What do I do about these attention seeking behaviors?

[Anonymous]

My son is 5. He has complicated diagnoses but severe adhd. He is constantly attention seeking. Meds do not help this. He says my name or the name of the person he wants to interact with thousands of times an hour. With peers, he will do annoying things like run over and throw the ball they are playing with over the fence. He doesn’t care if it is good or bad attention. I don’t kid what to do. It’s hard not to reinforce this behavior with attention particularly in public. Does Bayonne have any ideas what this could be related to? How to help???

[Anonymous]

Is he medicated? This is pretty severe if he is saying something thousands of times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is he medicated? This is pretty severe if he is saying something thousands of times.

He is. I did say severe. So, yes it is.

[Anonymous]

ABA

[Anonymous]

Op - Have you tried the Kazdin method or some other parenting/discipline technique for challenging kids?

It's not easy to implement, but basically, you have to ignore all unwanted behavior and notice/reward even the tiniest good behavior you see. So the child gets no attention instead of positive/negative attention. And you have to be really consistent.

http://alankazdin.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Kazdin-Method-Parenting-Defiant-Child/dp/0547085826

[Anonymous]

Kids with SN are often immature for their age, it's not surprising that he's doing things like this.

Work on the interactions with you first. Aba or kazdin would help. When he gets a little older maybe try a social skills group.

[Anonymous]

Aba has not helped him, despite doing it for a couple of years, with behavior at least, because his behavior is erratic. He does not respond to the trigger or antecedent in a consistent way. I do think it’s time to really try kazdin, thank you for the affirmation on that.

[Anonymous]

I say this out of kindness - maybe you need to give him more attention? Meaning, a specific period of time each day where he gets one-on-one, uninterrupted attention and where he gets to be "in charge" (so long as that is not dangerous or damaging). This strategy was recommended to us by several professionals when our son was that age. And even it is doesn't address the interruptions, I think it will serve your relationship well in the long term. My son is now a pre-teen and still asks for this time once or twice a week - and he talks to me!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I say this out of kindness - maybe you need to give him more attention? Meaning, a specific period of time each day where he gets one-on-one, uninterrupted attention and where he gets to be "in charge" (so long as that is not dangerous or damaging). This strategy was recommended to us by several professionals when our son was that age. And even it is doesn't address the interruptions, I think it will serve your relationship well in the long term. My son is now a pre-teen and still asks for this time once or twice a week - and he talks to me!

He gets so much one on one attention. We do this, he has doting grandparents, he goes to a sn school and gets basically individualized attention all the time, and his Nanny is aba trained and gives him all kinds of one on one time. It’s never enough. Argh!

[froggymom]

My heart goes out to you.What a difficult situation. Maybe keep him busy with lots of crafts and games that he can do on his own. Talk to the doctors and get some input from there. Hang in there! You are doing a great job under difficult circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Op, you may want to try different meds. No you're not alone.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried the Lives in the Balance approach by Dr Ross Greene?

Try to find out what the problem is from his perspective.

https://www.livesinthebalance.org/walking-tour-parents

Kids do well if they can!