re: Occupation Therapy for Children with ADD/ADHD

Again, this is why you see places like France working to use behavior intervention. It's akin to the OP using OT the help his kid.

You're correct that all children develop at different rates, but there are milestones that all children are expected to meet by a certain age. Younger children have much wider ranges in the developmental windows. For example, my son just had his 18 month checkup and our doctor asked if he could say 5-10 words yet. My son can already identify shapes and colors, knows the titles of his books, knows people's names, and can ask for things he wants.

So is he gifted, or did he just acquire these skills earlier in the developmental window than average? He likely just developed those skills a little earlier, but had he not been able to say 5-10 words yet it would mean that there may be a cognitive issue or developmental delay. That allows your doctor to prescribe the proper treatment or refer you to a specialist that can work with your child.

For example, autism has a wide spectrum of its level of affliction. If children are worked with from an early age they can actually learn to overcome a lot of what would typically hold them back. However, if you forgo that treatment to wait and see if they will grow out of it there is actually a point of no return in which intervention may no longer work.

The point being that you shouldn't just assume that a delay in a behavior or skill is expected because there is a wide range of brain chemistries. If kids aren't meeting certain developmental milestones on their own, it can be very detrimental to their further development by not working to correct the issue through therapy.