Can kids with ADHD concentrate on certain tasks?

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The preschool where I teach seems to have a higher than usual concentration of kids with behavioral and developmental problems. I'm helping one boy on the autism spectrum, but we're having bigger problems now with another who has a hyperactivity problem. Several of us suspect ADHD, but we're thrown when occasionally he is able to sit still and concentrate for long periods of time - but only on certain tasks.

Normally he is always moving. It's a Montessori preschool/kindergarden and he is 4, so he's expected to take some work every day, sit on a carpet and do it either alone, with a teacher, or with other kids, and these materials develop his senses and teach him things like math and letters. But this boy will never work. He walks around in circles all day, shaking his head back and forth and his arms all around, runs around constantly, picks fights with the other kids and likes to play-fight - either as soldiers with pretend guns, knights with pretend swords, or just wrestling. He's always making noise and often causes problems by hitting or pushing the other kids or bothering them when they're trying to work. When he attacks one of the others and we ask him why he did it (most kids will answer with something like "he said I was ugly" or whatever the provocation was), he simply stares at the floor looking stressed and confused. He can never answer why and we generally don't ever see him being provoked. It's clear that he can't help himself.

Outside, he likes to chase the older boys who are much bigger than him and provoke them into chasing him back. He says something or pushes or hits them or something, and they turn and run after him as a group. He doesn't have a chance of course (he's small even for 4), and after a while they catch him and throw him to the ground or otherwise "punish" him for his provocation until a teacher sees it and breaks it up. We ask the boy if he is okay with this kind of play and he says no. He often looks like he wants to cry but never does. We tell him he should tell the others to stop when he wants them to, and he does, but then as soon as we walk away he runs up to them again and starts more provocation.

My boss has talked to the parents about whether he might have ADHD but the parents don't think so. They say he has an older sister he's always trying to compete with, and when playing in general he always wants to play with the older kids. They either say no or chase him away, or let him play but as a baby or prisoner or some other "victim" type of role. He accepts these roles because he wants so desperately to play with the older kids, but he doesn't like it. He'll never tell the other kids he doesn't like it - only later will he say something to his parents.

I would push for him to be evaluated for ADHD, and my boss would agree, except she is confused by the fact that he *is* able to focus on certain tasks. If we can get him to sit down with paper and pencils he will sit calmly and draw for an hour or more without any problems at all. And his drawings are really very good for his age. One day he went from only being able to produce scribbles to suddenly being able to draw detailed cars and other vehicles. I do notice, however, that even when he's drawing he often prefers to stand rather than sit. If we tell him to sit he will, but later we often see him standing again.

He can also concentrate on just a few of the work materials. If a teacher is working with him, he likes to try sewing pictures, or sometimes he'll do a creative work with a piece of corkboard, some small wooden shapes with holes in the center, and some small nails which he can hammer through the holes into the corkboard to make a picture. I think he likes this one because he's allowed to hammer on something!

I have a lifetime of experience with autism but none with ADHD. Does he sound like he has it? Or is there a better explanation? Could the parents be right and he's just stressed and frustrated? Or is this definitely something like a hyperactivity disorder (as it seems to me to be)?

Thanks in advance for any help!

I'm not especially qualified to talk about it but I do have adhd and I never take my meds, and when I was a kid, as well as now, I can get really hyperfocused on one thing... for hours and hours.

Thanks for the reply. I did a quick bit of "research" (google) and quickly found out about hyperfocusing, which I suspected existed but wasn't sure. I passed a few links on to my boss and she agrees that in that case, this boy most certainly has ADHD and we need to push the parents to get him evaluated if they want to keep him in our school. He seems a textbook case, in fact. And no one at my school likes to jump to the ADD/ADHD diagnosis since we hear it far too often, but in this boy's case it seems pretty clear.

Part of me wants to push for him to be medicated at least mildly in order to keep him here in the school - he's impossible to control, hurts other kids all the time, he's not learning and developing how he should, and really he's not having a good time in general because he can't control himself. I know he'd be happier if he had some medication to calm him down a bit and let him control his attention. But I also hate the idea of putting a 4-year-old on any kind of medication, feels too much like taking away part of who he is (how I felt when people tried to medicate me at various points in my life). And everyone here is pretty into all the holistic medicine and anti-medications. But I can't imagine keeping this kid in our school the way he is. We need some kind of help. He's getting worse and worse and no one can control him.

Anyway as an aspie who is tired and skeptical of all "experts" who aren't on the spectrum but claim to speak for those who are based on "research," I would be more interested in the "unqualified" experiences of people who have ADHD than I would in any "professional" opinions. Any thoughts or suggestions about this boy are welcome. Thanks!

I should've mentioned I also used to play with the older kids and had to be the "victim"... I hate to advocate for medicating because I don't know what's right for anyone but me... but I was medicated at a very young age and it completely turned me around. My teacher at the time changed her mind entirely about medication once she saw what it did for me. I think an important thing was that people were very patient with me and careful not to let me think there was something wrong with me. I felt like the medication was helping me be a better me, not fixing something bad about me. I always want to mention that because it was really important since I had low self esteem from feeling "different" and alienated by other kids... I guess that's all I can think of... I hope this situation gets better for this kid. He sounds very unique and creative.

Thanks for that input, I appreciate it. I'll pass that thought on to my boss and maybe she'll pass it on to the parents as well. Really it will be up to them, of course. We can only recommend. But firsthand accounts are always valuable. In my experience I haven't heard many people who say good things about being medicated - but I really think it could help this boy. And he is indeed very unique and creative. His drawings are amazing. It would be great if he could control his focus and develop his talents more, instead of always feeling like he has to run around aimlessly and get bullied by the older kids.

As he prefer to be with older kids, giftedness should also be considered, I think.