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Behaviour/development

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"Sudden Uncontrollable" 4 year old Stepdaughter (5 in March)

1 reply

Chris2018 · 25/01/2018 13:35

Hi everyone.

This is my first post, so I'll try to keep it as brief as possible, whilst also including all the necessary info that will hopefully generate some helpful replies to ensure that my fiancée and I come to a conclusion, regarding the next best course of action for her Daughter / my Stepdaughter.

Her memory / instant recall of past events is also 'exceptional'.Her main male teacher, and the assistants/helpers praise her up for her compassion towards other children who are 'upset', or who have lost something, or are in pain etc, which we see as one of her best assets.

To follow on from that, this week, for example, her behaviour was so out of control, that my partner and I decided that I should almost 'role-play', and show her that her extreme behaviour upset me to the point where I broke down into tears. Again, the behaviour suddenly improved, and she showed and voiced real compassion towards me, and for about an hour or so, she was calmer, and played with her toys in front of us, quite calmly.

My MAIN question to anyone reading this is; Can ADHD present itself as young as 4/5? My partner and I do not want to go down the route of using medication like Promethazine (Phenergan) just to get her to settle at night, but we are running out of options, so have turned to Mumsnet for some invaluable help.

Just to recap, and simplify all of that; these are the main areas we are concerned about, re: her overall behaviour at this stage of her development.

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Many thanks for taking the time to read this.

Kind Regards,
Chris. x

OP posts:
WombOfOnesOwn · 26/01/2018 00:41

My god, don't start drugging your child.

You could have been describing me as a child. You need to start explicitly teaching meditation/wind-down techniques. If her recall is exceptional and she's got very good comprehension, this will likely go a long way.

People were so quick to label me ADD/ADHD as a child, and it turned out that wasn't true at all. I was just extremely clever, wanted to learn everything, and had a memory like a steel trap. People were forever punishing me for conduct similar to your daughter's, and it seriously messed me up. I always felt that if I had been born a boy, people would have let me be more rambunctious and "challenging" without trying to label me or drug me.

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