Carer

I am a carer to our daughter she hypotonia, Ataxia,convergent squint, and severe global development delay and we are struggling to help her as she has a bad attitude problem and a temper and she is 7 years old

[Jofisher]

There are community mental health teams and child mental health services so discuss with your GP or paediatrician also the carers association can help you register with them theirs lots of help available and speak to your local social services to see what help and support they can off you all as a family

[SpeedyH]

Generally speaking, all behaviour is a form of communication. You do not mention how developed your daughter’s language skills are so it is possible that she is struggling to communicate her needs which is leading to frustration and behaviours that you are struggling to interpret. Is she in school and if so are they noticing the same behaviours or is it just at home?As Jofisher says, definitely speak to her school and your GP and ask for a referral to a paediatrician, and your local children with disabilities team at the council. They will be able to offer you help on how to support your daughter.

[HolisticMum]

My son is 23yrs old now and has similar problems. Although there is not very much help from Speech Therapists, our son loved cause and effect toys from an early age and then progressed to the computer. As he was so interested in that we went down the route of an iPad with Proloquo communication. For years though we had to prove that he knew what he was doing and wasn't just random. So went through a lot of trials of big buttons and him saying what he wanted that way, which he did like. I always think, if we couldn't talk how frustrating it would be and how could we get our message through to people? I used to sing songs that he liked with colours in and show him the actual colour or something that would take his interest and say the word and see if he would copy (even just making a sound).

Show her words and praise her.

Myself I feel frustrated as he only wants his ipad to go onto YouTube now and when he was at school he took it everywhere to talk to people. Now he has started screaming if he wants something in particular as I suppose he finds that's the best way of getting attention. So I'm working on that one.

I hope you get some help for her but all these things take far too long in coming and their years of learning pass so quickly.

All the best.

KT