What Does This Sound Like To You?

[Anonymous]

First of all, I SO hear you on feeling like you are being judged by other parents when you are out in public with your child and he behaves even remotely differently than the other children. People with neurotypical children think they know everything about proper behavior, "consequences" and all that ... and for typical children, perhaps they do. But for atypical children, they just have no idea!!! Things that help their own children can make ours behave that much worse!!!

My young child sounds similar to yours in many respects, although he is very social. Not effectively social, but he so wants to join in and play with others. He was diagnosed with ADHD inattentive ... I was a bit skeptical, but the low dose ADHD medicine made a HUGE difference for him. And yes, he was a runner, which is a very worrisome problem to deal with ... the meds seem to help him use better judgment, understand why running off is not good, and just be less impetuous in general. I also think "runners" just grow out of that behavior with time. I can't speak to the skin allergy ... it is quite possible that he has an allergy and that condition is completely unrelated medically to the other items you describe, which all do sound related and very ADHD inattentive-like in nature.

One sure way to test the diagnosis is to try the low dose meds ... if it helps dramatically within 3 days, then there you go. If not, keep working on getting a different or more nuanced diagnosis. Best wishes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you mind me asking at what age your son started talking?

This is OP. My son's first word was at about 9 months. He clearly was saying Doggy and Daddy. He has just always talked. I can't really remember when he started with sentences but he was always more talkative and more verbal than the children at Little Gym or in play groups. I never thought twice about his behavior being more than me being not able to control him because his speech was so advanced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've seen a therapist, a psychologist and the regular ped. I have been given a diagnosis and I have been offered a game plan on how to attack the issues we are experiencing. I do not know any other familys that are experiencing what we are with our son and I would love to hear what other parents think or have to say. Based on what I am describing what would you say the issues at hand are and the diagnosis is.

My son is almost four.
He has never slept well. As an infant he rarely slept.
He has skin issues. We have not found a source for his skin allergies.
He is very verbal and has an excellent vocabulary. He loves to talk and express himself.
He roams. He does not ever settle into one activity. If we try to role play or be imaginative something catches his eye and he walks away.
He runs. He does not stop to think about things he sees and will just take off running, not listening to our commands to stop.
He is easily distracted.
He becomes very aggressive and angry when he is overtired. Hitting, slapping, kicking, screaming.
He has a difficult time transitioning between activities.
He refuses to join in group activities at school. Rather than sit at story time he walks around. He will not sit to color if that is the group activity, he will go look out the window.
He is fiercely attached to one parent and will climb them like a monkey. He breaks down in hysterics if that parent cannot be with him.
He understands and he takes direction but he is so distractible he does not ever actually do what is asked of him.

Just based on the items above (which just make him sound like a bad kid with bad parents) what diagnosis would you think my child was given?

It sounds like a few things. My son has SPD and before I knew that, he wouldn't participate in group activities anywhere. He would fight to get away from being too close to other kids. He has tactile oversensitivity. He also had a lot of trouble going from one activity to another or tolerating change (new students, teachers, parents) in his classroom. Some of the other things you mentioned also go along with being gifted- great vocab and verbal ability, hard time transitioning, etc. I doubt the ped would know anything about SPD. Try finding an OT for an evaluation for that. GL.

[Anonymous]

I'm so impressed with everyone's knowledge. I am barely able to understand "working memory" and "executive function" let alone all the various combinations of diagnosis. I really have such a different perspective now on behavior. I will never ever again judge a parent when I see a child I think needs to be disciplined or out of control. It blow my mind that I really was a good parent but thought I could not handle my child and was just growing this out of control boy. But that's not it. It's not anything he or I could have known or changed, if that makes any sense.

I am going to start with some book recs from the psychologist (who was the one who told me not to read "Out of Sync Child"). Allergies test are scheduled. Should I find a dev. ped? Do I see one in leu of a regular ped? Anything else I am missing? I don't want to try OT until I can read the books I've ordered and have a grasp of what all these terms mean, so we'll wait a few weeks.

How do I contact the county? Is this the contact - http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/infantstoddlers/

[Anonymous]

SPD is an OT diagnosis, not a medical diagnosis. Often sensory issues are a symptom of something else entirely. If that is your diagnosis I would urge you to get a full evaluation from a developmental pediatrician or child psychologist or psychiatrist.

Avoid the regular ped for this because they typically aren't great with developmental issues. Do not start and finish with OT. OT can help but there's been a great deal of mission creep with these folks and you could miss something important by relying on them.