I am helping the mother of a 6 year old boy with ADHD. He is taking Ritalin twice a day. She would like some advice about how to cope with his tantrums, how to get him to do homework and chores and how to keep him from acting before thinking which sometimes is dangerous for him.
She is planning to start him in Play Therapy and wonders if anyone has any thoughts on how useful this may or may not be.
She also wonders if anyone has had personal counseling to help with being the single parent of an ADHD child. She also has a 5 year old daughter. She has no access to a computer so I am posting the message for her and will print out any answers. Thank you.
Re: 6 year old boy
If she is so inclined, have her find every book she can in the subject at her local library. I found that “Driven to Distraction” even though it is geared to adults with AD(H)D was an excellent book recommended by my son’s child psychologist when he was dx at 6 (3 years ago). Balancing meds to make things work best is more trial and error, not all meds work for all kids and she needs to be in the docs face if she does not think things are working. My son takes Adderall twice a day and the homewrok/after school time is he__. We have him to his chores before school along with his piano practice since he is feeling best in the morning. I cannot give him another dose right before school ends, I tried an dhe does not eat dinner. This is a child who at 55” only weighs 58lbs. so skipping dinner is not an option, he is almost forced to eat lunch as it is. I work for the school district so the aides make sure to report to me his eating habits at lunch and they won’t let him throw it away.
Family counseling is very important. This is something that effects everyone in the household. We still continue to go to counseling once a month though my son only goes occasionally when he has gotten very ODDlike and I can’t take it anymore.
Re: 6 year old boy
If he is still having tantrums and demonstrating impulsive behavior, I’d suggest that his medication is not working. It may need to have the dosage changed or the medication changed and I’d certainly let the prescribing physician know that the impulsive behavior continues.
While medication is not a cure-all, for those parents who elect it, it should provide more support to the child than this child seems to be getting.
Re: 6 year old boy
Thank you for your help, Sara. Her boy will be starting first grade this week and she is going to talk to the Dr. about his medication. The Dr. recently doubled his morning dose and she has seen a difference, she thinks maybe his second dose might also need increasing. I will give her your message when I see her tomorrow.
Re: 6 year old boy
Amy, I gave my friend your message today, she says thank you. She doesn’t have alot of money or alot of time to check out the library computers and she couldn’t afford to print things out. She has checked out alot of books and videos on ADHD. What she misses most is the chance to talk to other parents. The only local support group (CHADD) does not meet during the summer and only once a month in the evening during the rest of the year. Sometimes that causes problems if she can’t find a sitter, they don’t provide that at the support group meetings.
Steff
First I would say personal and family counseling would probably be very helpful. Parenting an adhd child is a challenge and all the support you can get is great. If the child is having difficulties with peers I could see play therapy as being beneficial, sometimes adhd kids don’t realize personal space boundaries or that they are being annoying when they get rowdy.
As far as behavior, the counselor should be able to give some suggestions, however, some folks have had success with a book and video called 1,2,3 Magic. You can get the book in most libraries. The program is sort of time out but is more structured and gives the parent more specific guidelines on how to use a time out. As well as how to keep your cool :o)
My older son was dxed add w/o hyper at age 6, he was having trouble paying attention in school, and learning to read. He would cry and fall out of the chair and have temper tantrums over homework. I saw an almost immediate difference in him when we started Ritalin. He took 5mg 3 times a day, am, noon and 4 for homework.
Your friend may need to talk to the doc if the medicine doesn’t seem to help, or if the child is only taking it during school he may need that afternoon dose to get through homework time, which is also chore time and possibly afterschool sports time? On the other hand, if all that started after the medicine was started, then the doc also needs to be informed of the behavior problems, a different medicine might need to be tried but that should be discussed with the doc.
I hope these suggestions help, let your friend know that often the public library has computers available for the public to use.Good luck and best wishes.