ADHD kid turning into a "radio station"

[Anonymous]

My 9-year old is constantly humming and singing. Constantly. In classroom, at home, at dinner, during homework, at bedtime. Sometimes she babbles nonsense, repeats commercials from the radio that her teacher sometimes plays in the classroom. This is not the singing-singing, it's a repetitive hum of whatever she heard lately. She's disengaged from everything she does, never listens to instruction in the classroom and leaves it all to the little one-on-one instruction her teacher sometimes provides after school, or the support we provide at home. You talk to her and she responds between hums, from afar. She is so remote at times, that she forgets where she is and acts completely inappropriately -- talks aloud in a classroom, takes over someone's work, stands up, walks around and finds a random "project", right in the middle of dinner, homework, school time. This used to be something that she'd do like any other kid, when tired, but now it has taken over all her school activities, and afternoon practice.

Anyone else deal with this? Is it an avoidance technique? Is it feeling overwhelmed? Is it meds no longer working? Her ADHD never manifested like this before in her. I feel like she uses about 1/4 of her brain in any given activity, and in 4th grade, this is getting really hard.

Advice?

[Anonymous]

Is she taking medication? My son does this as well and it's a sign that he has forgotten his medication.

[Anonymous]

Time to adjust the medication dosage or change to a new one.

[Anonymous]

yes, she is. It's been working so well until now, i really didn't want to change that. But she's in a fog!

[Anonymous]

OP, it sounds like she needs to be re-evaluated. Maybe she grew or went through some changes and needs a medication adjustment.

[Anonymous]

is there anything that seems to work better with this particular type of inattention? It's like she's focused on a different channel.. Right now, she's on long acting Ritalin. I like it, because there no drop at the end of the day -- everything else we tried, she used to melt into a puddle of tears and screams whenever the medicine wore off. This has been a solid, even support that never triggered trouble.

She's also *really* tired at the end of the day -- way more tired than any one of her peers. I sometimes feel like serving her coffee just to get through homework. I do offer her a sweet snack instead (fruit or chocolate).

[Anonymous]

Possibly tourettes?

[Anonymous]

No, just hyper and distracted. She has medical care and does not have anything else besides ADHD. Was hoping for an Aha! message on getting back to normal without tweaking the meds. Not looking for a diagnostic, we know exactly what this is.

[Anonymous]

Not much advice to offer except that if she is consistently really tired, maybe changing bedtime could help with that aspect. Or an afterschool rest/nap? Some kids do need more sleep than others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:is there anything that seems to work better with this particular type of inattention? It's like she's focused on a different channel.. Right now, she's on long acting Ritalin. I like it, because there no drop at the end of the day -- everything else we tried, she used to melt into a puddle of tears and screams whenever the medicine wore off. This has been a solid, even support that never triggered trouble.

She's also *really* tired at the end of the day -- way more tired than any one of her peers. I sometimes feel like serving her coffee just to get through homework. I do offer her a sweet snack instead (fruit or chocolate).

Try a protein snack instead. I'm sure there's a lot else going on, but low blood sugar is not helping this situation.

[Anonymous]

Sounds allot like the "diagnosis previously known as Aspberger's". Might warrant some more extensive neuropsych testing to rule out high functioning autism spectrum disorder. We were floored to recently get an ASD diagnosis at the age of 12 (only previous diagnosis had been ADHD at age 9)---many similarities to what you've described.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds allot like the "diagnosis previously known as Aspberger's". Might warrant some more extensive neuropsych testing to rule out high functioning autism spectrum disorder. We were floored to recently get an ASD diagnosis at the age of 12 (only previous diagnosis had been ADHD at age 9)---many similarities to what you've described.

Not OP but this resonates. What would you recommend if HFA has been ruled out consistently? Looking less for diagnosis and more for interventions and strategies. Digging for answers doesn't seem to have helped. Endless evaluation seems exhausting and pointless. Maybe I need to start a new thread...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds allot like the "diagnosis previously known as Aspberger's". Might warrant some more extensive neuropsych testing to rule out high functioning autism spectrum disorder. We were floored to recently get an ASD diagnosis at the age of 12 (only previous diagnosis had been ADHD at age 9)---many similarities to what you've described.

Or Tourettes:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tourette-syndrome/basics/definition/CON-20043570

[Anonymous]

FWIW, our ADHD/Inattentive kid, age 10, does this constantly -- humming, singing, sometimes scatting instead of singing known songs, playing drums on the desk, tapping, chatting up other students, etc. DC recently said it's worse when he doesn't get enough exercise during the day. (DC needs exercise before school and lots of running at recess.) Oddly, DC is not "hyperactive" when he doesn't get exercise, i.e. he does feel the need to run around, just run his mouth.

I think, for him, it is an attention issue -- most people focus their brain on just one channel at a time, but DC can have more than one channel going at once. He is doing his math and singing a song at the same time. He is listening to you read the story while he is tapping a consistent, complicated beat with his foot. His brain is bouncing around from one idea to another and rarely in a linear fashion.

Our DC doesn't take meds. He is in a SN school though for his language learning disability, which happens also to be able to deal with the ADD issues. At home, we have learned to redirect -- fidget balls, time to play/breaks, chewing gum, and, when it's really important, gentle reminders to be quiet (when someone is trying to concentrate or on the phone or not feeling well).

DC also had trouble with instructions, but we found in a large classroom a big part of the problem was receptive language and auditory processing difficulties. He has problems hearing against background noise and so, just tunes out.

In our case, Aspergers or Tourette's are definitely not possible alternate diagnoses - it's definitely an aspect of the ADD. It will serve him great one day as his brain careens around to solve a scientific problem in the lab and he connects B and Z to do so in a way no one else would think of, but until then, it's a "weakness" to be managed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, our ADHD/Inattentive kid, age 10, does this constantly -- humming, singing, sometimes scatting instead of singing known songs, playing drums on the desk, tapping, chatting up other students, etc. DC recently said it's worse when he doesn't get enough exercise during the day. (DC needs exercise before school and lots of running at recess.) Oddly, DC is not "hyperactive" when he doesn't get exercise, i.e. he does feel the need to run around, just run his mouth.

I think, for him, it is an attention issue -- most people focus their brain on just one channel at a time, but DC can have more than one channel going at once. He is doing his math and singing a song at the same time. He is listening to you read the story while he is tapping a consistent, complicated beat with his foot. His brain is bouncing around from one idea to another and rarely in a linear fashion.

Our DC doesn't take meds. He is in a SN school though for his language learning disability, which happens also to be able to deal with the ADD issues. At home, we have learned to redirect -- fidget balls, time to play/breaks, chewing gum, and, when it's really important, gentle reminders to be quiet (when someone is trying to concentrate or on the phone or not feeling well).

DC also had trouble with instructions, but we found in a large classroom a big part of the problem was receptive language and auditory processing difficulties. He has problems hearing against background noise and so, just tunes out.

In our case, Aspergers or Tourette's are definitely not possible alternate diagnoses - it's definitely an aspect of the ADD. It will serve him great one day as his brain careens around to solve a scientific problem in the lab and he connects B and Z to do so in a way no one else would think of, but until then, it's a "weakness" to be managed.

What school?