John Howard

Jak The Lad... With ADHD

I engage the 14-year-old Jak in conversation. Football, school, computer games, the standard dialogue a man and boy would chat about. We get on well. He has known me for over three years, his mum and my wife are best friends and the families socialise frequently. Children at different ages and stages, adults with different personalities and senses of humour. You might say a perfectly standard situation of life.

But for Jak he is labelled!

Initially tagged as the naughty boy at school to the individual with special educational and behavioural needs, Jak has been under CAMHS, examined by various psychologists and re-schooled a number of times.

Jak struggled right away at nursery, who found him very difficult due to his behaviour. This trend sadly continued and from the age of six years it became a real issue at school. Jak would spend an hour a day at the most in education or would find himself suspended and out of education completely.

But for those that really know and love him he is just Jak. The fun-loving young man who excels at football and other sports (something frequently denied to him in school by way of punishment), loves art and adores his younger siblings, while often winding up the older ones. He is a son that makes his doting mother and supportive stepfather proud, but equally exasperates them with his untidy bedroom and his tendency to not always follow instructions.

I can’t think of many teens that don’t exhibit the same sorts of behaviour.

Jak does have issues, there is no denying that. Part of his condition dictates that he speaks very literally and often his seemingly inappropriate comments and behaviours can be construed as both naughty and offensive. An inability to understand his actions, get involved with negative classroom antics and then become upset when he is told to calm down, can be attributed to his diagnosis. As someone who works with young people with autism and autism-related conditions in a care environment but is also a father to three ‘mainstream’ children, I often find the lines can be blurred.

It has taken the devotion of his parents, the help of psychologists and a special-needs school in Blackpool to finally see Jak placed in full-time education at the age of 13!

Jak’s mum simply wants her son to have an education and attend a school that understands him. Happily, it looks like she has at last achieved that goal and Jak can now get the help he needs to achieve his full potential.

Society should be about fitting in with those that live in it, as well as the other way round.

Jak has ADHD. Much more importantly though, to those that know and love him, he is just Jak!