Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP again - got our preliminary results and a very in-depth meeting - looks like (moderate?) adhd and mild autism. Now, we are figuring out our next steps while we wait for the full report. She is a sometimes charming, very verbal kid… and sometimes so very challenging. I’m relieved it’s not just me. A professional could see her and understand her.

Glad you have some answers! For us it was anxiety and ADHD. Meds have gotten us the best results and now at age 10 therapy seems to finally be working a bit too. It's a work in progress but the diagnoses were a relief to get the ball rolling.

Which meds?

Anonymous wrote:OP again - got our preliminary results and a very in-depth meeting - looks like (moderate?) adhd and mild autism. Now, we are figuring out our next steps while we wait for the full report. She is a sometimes charming, very verbal kid… and sometimes so very challenging. I’m relieved it’s not just me. A professional could see her and understand her.

Glad you have some answers! For us it was anxiety and ADHD. Meds have gotten us the best results and now at age 10 therapy seems to finally be working a bit too. It's a work in progress but the diagnoses were a relief to get the ball rolling.

Just don't play into the emotional drama. Validate once at low intensity. Then just let it go. Give lots of praise and attention for behavior you want to see--kindness to animals, cleaning up, sitting still, etc.

Kid may learn to stop with the emotional tirades because it doesn't get "listening time."
Or not, but it's worth a try.

Anonymous wrote:Op - most diagnoses are for the purposes of insurance rather than being so set in stone in terms of the nuances of behavior.

There’s definitely some cognitive rigidity and rejection sensitivity dysphoria going on. Look those up. Also some perseveration and lack of emotional regulation. Those could sit at the junction of asd and adhd or could just be personality

Oh wait just saw you got this same result already - apologies

Soooo many kids are being dx audhd atm - mine included. Def the dx du jour

Op - most diagnoses are for the purposes of insurance rather than being so set in stone in terms of the nuances of behavior.

There’s definitely some cognitive rigidity and rejection sensitivity dysphoria going on. Look those up. Also some perseveration and lack of emotional regulation. Those could sit at the junction of asd and adhd or could just be personality

Sounds like ASD rigidity and black and white thinking.

OP again - got our preliminary results and a very in-depth meeting - looks like (moderate?) adhd and mild autism. Now, we are figuring out our next steps while we wait for the full report. She is a sometimes charming, very verbal kid… and sometimes so very challenging. I’m relieved it’s not just me. A professional could see her and understand her.

Thank you! This advice has been very helpful. I thought it was very interesting that ADHD dude points out that 1:1 counseling with the child is not recommended. We’ve been doing parent coaching for a while (not ADHD - specific because there’s no dx). It has gotten us through some serious behavior challenges, but lately has felt less helpful. Sometimes, I think we just aren’t that good at changing our parenting techniques. We used some reward techniques to get her to stop resisting daily routines. We were taught to completely ignore bad behavior (she is a magnet for negative attention) and focus on good behaviors - not our strong suit, but we try. It is very challenging when one kid is extremely self sufficient and the other kid is struggling so much with self control.