it would probably take more than 80 sessions instead of the 40 that we had budgeted for. We are now confused whether or when to proceed with the full-cap assessment, ERP analysis (Event Related Potentials), Reference EEG to try to find out the best medication through CNS Response, and the potential $10,000 total cost of 80 sessions over ten months! :scared: :unsure:

So linking one's account to Facebook and other social media sites is not a good idea if you want some privacy? I try to be careful about posting personal identifying details that the entire online world can search for, but it is a fine balance of sharing and learning information.

double posting

DD was at 18mg the first week, 25mg the second week, and 40mg since. It's good your DS feels better. I just noticed that there is a free 30-day supply of Strattera available in the US website, but it is not available here in Canada.

Have you noticed any changes from the Strattera yet? DD11 has been taking it for 5 weeks and we haven't noticed any significant improvements. The teacher mentioned that she has been MORE impulsive for the past couple of weeks, instead of less! DD is an only child, but has enough challenges for 2 or 3 kids: ADHD, SPD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia; probably ASD/Asperger's, CAPD. Waiting for assessments on FASD, perichondritis; by next summer with a developmental optometrist. She has two educational assistants at school, but no remediation, so I am trying Orton-Gillingham at home.

Has the FM receiver been helpful and worth it for your twins? We asked the ADHD specialist if we should add CAPD testing to the never-ending assessments, :unsure: and he said that if attention is a big problem, then using an FM system with the teacher would not help much.

I could not disagree more. ADHD is a terrible disorder if you read about or talk to the poor people who have suffered through it. People who didn't get ADHD treatment until adulthood resent their parents for not treating their disorder when they were children, and mourn how much their poor life outcome could have been better. While some describe dyslexia as a "gift" but needs intensive and systematic intervention, ADHD is a curse that needs intervention even more for the suffering child. Besides unconditional love and trying to develop her strengths, I feel that it is my duty as a parent to try evidence-based treatments for her various disorders, the earlier the intervention the better with less life consequences.

That's what I thought too. Since she doesn't have learning challenges yet, the SN section seems appropriate.

Have you looked into Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing (LiPS) yet? I personally would have put this thread in the Learning Challenges section, since those of us looking into Earobics and other learning-related programs are more likely to be there. The research I have read on Earobics, Fast ForWord and other software has been disappointing so far.

My 2¢ is that your DH could be the biggest barrier for your son. Your DH is very concerned and depressed about how behind your son is, but he seems to be ignorant about ADHD. Since your son has already been diagnosed with ADHD, he needs a "Level 1 - Best Support" intervention as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics: behaviour therapy and medication, EEG biofeedback, and/or parent management training. If you want to tutor your son instead of going to an experienced Orton-Gillingham/LMB tutor, then take the free tutor and student screening tests at Susan Barton's site. In my child's case, we are going through all of the above, plus Orton-Gillingham software and occupational therapy! Good luck.

Was the OT worth it? Did she use sensory integration training to create the sensory diet?

Has anybody in Canada been able to get the 50% discount? The Canadian site's price is $69 instead of $29.50! :crying:

It is the same case with us, especially with the questionnaries for the comprehensive psychoeducational assessment. Where can I find an Asperger's or ASD online test for children?

After having our child diagnosed with ADHD and LD all these years, the last two specialists we have seen suddenly mentioned Asperger's or ASD! :confused: The numerous resources mentioned are great but for an ASD newbie like me who has only read ADHD books, what is the best book to START with, e.g., - The Mislabeled Child by Brock & Fernette Eide - Helping A Child with Nonverbal Learning Disorder or Asperger's Syndrome: A Parent's Guide by Stewart, Kathryn - Asperkids: An Insider's Guide to Loving, Understanding and Teaching Children with Asperger Syndrome by Jennifer O'Toole - or Asperger's in Pink: A Mother and Daughter Guidebook for Raising (or Being!) A Girl with Asperger's by Julie Clark?

Our child was given something to go to sleep before the MRI. Just when we were about to leave, she threw up and had a bad reaction. We had to stay for awhile. I asked for the name of what was given and we wrote it down somewhere in order to avoid it in the future, but we don't know now where we wrote it. :blushing:

What about mentioning the free websites that the evaluator suggested for extra help? Aside from trying to do Brain Workshop for working memory training, my child only goes to membership sites like Club Penguin and Moshi Monsters

All the reading research shows the importance of early intervention. The older a person is, the harder it is to catch up. I regret not finding out earlier that my 11-year old has dyslexia despite having two psychoeducational assessments done since grade 1 but no reading remediation ever done by the school. Did any of the parents or grandparents also have reading problems? Dyslexia is highly hereditary. I looked into the same options as you. In my case, I was lucky to find a dyslexia/LD expert and paid for an hour's worth of language-related tests for my child; it was very affordable without a written report and I just took lots of notes of the test results and recommendations. The unproven Davis Dyslexia Correction Program costs almost $4,000 for only 30 hours of training. I have started reading the books Overcoming Dyslexia, Davis' The Gift of Dyslexia, and The Dyslexic Advantage. I would try LiPS and Orton-Gillingham programs before the Davis Program, vision therapy and many other unscientific interventions for dyslexia. It's possible that your son(s) has a problem with auditory discrimination and/or memory. As Susan Barton advises, you can search for LiPS tutors or any speech language pathologists who has had LiPS training in your area. If you can't afford a full assessment or LiPS tutor, another option is to try to learn LiPS yourself using the workshop and/or DVDs. Good luck to both of us! :grouphug:

+1. To give OP my own honest feedback, I desperately want to help my child but I would NOT pay for expensive alternative treatments before exhausting all the evidence-based treatments first. While I am glad that IM and other unproved treatments seems to have worked for a few in this forum, my research so far indicates that they are not worth the money, time and other risks. I would rather pay for $7,000 worth of neurofeedback as a "Level 1 - Best Support" intervention for ADHD, or thousands of dollars worth of Orton-Gillingham tutoring for dyslexia than try IM, The Dore Program, Brain Gym, Davis Dyslexia Programs, Listening programs, homeopathy, herbs, chiropractic skull manipulation, hyperbaric chamber, etc.

My child's only strength in recent dyslexia tests was in processing speed. All the other scores in the WMRT-III (Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests), CTOPP (Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing), TOWRE (Test of Word Reading Efficiency) and TWS-4 (Test of Written Spelling) were below the 40 percentile, with several at the bottom 1%. :sad: I am trying the Orton-Gillingham based software called "Language Tune-up Kit At Home" for now. I just administered the Grade 4 cursive test for my child in Grade 6, but she only got four items correct! :crying: Has anybody bothered taking the HWT K–5 Handwriting Workshop, or do I just need to buy the following: 3rd Grade Cursive Teacher’s Guide, Cursive Handwriting student workbook, and Regular Rule Double Line Paper (100 sheet pack)? I look forward to your updates, as my own journey of a thousand miles has just begun with the first steps. Next up is a neurofeedback assessment then an occupational therapist assessment. :bigear:

The CAPD specialist may recommend an FM system for school, which seems to be one of the few evidence-based interventions for CAPD. I look forward to your updates as I'm wondering if paying for yet another assessment for CAPD or vision therapy is worth it while we're still waiting for assessments for FASD, perichondritis, ASD/SPD, etc. :confused1: