Reply to Next steps for 4 year old with ADHD

Forum Index » Kids With Special Needs and Disabilities

Reply to "Next steps for 4 year old with ADHD"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]After a recent visit to KKI, we were told that my almost 4 year old son is virtually certain to receive an ADHD diagnosis in the next year or so.  His diagnosis is "hyperactive impulsive", and not combined or inattentive. He also clearly does not have oppositional defiance disorder, as he is an extremely happy kid.  So what does this look like on a daily basis? At home, he is happy, bouncey and nonstop movement (i.e., literally can't stop bouncing his legs even if you offer him a cookie to stay still for five seconds), but generally follows orders without defiance - getting dressed, putting things away, etc. So long as he is given an activity, he has exceptional focus - he can focus on trains, puzzles, drawing, tv, eating, baking with me, having a bath, cleaning up etc for literally hours.  That's why he received a "hyperactive" diagnosis and not the inattentive diagnosis.  He does get too touchy at home, with the occasional slapping of his hands on us if he's bored, good-natured head butt etc. We have used good strategies since toddlerhood, and these physical issues have greatly dissapated at home but are still there.

In public, he is extremely busy, touching and a bit difficult to reign in compared to other kids, but we've adapted some strategies so we don't really have any problems with the grocery store, etc. Mostly just need to keep our eyes on him.

His main issues are at preschool, where he is inappropriately physical with other kids. In his ideal world, he would just go off by himself and play trains for hours. But school requires circle time, dancing time, play time at the park, and my son gets overexcited and will randomly run up to kids and hit them, bump them, hug way too tight, squeeze their face (he does this one because he know he hugs too tight, so I think it's his attempt at reigning in his behavior).  During circle time, he is unable to sit quietly like other kids, and rolls around, flails his legs (and kicks other kids), somersaults, etc.  He likes other kids,  but he is definitely off socially with his peers because he wants to interact through inappropriate physical behavior instead of talking. As mentioned, he probably prefers to be alone at school, but this is on par with several boys in his class. His speech is not great, but pretty on par with several of the other boys in his class (who also don't use speech unless quiet and controlled). School is really the only place where we have behavior that is consistently a problem.  His school has been awesome, supportive, creative and patient, but the problems are still there.

He is always a very happy kid, no tantrums, no defiance.  Just busy, touchy, physical.

We are doing the DCPS early intervention thing to coordinate some accommodations with his private preschool and then start a paper trail for when he goes to DCPS for a 504.

KKI said that, based on the hyperactive-only issue, no inattention issues, a good personality, no defiance issues and family history of highly gifted people with similar adhd symptoms, he's likely to age out of most of the problems by age 10 or so, but may still prefer to be on meds after that.

KKI said meds weren't recommended at this age given that he and others aren't at major risk of injury (even though I said he's constantly hurting other kids), said that meds will almost certainly be indicated in a couple years, but in the mean time the recommended course is intensive therapy.  We looked into this and the options are inconvenient (times and locations) and extremely expensive ($800 for initial analysis, plus $300 a week for therapy).  We have also read about therapy for 3 year olds without defiance, and we're not sure that this would have much impact on our son (esp given the above description).  I feel like this was recommended to us not because it will necessarily help, but because the guidelines say that doctors are supposed to recommend behavior modification before they suggest medication next year.

I've read several books and lots of stuff on the internet, and feel like we're already implementing good parenting techniques at home - hence a lot of his behavior at home has improved. There's not much need for a reward system, because he pretty much does everything he is supposed to do at home, and is it appropriate to reward a kid for, say, not bouncing their leg anymore?

What else should we be doing?

Would a social skills group help at this age?  Do you think we're crazy for passing on therapy? Anything else for an almost-4-year old who's only issues are touching/hyperactivity/social issues in a school setting?

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics