New Member, 5 year old with ADHD combined type and anxiety this last week.

[Blair88]

I have a 5 year old (just turned 5 in December) son who was diagnosed recently. Looking forward to learning from everyone and their own experiences. My son has been kicked out of daycares and TK most recently. He is now home with with me all day and my husband watches him when I have meetings. We both have full time jobs but I happen to work from home. Luckily I can make up work hours at night so I can focus on my son during the day. We are starting PCIT therapy next week and have already contacted our school district for an evaluation and potential services. Looking for an iep and or bip among other things. My son is very quick to anger and easily frustrated. He is very impulsive and unfortunately becomes aggressive with kids and teachers in the classroom. At his old tk he had the classroom being evacuated multiple times a week for hitting, kicking, and trashing the classroom. The sad part is yes he gets angry with us at home and occasionally gets aggressive but not as often or extreme as at school. He has been highly aggressive with us in general but it’s very rare now. He plays baseball, karate, swim lessons, gym childcare, and does not act out in these environments and you would never know such a sweet kid would act so aggressive. I should note I did ask the psychiatrist about ODD but she said he is way too young to be officially diagnosed with it and especially before trying to treat the ADHD.

I realize we also have to be strong as parents in supporting our child. For example, the previous tk had a Facebook group for the school and parents were talking about my son and us as his parents which is sad but I don’t expect everyone to understand either.

We are hoping the PCIT therapy will help but it seems like a lot of ppl have their children use medication paired with therapy. I’m not sure how I feel about that just yet since we just got a diagnosis a few days ago but I do know i need to do research on ADHD and try to help my son the best I can. I have already read a bunch of things In this group chat I am definitely going to try.

[kdali]

We sought out a medication eval to see what the options were. Also scheduled play therapy and family therapy with different practitioners so I could have different opinions/direction. Play therapy includes homework for us every day, based on the parts of the testing that were the worst. I have a chart with goals, immediate rewards for each task, medium reward for completing main items, and a larger goal for the week if she makes her quota. She decided her rewards, but they are all reasonable...and can change weekly so she doesn't get bored. I hope this helps!

[Blair88 in reply to kdali]

Thanks, those are great ideas. I feel like I need to do a bunch of research and then try to figure out next steps. I really want to come up with a routine that will benefit him while at home with me until kindergarten and to help him learn some management skills. A medication eval might be good before he starts kindergarten. That way we know our options.

[kdali in reply to Blair88]

You're welcome! He may like using a timer too. We had to wait a bit for a practitioner who accepts littles to get the med eval appointment.

[sph777]

hi, I’m a little confused, sounds a little similar to ours but in a reverse kind of way—ours had aggression etc but hardly at school, almost all at home. And at age 7 it seemed to magnify 5 times immediately—assaulting both me and wife, throwing things etc, but just a few edgy times at school, not enough to get kicked out. But we got meds quickly by a miracle and it’s maybe 75% improved. What I’m curious about is, you’re having some good changes, without meds? I just can’t imagine how that’s happening….hope I didn’t miss something…

[Blair88 in reply to sph777]

I think at home there isn’t as much stimuli perhaps and definitely not as many kids. Something about the school/daycare setting that he just doesn’t respond well too. I think part of his anxiety has to do with being at school as well but I have no idea really. In either case he’s been home with me since Christmas and his behavior at home has improved but he can still be argumentative and easily frustrated. These things take time but I don’t know if what we do at home will carry over into kindergarten because it is a different environment and he may react once put back in that setting.