ADD/ADHD Combined with Other Special Needs

The addition of other special needs to a child with ADD or ADHD complicates training and compensating strategies. In most children, it is a simple matter to find gifts that you can help them to use to build their esteem, form learning around, and to help them see that they can add something unique and valuable to the world.

In a child with intense needs, it may be more difficult to find gifts which work in this way. Everyone contributes something of value, but some things lend themselves to forming a basis for learning and growth better than others do.

Some types of special needs may give a child all the energy and drive to accomplish something, but deprive them of the means to actually DO it. It can be very frustrating for a child whose limbs need to move, but whose brain or nervous system refuses to allow them to control those movements productively. A parent can explore ways to provide creative and physical outlets - it may mean adaptive technology, or just finding other ways to do things, or even just finding something that suits the need for activity.

With intellectual impairment, the natural process where a parent gradually reasons more with a child as they grow older, and explains why differences occur, can be delayed, or completely impossible. Efforts must be focused more on training, and less on teaching concepts.

When attention deficit is part of a condition such as Fetal Alcohol effect, or certain metabolic or mitochondrial disorders, it may have a completely different cause, and may respond quite differently to treatment options or teaching strategies. If dietary or medical issues exist which require control and management, keeping them well controlled may make a huge difference in how well the child is able to learn compensating tactics.

What is clear in this is that when other special needs exist, if you want your child to remain free of medications that are not directly related to physical health and wellbeing, you, as the parent will need to take on a greater portion of the responsibility for structuring environment, and providing solutions to daily mini-crises. You may find many things that will improve the potential for annoyance or catastrophy, but you may have to continue them long term or constantly find new ones to cope with changing development.

In a more normalized situation (is there such a thing?), the child takes over more of their own responsibility for their actions as they grown and mature. That may not happen with a special needs child. You may have to keep their environment structured and their exposure to stimulation controlled indefinitely. Just as a parent of any young child moves breakables up and out of the way when the child begins to explore, parents of children with multiple special needs may need to restructure their lives long term to help their child to manage more comfortably in the world.