"It's not fair that 'Johnny' gets a pill to make him behave"

[Terra]

You've gotten some great input! I'm sorry that your son is sadly hearing things in such a distorted prespective as well. It makes me wonder if the other boy's parents point this out to him or something. Like "oh look how good our medicine makes you behave." Which would be really sad IMO.

[gogokim]

In my experience the kids (boys especially) that are brighter and more creative tend to be VERY bored and distracted in a normal classroom setting. Sounds like the teacher should add some interest activities in her classroom

[happylittlefamily]

one thing I'm going to do for Connor (and perhaps myself if I can find the time) is put him in karate/tae kwon do. I think it's a great way to release energy, allow the child to perform at their own speed, teaches respect and self-discipline and boosts confidence. That may be an option for your son. Kind of a reward of some sort for trying hard in school and in the long run, it'll actually help him be more successful too. I have heard amazing things about kids and karate classes and I know for a fact they do the things I mentioned. My husband has dyslexia and suffered a lot as a child because it wasn't very common back then. Learning was really hard for him. Tae Kwon Do became a confidence boosting outlet for him and he went on to become a 3rd degree black belt and his parents ended up owning a studio and he actually taught as a teenager for a couple of years in their studio. While surely hubby could teach Connor and I some of the things, I think it would be hard to truly respect the teaching if it came from my hubby. So that's why I'm going to pursue classes at a local studio. Anyway, thought that might be a way to do something without medicating. Also, medicating is just part of it. Medicating without teaching the child how to make the right choices/learn appropriate coping skills isn't going to help the child any more than just choosing to ignore the diagnosis of ADHD.