Documenting Change

I am college educated as an Animal Scientist and while I knew I saw changes in my son while taking an Omega 3-DHA supplement, I still needed to see real numbers.  In April, he had taken the TOVA test, which gave me a baseline from which to judge progress.

Before school started, we finished his reading tutoring.  I insisted that we travel back to Pittsburg State for a follow up evaluation of the Dyslexia and ADHD.  His reading had improved over the summer (more on that in another post).  His TOVA score had gone up dramatically which is a good thing!  It went from -6.73 in April to -2.44 in August.  Anything below -1.80 is considered some level of ADHD.  I have been told by several professionals that to see that much change in the TOVA score without medication is absolutely amazing.  Most of the studies that I have seen had the children on Omega 3-DHA for 16 weeks.   Dr. Hurford at Pittsburg State was great to work with and was amazed with the change.  He is willing to work with us and retest him whenever we want or need. 

Now, we are through the first month of school and I see a young man that is more confident than ever.  He is the one who knows where things are kept in the house and can go find them.  He is the one who knows where his shoes are when we get ready to leave.  He was the one that was reminding me what projects needed finished for the fair.  He has struggled with tying his shoes and suddenly he can even do that!  I had no idea that ADHD kids have trouble tying their shoes until he was diagnosed.  I cannot begin to express how excited I am that I am getting a glimpse of my whole son now that we know how he ticks inside.

I am still trying to get him to eat fish, so he doesn’t have to take so many pills, but I am not winning that battle.  He does like the English walnuts my friend brought him from California and boiled shrimp is definitely a favorite.  If you have a good fish recipe, feel free to share it with me. 

I am sharing our story at the urging of several of the professionals that I worked with.  Over the last few months, I have had more than one person tell me 

“Let the child lead you.  Don’t lead the child.”

And 

“Parents are the best advocates for their children.  Help other parents find what might help their kids, too.”

I am not saying that everything we tried will help all the children struggling with ADHD and Dyslexia, but it is what has worked for us.  It has reduced the stress in our household 100% (not kidding) and homework has disappeared from his backpack.  I hope that something I shared here with you can help someone in your family or someone you know.  Feel free to share with anyone who might find it useful.

I do want to say thank you again for Alltech for inviting bloggers like myself to their symposium.  This year I learned about cutting edge info on dyslexia and last year I found something that has made a huge difference in our cow herd.

Throughout the month of October I will focus on Dyslexia as it is Dyslexia Awareness Month.  I have several guest bloggers lined up and welcome anyone who would like to share information about dyslexia either as a parent, student, tutor, teacher or researcher.

 You might find these other articles helpful:

Is it Dyslexia? Is it ADHD? Help!! 

How does one deal with an ADHD diagnosis?

-A Kansas Farm Mom