My DS8 (TODAY!) is on Strattera. He is ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder and signs of Aspergers. You now have me researching the HFA because I have never heard of it and my DS has a lot of socialization issues. We started him on medication at 5. He was diagnosed at 4 and we didn't want to consider medicine until he was in school. Well, after dealing with a daycare kicking him out we went to see his pediatrician to speak with her about medication. Her first comment was she would not consider it until he was six. Within 5 minutes she had changed her mind and referred us to a child pschiatrist. We started him on clonidine. That first day he slept a lot and we were concerned because that was our worst fear. But within two weeks I noticed toys he was previously throwing across the room in frustration within 5 minutes of playing with them, he was now able to spend two hours playing with. Now, medicine didn't cure everything. Kindergarten and first grade were horrible, but we now have switched him to a different school in our district and the difference is amazing. Last year I think we had about 6 different ARDS and he spent 9 weeks in a classroom where he was in cubical all day. So far we have only had one this year and that was the yearly review. And, it only took 30 minutes. Previously it was always almost 2 hours. I also never took him shopping, he stayed home with DH if I had to go to Wal-Mart or somewhere. Now I take him everywhere. He is not perfect, but I think a perfect child would be boring.
My DS8 spends the first hour of the day at school with a special ed teacher who goes over any work he did not finish the day before and any work that requires a lot of instruction. This helps his teacher out because she is able to give the long instructions to the rest of the class, where previously he would disturb the class. So the class is receiving their instruction and so is he. He has a desk separated from the rest of the class, but he is given the whole back of the classroom to move around this way and it doesn't disturb the rest of the class. At the end of the day he has an aide (local college student) come in and help him finish the day. If he starts misbahaving and not listening he goes to the office and if they are not able to handle him he goes back to the special education teacher. At his previous school the office couldn't deal with him at all, I was constantly having to go get him. All this office does is give him a stack of books to read and he will normally do so immediately. It is only when a lot of people are in and he gets distracted that they can't handle him.
I don't know how other schools handle reading, but here the child reads what they call Accelerated Reading books and takes a test on the computer. My boy loves taking the tests, so that is actually a motivator. He can't take the test until finishes his work. DS hates to write and that is where a lot of his frustration comes from.
I have also started working part time so I am able to spend more quality time with in the evening instead of rushing to get supper, homework, bath and the bedtime. The stress level in the house has went way down.
I noticed a lot of people were mentioning sleeping problems. I actually had a sleep study performed on my DS. It wasn't easy because they place all these probes on him and the one up the nose was horrible. There wasn't any really significant but they did say he awoke more than he should have. We took him to an ENT (which we probably should have done first, but he had seen one when he was 4 because we had hoped it was his tonsils and not ADHD). The ENT said his tonsils were large, not overly huge, but large. They said with the size of the tonsils and the results of the sleep study they would recommend removing the tonsils. We did and he sleeps a lot better now and we noticed an improvement from that. The old school did say his frustration level did improve. Even though there are high risks with any surgery, I would recommend anyone looking into it. Especially if your child snores. DS did only snore a little. One down side is DS is a picky eater. I had heard several stories of people whose children couldn't smell and they didn't realize it until after the tonsils were removed. Most children start eating better because now they can smell the food. Not my DS. Now everything stinks. Even the popcorn smell at the concession stand at the movie theater stinks to him and he walks around with his shirt over his nose. But within 15 minutes of putting him to bed at night he is asleep now. And I can tell he is getting a much better sleep.
Sorry this is so long and I hope it helps. We have to move next year, just don't know where yet. I know I will be posting on this message board for any ideas on schools districts when I know what area we will be moving to.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday.