Morning behaviors

[Hpmom]

I have a 10 year old boy with ASD/ADHD and mornings are horrible. He is so jumpy and impulsive! He takes medication and that will usually take effect an hour after he takes it but from the time he wakes up till he gets on his bus he is jumpy, bouncy, noisy, rude and disrespectful. Does anyone else have these issues? If so what have you done that works?? He has been in behavioral therapy of some sort since age 3.

[rrichardson]

Give him his medicine earlier than you have been.

[Hpmom in reply to rrichardson]

He gets it the moment he wakes up. Literally before he gets out of bed

[Mmagusin]

Try to fix bad something that distracts or soothes while you wait for the medicine to kick in. While you're waiting make sure not to react negatively or angerly to the behavior. Just let him work through it and be patient. Go take care if your own needs first

[nawilliamsjr23]

I would reevaluate his meds with his Pediatrician. He might need a higher dose or a different type of meds. Is he on a IEP?

[22789]

I used to wake my son up an hour early to take his medication. He would go back to sleep and be on track when it was time to "really" wake up.

[ChristinaReader]

Okay, here's what I do but it may or may not work for you. We have a morning routine posted with pictures. She does "exercise" for the first 20 minutes after getting out of bed. She usually does Cosmic Kids Yoga (it's on Youtube). This helps get her excess energy out, wakes her up, and calms her down. Then it's breakfast time then on to the Get ready for the day checklist. I let her use a dry erase marker to check off each item as she prepares for school. She gets dressed, brushes her hair and teeth, an puts on socks and shoes on her own. She really loves it if her and I "race" to see who can be done first. The winner gets a high five. Once she's ready for the day she's got about 25 minutes left to play, watch TV or do a computer game before we go to the bus stop. The visual checklists help remind her what to do without me telling her, so she likes not being nagged. She has fun racing me and watching TV before school is a special reward to her. I will not turn it on until she is completely ready. She's in second grade now so we had two years to experiment and see what would work. The 25 minutes is a good buffer because some mornings we run behind if she isn't happy and has to change her clothes again, or if we need time to work through a meltdown over breakfast or something else. There are some good sites if you search for Morning routines for kids with ADHD. Understood.org has good information and I like ADDitudemag.com articles too. Good luck!

[REA17]

We had issues with our 8 year old in the mornings. Our family therapist told us to make it interesting. So we started playing The amazing race. We would say "you are going to England to wash your face" and then when she was done she would come back for the next clue. We have also been doing trivia with her. Example would be "what is the capital of Texas" go make your bed. Our therapist also suggested a work out ball or mini trampoline for her to bounce on. The main thing is make it interesting for them.

[cclark1004]

I have experienced the same behavior in my son. It still occurs when there is too much going on around him. For me, I have learned that its best to keep things simple. Give him a schedule (in 5 minute increments) or have it written down (my son has a whiteboard in his room with his morning routine schedule on it). Every time he gets off task, I try not to yell, I tell him to look at his schedule and ask him what is he supposed to be doing.

It does get tricky when there are other kids in the home. I also have 6 year old girls who cause lots of distractions to him as well. Its best to just keep him in line by writing things out and constantly reminding him to follow.

[Kristaalynn]

My son and i wake up and exercise. We have a few machines, eliptical, mini trampoline, punching bag, stationary bike, etc. We do 3 minute stations on each and i play up beat music too. We 6-12 minutes per day. He sleeps in his clothes for the next day so we can get up and get right to our workout. If you dont have machines going outside is a good idea too we also got the mini trampoline at walmart for $30 and use it all winter to get some fun exercise in.

After exercise he is ready to sit down and eat breakfast and some times he even feels focused enough to do some sight words..but that isnt often. Good luck i hope this helps

[anirush]

My grandson has also slept in his clothes for a long time. He is better now but he used to have such a hard time getting ready in the morning that this sped things up and became a habit.

[SummerAjami]

Yes same here my son is 12 “8 th grade it’s the most Difficult situation when I have to go through every single day on the fact that any mistake he makes at school he suspended it’s so hard