I think my son has ADHD .....

[exhaustedandweary]

My eldest has always been a really active boy and I have always struggled with disciplining him. He turned 4 this year. Recently I have noticed two things. Firstly, that other children are starting to calm down a bit (we always brought it down to age before); secondly, that his behaviour is gradually getting worse - lashing out at other children for no / very little reason, not listening when I speak to him, he will still turn a box of toys over and laugh like he did when he was 2.

There are some things that work in getting him to behave but I can't spend my life doing them because otherwise my time becomes exclusively devoted to him.

His nursery mentioned that he struggled to sit still but they said it was just because he was still little.

I really don't know how to handle him. Today I am feeling really exhausted and down from dealing with him all day. I want to take him to the GP and discuss with him some kind of therapy (even if it is just for me).

What's he like with activities? Does he concentrate? S he a daydreamer? Does he have any OCD tendencies or rituals? If you're at all concerned speak to your GP or health visitor. My nephew has been diagnosed as autistic. He had home visits and school visits from ed psych who diagnosed him. Good luck.

He will concentrate if it involves something physical. Definitely not OCD. I would love to speak to my GP but DH thinks we should try to sort it out ourselves.

I think you should trust your instincts and have a word with your GP or HV. It could be that he has some issues with his attention and listening which you can address largely at home with some pointers from Speech & Lang? Doesn't necessarily mean he has a diagnosable disorder as such.

I have the same concerns with my 6 year old DD.

She has a very poor attention span, is completely hyperactive most of the time and stops listening after about 2 seconds of speaking to her. She's exactly the same in school & her teacher has said her fine motor skills are very immature because she can't take her time over anything & does everything at 100mph!

She hits out and is really hard on her 8 year old sister. Every day seems to get harder

I've gone to our GP who referred DD to a hospital consultant who deals with childhood behavioural problems; I don't feel like this has been helpful but we've now been referred to CAMHS who can hopefully be of more help. I would recommend talking to your GP or health visitor tho, you can't cope with it on your own. I took years to talk to someone about it, I didn't want to look like a bad parent or be scrutinised for simply having a naughty child but it got to a point that we had to try and do something. I'd rather know if DD has ADHD or something else as at least then we'd know what we're dealing with & maybe be able to understand a bit better. It's got to be better than struggling through every day & not knowing.

Lou.
x

You can post in the special needs section asking for advice as well.

Age four can be very difficult and in my experience, it's hard to daignose ADHD at this age because there is such a huge range of normal and some children are very very lively.

Of course speak to your health visitor/GP for advice as well.

You can ask for a hearing test, especially as you say he isn't listening to you. It's possible to have good hearing at some frequencies and poor hearing at other frequencies. Glue ear is quite common at this age.