Behaviour

I DESPISE teachers recommending medication!!!! They are not doctors!!! They just want all kids to sit cookie cutter style and listen like zombies.

Perhaps it's her teaching method, especially if you've never encountered this problem before.

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Martial Arts help kids to learn to focus.
A lot of teachers push medication for kids. I heard, could never find out if it was true, that schools qualify for a larger federal stipend depending on how many kids are medicated. The more kids on medication the more money the school gets.
It might not be lack of focus but boredom. Teachers tried to tell me for years my son was ADD, he wasn't, he was bored.

There's a lot that can be done nutritionally - I have several friends who did this with their children. One is a kindergarten teacher and did not want to do meds except as a last resort. She has a new child because she used nutritional supplementation! Another friend has a child with PDD and he is now excelling in school. There is an informational program given up in your area - I can give you more details. Is your daughter-in-law in the same area, or elsewhere?

When our 14 y.o. son was in grade school, some of his teachers had him and a few other kids set up with bands on the legs of their chairs. Their feet could then be busy with the bands which helped them concentrate better. They also had squishy balls they could manipulate to keep their attention more focused.

I may have this all wrong. But I believe the theory behind these efforts was when more of their synapses are firing, through various tactile experiences, then they are able to settle down more and concentrate more. It kind of grounded them better.

It's worth a try. : )

Have him evaluated at school if he has a learning problem (not necessarily ADHD) then certain thing scan be done in the classroom to help him succeed. We recently put my son on medication the first one did not help but the second one has worked beautifully. He is able to complete his class work, focus on his tests, etc. He wasn't really overly active a little fidgety but what a world of difference in his focus. He is still the same happy boy he was just able to do his school work now. For the first time ever he came home with 100 on a test :) I say have the school evaluate and take those results to the pediatrician and discuss it with him/her. There is nothing wrong with medication if it is truly needed. If he had seizures you wouldn't think twice about medicating him,

The teacher has NO business suggesting medication, that is way beyond her expertise. My nephew's kindy teacher and principal suggested the same thing, "diagnosing" him with ADHD. He didn't have anything of the sort. He had other learning issues which were causing his behavior and drugs were not any part of the solution. There are lots of reasons children have difficulty focusing and there is no way the teacher (or the pediatrician for that matter) can determine the diagnosis based on his classroom behavior. Your DIL should get a full eval of him through the school system. They will refer it to a specialist and should pay for it (it is costly).

My son had trouble focussing in school. I was afraid it was ADD, so I spoke to his pediatrician who then gave me forms to give his teacher to fill out. He couldn't make a determination based on the findings, but wanted us to see an educational psychologist for testing. This can be done through the school, but we were told that if we went to a private practice it would go a lot faster. It's not always covered by insurance, but luckily since our insurance covered it, we went that route. He was only found to have only very mild ADD. It was kind of borderline.

When we 1st found out about our son's difficulty concentrating, his principal suggested maybe it was a sensory processing disorder. I had no idea what that was, so I did some research on the computer and found a great website that had a symptom checklist. There is an enormous # of symptoms in different categories, and people often have zero or a few symptoms in some categories, but a lot in others. I was really surprised to see how many symptoms he had in 2 categories.

So we had him evaluated by the public school's occupational therapist who found that he did have issues that would benefit from occupational therapy. Our son goes to Catholic school and it would be up to us to transport him back and forth. We were afraid he would miss too much with the travel time factored in, and the school's OT could only work on the symptoms that were school related, not his other issues. So we had him evaluated again by a private OT, and she was able to work with him (we got a referral from the Pediatrician, and it was covered by our health insurance)

Here's the website I mentioned:

http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/

Hope this helps :)

Boston Children's Hospital has a School Function Program that evaluates children for learning and behavioural issues. Check your area hospitals for similar programs. Our 5 yr old son was evaluated at Boston's Children by six professionals... pediatrician, child psychiatrist, educational specialist, etc. He has ADD, was medicated, monitored, had a professional tutor from 5th grade through high school. Tutor was great! She participated in every teacher-parent and SPED meetings. Our son went on to college, on dean's list for three of his four years of school and working at a job he loves, very good at it and is doing well. It's was a long haul, some setbacks, but worked out well and worth it. Good luck!