Did medication at 4 for ADHD help social/language issues?

[Anonymous]

OP here. So we did start medication a few months ago (got in with KKI), and it helped, though as I'd guessed not so much with the language/social piece. More with the bouncing off the walls/safety issues piece. Though school feels it's helped with attention and ability to engage (and thus some language use, since it's hard to participate if you're not tuned in). No huge social or language leaps, or any real difference in progress there - yet, though I do feel like there's now more of an opportunity (though I think we're not getting the right support from the school and our ability to do services outside of school has been limited). Part of the difficulty is I think we need a dose adjustment - med impact is a bit inconsistent, but I hesitate to raise right now as we're not seeing any eating or sleeping side effects (and as a still-napper, I'd really like to avoid messing with the nap while it's still needed). I'm thinking over the summer/early next school year we'll try to increase it, as the nap issue should be less pressing. I'm definitely glad for the medication though, it's made a difference at home as well - it was hard to see how trying the behavior and other aspects were until they were toned down a bit. When things are working well, it's more peaceful (and safer, etc). Things like rec classes have gone much better, grocery shopping is manageable and dare I say sometimes even pleasant, and so on.

But it may be over time that we see a bigger difference in the developmental pieces. In terms of other underlying issues - we now also have an ASD diagnosis, which I think technically fits our continued issues but I'm not sure is exactly on point (I don't think there's anything better). But I wasn't surprised to get it, and I've seen the issues for a while now. And I'm more comfortable pursuing that/rolling with it having started medication, to see that indeed it helped, but not quite with the core issues thus making it more likely something else is going on at the moment.

I still think it's hard to sort out what's what. The language piece isn't helping the social piece - but the social issues seem bigger than just language (if you're not using the language you have, even if not as sophisticated as peers, in a social manner like you could that seems to me to argue it's not just language). Attention/hyperactivity wasn't helping anything. But she is more tuned in to non-social things, so I think again that shows the difference in social versus other things. And it's hard to predict where things will be in a few years. I've both under and over estimated the likely progress in various areas in the past 2 years, so have given up trying to predict anything (and correspondingly tried to give up on the anxiety over it a bit).

[Anonymous]

Op, this sounds so much like my son - see the other thread re would you suspect Asd. I don't actually, which is why it's so hard. And I think his primary issue is with receptive language not expressive but that is inconsistent so it is hard to tell. But I would be thinking social pragmatic issues for you, too.

[Anonymous]

OP, how old is your daughter? Was KKI okay with medicating? We have been told to wait despite huge issues at home and preschool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, how old is your daughter? Was KKI okay with medicating? We have been told to wait despite huge issues at home and preschool.

Sorry, I mean, I know she is 4, but how close to 5?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, how old is your daughter? Was KKI okay with medicating? We have been told to wait despite huge issues at home and preschool.

Not OP, but KKI suggested medicating 2 months after DS turned 5, but he had also been seeing the same dev ped there for 2.5 years so she had observed him for a while, and we had tried behavioral therapy (which was very helpful to us but obviously isn't going to fix the impulse control issues).

[Anonymous]

Has anyone tried ADHD meds in a nonverbal kid? We're having that discussion with the dev ped this week and I'm nervous. The ADHD diagnosis seems pretty clear -- every doctor he's seen in the last three years has noticed the attention issues and hyperactivity -- but I'm still scared about giving drugs to a 40-lb. kid who can't tell us if they make him feel sick. He just turned 5 last month.

(He has a mild/moderate intellectual disability and MERLD. No autism.)

[Anonymous]

OP here, she's just 4. KKI was ok with medicating - I didn't have to ask/press, they said let's talk about treatment options. I believe it was because of the safety issues the behavior presents (the kid literally climbs the walls/furniture, dives off them, did so during the appointment, etc, takes off in parking lots, etc), the developmental delays that accompanied it, and the "driving nuts" factor - though the latter was the lesser of the factors (but the idea being if the kid is driving everyone in their environment nuts or is otherwise so out of sync with their environment they're likely racking up repeated negative interactions, regardless of how patient/well meaning/well training the adults around them are, which is good for no one). We checked all the boxes (I think one would have sufficed from what the doc said). We'd had several years of interventions, had been doing behavioral stuff with minimal impact, not sure how that played in. I was afraid they'd have some arbitrary age cut off and honestly our sole point in going there, aside from solidifying a diagnosis that had been clear since 2.5 (but obviously not formally diagnosed at that point) for school purposes, was to get to try medication with someone on insurance. But the dev ped we saw at least did not.

[Anonymous]

OP, we so have the "driving nuts" factor. I'm glad to hear your daughter is doing better. Have you guys tried ABA? We are trying it this summer with my similar sounding son. And how is school? school is not good for us. As in bad.

[Anonymous]

We've done ABA - it's the only thing thats worked for the language and social piece. A little less effective for some of the behavioral pieces, but certainly the behavioral approach tends to work for those. Some of this just isn't sufficiently under her control for it to work though at this point. But we've been limited by insurance coverage issues and now that we have coverage, the absolute inability to find someone who can serve us/returns phone calls or inquiries/doesn't have a months upon months long waiting list.

School...school. Sigh. She's doing fine, in that there aren't major behavioral issues (you know, aside from being super wiggly and having a non-existent attention span, but no major acting out). Not so fine in terms of progress along developmental areas, they're just not giving her the supports she needs, the sort of intensive 1:1 work you need to make progress in a kid who tunes out in a group setting. They've seen an impact from the meds which helped - probably more of an impact that we've seen at home, actually. Has an IEP, and luckily a teacher and assistant who are on board with dealing with kids with different challenges - but with the wrong people it could easily have been/be a disaster. The driving nuts factor and all... Anyway, I'm worried about future years, I think the early years are going to be a struggle and there don't seem to be the right sorts of supports in the school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've done ABA - it's the only thing thats worked for the language and social piece. A little less effective for some of the behavioral pieces, but certainly the behavioral approach tends to work for those. Some of this just isn't sufficiently under her control for it to work though at this point. But we've been limited by insurance coverage issues and now that we have coverage, the absolute inability to find someone who can serve us/returns phone calls or inquiries/doesn't have a months upon months long waiting list.

School...school. Sigh. She's doing fine, in that there aren't major behavioral issues (you know, aside from being super wiggly and having a non-existent attention span, but no major acting out). Not so fine in terms of progress along developmental areas, they're just not giving her the supports she needs, the sort of intensive 1:1 work you need to make progress in a kid who tunes out in a group setting. They've seen an impact from the meds which helped - probably more of an impact that we've seen at home, actually. Has an IEP, and luckily a teacher and assistant who are on board with dealing with kids with different challenges - but with the wrong people it could easily have been/be a disaster. The driving nuts factor and all... Anyway, I'm worried about future years, I think the early years are going to be a struggle and there don't seem to be the right sorts of supports in the school system.

I am right there with you. I think my son has more acting out/sensory seeking stuff, too. Are you sure about the ASD diagnosis? My son does not have one, and I do not think one fits - I am sure we will find out more stuff later down the road, but for now, that's not really applicable. I know you mentioned for you, too. I suspect my son has NVLD - he tries so hard to be social and is just so bad at it.

[Anonymous]

Are you on blue cross blue shield? You might be able to get a diagnosis from your regular pediatrician