Thank you for asking questions about his evaluations and his medications. I'm giving a long response as more of way to let go of some of my frustration with the many different medications/diagnosis we have had. I'm very exhausted and a little scared.
He has had many evaluations over the last3 years. He had extensive testing and evaluation with a team of PsyDs Psys and SW at a children's hospital in a major city. Result - ADHD, anxiety not otherwise specified, depression not otherwise specified, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) tendencies - rigid type, with very, very significant discrepency between very superior verbal skills and very low working memory and processing ability. . Dec- Jan 08 difficult child was in a hospital outpatient psy program for 6 weeks. That program confirmed the ADHD diagnosis and switched from concerta to adderall XR. They also removed him from the Clonidine. Continued with Abilify and Prozac.
Two months later he we admitted him into an inpatient, highly recognized midwest hospital and they took him off all the medications and started all over. After two weeks of observation, and redoing all the pychoeducational tests, his newest diagnosis is severe ADHD (combined), ODD, mild depression and disorder of written expression/NonVerbal Learning Disorder (NVLD). They did not see any mania or bi-polar. They removed the Anxiety diagnosis. They were the first to give the OD diagnosis - which we do agree with because he is so irritable, rigid and illogical if he doesn't get his way. The child PsyD changed his ADHD medications to Vyvanse and put him on Tenex. They removed him from Abilify and Prozac.
So as far as school goes, I agree that difficult child needs a relaxed environment, but he needs to know what's going to happen throughout the day. He is not flexible and is intense. He isn't a laid back kid that can go with the flow. You are right in that we need the teachers to be less reactive to difficult child's behavior and frustration. I don't want a school who lashes out at difficult child if he doesn't get his homework done the way they want or forgot something in his locker (this has happened many times at the traditional middle school he was at). If my difficult child gets stuck, or locked-up, with frustration, I want the teachers to willing to be open to compromise. The tricky part is, everything goes well for difficult child as long as he gets his way!
The charter school he is now at is filled with creative, independent, artsy folks (who I like and would work well with) who thrive in open, self-directed environments and the process of learning, or the academic requirements, are not clearly defined. They have everything I want when it comes to accepting my difficult child and working with him to make the environment user friendly. But, each day, each hour, each class period is kind of wildly relaxed. difficult child wakes up not really knowing what the school day will be like and because of his strong fight or flight disposition, he becomes anxious. My difficult child doesn't like gray areas. He's very rigid in his thinking.
So I guess I want flexible teachers within a school that follows a routine and has expectations for behavior in the classroom. Not available in my community