Constant interrupting- nothing stops it

[Anonymous]

It has been years of trying every trick in the book. 12 year old DS with ADHD interrupts people constantly, often within seconds of them speaking. He does it to us, friends, siblings teachers, other adults, etc. It drives us crazy because we often cannot complete a sentence before he barges in, and it’s quite frankly embarrassing to watch him do it to others.
Has anything helped?

[Anonymous]

There has to be an immediate consequence and it has to be something that he dislikes so that his brain starts to hesitate before he interrupts because it has linked the behavior to the consequence. It’s basic behavior modification. If you blew a whistle in his ear every time he’d stop. I don’t advise that, but it has to be something aversive enough and it has to be consistently enforced. If he had to write “I will wait my turn to speak” ten times every single time he interrupted, he’d stop. You might have to carry paper and pencil with you everywhere. Or he is removed from the room every single time.

I’m assuming he’s on meds and you have role played this behavior and explained how annoying it is to others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There has to be an immediate consequence and it has to be something that he dislikes so that his brain starts to hesitate before he interrupts because it has linked the behavior to the consequence. It’s basic behavior modification. If you blew a whistle in his ear every time he’d stop. I don’t advise that, but it has to be something aversive enough and it has to be consistently enforced. If he had to write “I will wait my turn to speak” ten times every single time he interrupted, he’d stop. You might have to carry paper and pencil with you everywhere. Or he is removed from the room every single time.

I’m assuming he’s on meds and you have role played this behavior and explained how annoying it is to others.

I completely disagree. If it were easy to turn off through negative repetition it would have happened by now. I guarantee you this kid has been reprimanded every which way for 10 years.

I don't have much advice but have noticed with my son it is obviously much worse in periods when he's not on meds (end of day, random weekend he didn't take them, etc) which shows its a part of his brain that needs stimulates to function. And because of that I try to give him grace and sometimes just let him talk or give a gentle "it's not your turn right now" reminder. And I've noticed that he has a couple of friends who also do this and after he spends time with them he does it less... i think because he notices it happening to him and connects how difficult the conversation is.

I think time is the main solution.