ADHD or just a bit excitable?

[HiddenIcon]

My DS was referred to his HV by his Nursery for his behaviour. They spoke with me first and I agreed it would be good to get some advice on how to handle his little erm... hyperactive turns.

HV visited and sat with us (me & DS) for 2 hours.

In this time DS turned the TV on/off multiple times, chased the cat, poured his juice on the floor, pressed the button to fin the telephone continiously, jumped onto HV knee making sounds in face, climed on to sofa and reached up to the shelf to throw computer DVDs down, ran up and down the stairs, ran through to the kitchen, weed in the litter tray ...came back semi naked....

[she didn't see that bit and I hid it well] ...

opened front door, wondows etc etc etc... all this time I was saying "no" "please stop that" bribing him and generally just trying to have him sit down.

Anyway, she left saying she can see I have my work cut out for me and thinks I am handling him in the correct way but she thinks we need to investigate whether his behavious is "normal".... then she made an appointment to visit me again pre-summer holidays to make a "plan" .

I guess I am just wondering what will happpen now, regarding his naughtiness? Do they have tests they can do to gauague his behviour or will they just keep coming and watching us every so often, for hours on end?

TIA

He is 4 btw.

What do you think Hidden? Do you think he has ADHD?
If you do I'm pretty sure you could press for more help quicker and go above health visitor to GP etc. But don't have experience of ADHD (only ASD)

I don't know tbh. He is very active but come 7.30pm most evenings he asks to go to bed, I thought that children with adhd had problems sleeping?

He does wake some nights but then some nights he can sleep from 7.00pm-6.30am no problem.

Looking at ADHD websites, he does sound like he has some of the things mentioned, ie constanrlt on the move, difficultt playing quietly or watching a dvd or tv, interrupts people (although he does say "excuse me") when interrupting them. He does not seem to listen, climbs the 6ft fence in the garden and needs constant supervision and attention tbh.

Could he just be very very mischevious & a bit naughty?

What sort of problems are nursery having? I don't have much knowledge of ADHD but many on here do so keeping bumping the thread.

Not sitting down for storytime. Disrupting storytime. Occasional hitting, although I think this is quite frequent within the nursery, so he may be retaliating. [sp]

Hidden Icon, if you post on the special needs thread you might get lots of useful advice from ADHD experts.

Ignore me, you are on the SEN thread - thought I was on another, sorry! From what I understand, ADHD doesn't always involve disturbed sleep, but there are others on here who know a lot lot more! As mum to a very hyper boy (mind you autism is his main problem, the hyperactivity just adds to the fun) you have my full sympathy. Only words of hope - it does get better as they grow up a little!

I don't know if I would change anything if he is but I worry perhaps I am not doing something I should, possibly....

Good news about it getting better as he gets older though.

I think I may take him for a little run around the parkand burn off some excess energy.

Any more replies/advice/views would be very welcome.

TIA

also, we got a trampoline in the garden and I think that exercise has saved my sanity, as he gets to use up his excess energy and I don't have to spend the whole day taking him out. you can get trampolines for in the house too, little ones with a handle

I think also fish oils can help. Do a mumsnet search for some more info on this.

thanks

DS1 (15) has ADHD. i think when he was little he had:
the attention span of a goldfish - was impossible to keep on any task at all.
speech delay - he talked absolute gobbledyguke till he was 4/5.
Constant fidgeting, fiddling, twiddling, squirming, tapping, rocking.
Selective deafness.
He also said "excuse me" every time he interupted!
He would not even open boxes of toys to see what was inside... he would climb over it a few times, shove it round the room a bit and run off into another room.
Noisy play - constant sound effects, not that i want to alarm you, but he still does that at 15!
Gets extremely frustrated, especially with stuff that isnt "instant" - making a drink, the tap would take too long to run.
the need to be the "one in charge" - when playing games (on the rare occasion that kids give in and play with him) he needs to be the one to make up all the rules, and then to change them again when he isnt winning! it makes it really hard work for kids to play with kids with ADHD, and they get fed up and play without them.
DS was never particularly "naughty", like breaking stuff or being mean - however he IS so impulsive, stuff gets broke and kids get injured.

DS1 has: almost hung himself on a swing, threw water on a lightbulb in the bathroom above him while he was laid in the bath. broken his shoulders x4, licked battery acid, had and caused more bloody noses and bruises than i care to count thru actions such as swinging poles and rope.

I think the most frustrating thing is that he A) doesnt seem to learn the first time B) believes "right now" - meaning that if something isnt broken, then it obviously never will, and if it is broken, then its ALWAYS been that way, even if it happened only 10mins ago! He can totally believe 2 completely opposing thoughts - for instance having grandma in the room with him, and on hearing the phone ring, insist it must be grandma.

Does any of this sound familiar?

I hit a bit of a wall because he wasnt naughty and violent and would say excuse me when interupting, and he was trained not to wander out the shop without me (and that took some!)... the paediatrician at the time said he couldnt possibly be ADHD. I had to battle for over 3yrs for the diagnosis. I think it was a referal from the health visitor that got the ball rolling. but TBH i never really had any help or therapies or anything at all, even with the diagnosis. All i was offered was ritalin. I personally did not want to medicate. AND YES he is much better now hes been through the majority of puberty.

Yes it sounds familiar. Ds is attending speech therapy atm. He needs routine...if I say we are going out, we have to go within 5/10 minutes to prevent meltdown.

He knows no to run onto the street but sometimes cannot help himself, same with the 6ft fence, he also likes scissors and knives but he wants to cut "anything" ie last week it was his jeans...I have now removed all sharp knives from knife stand.

we have been through numerous remote controls for the TV etc as he plays with them until broken.

We cannot/will not get a flat screen TV incase he pokes something into it.

He climbs a lot. onto tables to get into the cupboard, so I have now moved the table.

He runs a lot. Sometimes into the doors.

Yes perhaps he is a bit active.

We have an outing today with another 50 parents. [dread] Wish me luck and thanks very much. It is good to know it is not just me, or that I am doing something wrong with him.

Oh and we had an engineer in yesterday and the questions and comments DS made to him were very cringe-worthy.

Do you shop in Tesco? Do you like ice lollies? Do you like Ice cream? Do you have tools in your van? Do you have any girls? What their names? Do you have a bouncy castle? why are your lips like girls lips ? You look a bit like a girl? etc etc

Hidden...i your son does remind me of my DS's....

Ds1 (14 ) has ADHD/AS
Ds2 (11) has AS (but is also VERY HYPER!)
DS3 is being diagnosed with ADHD (and possible AS)

But please don't be alarmed!!! The fact that his difficulties are being picked up on at such a young age IS GOOD not WORRYING!

but i am also aware that this is early days for you...and it is upseting to have a child 'singled out'! (i am 3 boys and 10 years further down the line than you!!!)

If he has got ADHD or something in that direction..... you will find there are MANY ways to help him...and though a LABEL is scarey at your stage ..... believe me.... a NAUGHTY label is worse in my eyes. (meaning that naughty implies a conscious desire to wind you up...touch things you say don't touch ...or 'push you to your limit')

Whereas knowing my boys have a genuine difficulty 'doing the right thing' is a weight off my guilt ridden shoulders.

What i would do to speed things along is print off the checklists i have linked to below and fill them in and give to HV

(my paed uses something called The Conners Rating Scale...but cannot get a free version of that online for you...so have chosen what seems very similar to the Conners version)

These are a bit 'heavy reading' as they are proper diagnostic tools....rather than a parent quiz

This Looks Good For You Age Child

HERE

HERE

HERE

HERE

HERE

Deliberately given you plenty to choose from!

Hope it helps!

You could also ask nursery to do one too????

Hidden, my ds(ASD) doesn't have ADHD but he is quite hyper a lot of the time and when he was younger I remember wondering why no-one else was having the same problems - his particular gift was escaping from toddler groups even when he could only crawl! He has got a lot better as he's got older, especially since we learnt the powers of trampolining and soft-play! I still have to be in risk-assesment mode when we go out tho but on the plus side it has meant I've had to keep very active! One thing I've learnt is that some of the situations that seem mortifying at the time can seem quite funny in hindsight - (poo on the slide, running naked into the swimming pool, rolling in puddles, stripping off in soft-play...

LOL 'You look a bit like a girl?' Tee hee

My ds2 (5) sounds similar to Seuss' ds. He has AS and can get very hyper. When he comes home from school the first thing he does is to strip off and then jump off furniture repeatedly, run up and down, hang upside down off things and use his trampoline.

When he was 4yrs old I met another parent at a toddler group who told me that they remembered ds2 from the time I took him to a singing group. I had taken him just once, when he was about 2yrs old. He spent the entire time running off, climbing up the shelving, and trying to jump off the tables. It was so awful that I couldn't face it again. It was obviously also a memorable experience for others too if they still remembered him 2 years later.

Letting him do physical activities helps a lot. The OT recommended encouraging activities that needed muscle power IYSWIM - things like swimming, trampolining, and even things like digging in the garden. Basically anything that provides a bit of resistance.

If your ds is referred to a Paed you might find that someone will visit his nursery to observe him there (with your permission). It's generally about seeing how he behaves in different environments.

FWIW ds2 is now almost at the end of his Reception year and is relatively calm at school now. The downside is that he seems to store it all up for when he gets home...

Thanks very much.

I feel lots better after reading this

oh yeah forgot (OMG HOW COULD I??? perhaps its so routine now i barely notice) DS needs a minute by minute itinerary of the day.. and dont dare deviate! God forbid i should venture into 1 shop that wasnt "listed" or spend 10mins longer than anticipated at a relatives house!

The strange thing was as a small child it didnt bother him... and now at 15 hes obsessive. I think it really began when he was about 8... perhaps i was just really lucky before then????

just to agree with mum23asd, we were given the connors questionaire too. It was very unfortunate that at that time his then teacher didnt even "believe" in dyslexia - never mind these new fangled ideas...

Yesterday we had speech therapy, and I spoke to the lady who ran this. She said she though Ds was displaying signs of hyperactivity, but it was a good thing that it has been noticed so young as we can now get some support.

Whilst I was waiting on DS coming out I was speaking with a lady who was a support worker and had worked with children with ADHD.

She had over-heard me talking with Speech therapist and wwaited until I was alone and said to me "I have worked with children with ADHD for 15 years, and from seeing your ds's behaviour and watching him running around for the past 10 minutes, I would say he most likely does have ADHD".

Do any of your children get slight obessions with "things"...ie DS at the moment is obsessed with his "cleaning bag" which is a Tesco bag full of dirtycloths, which my silly mother allowed him to take to Nursery yesterday under the belief they were for a project?!"? He said this to her obviously, she believed him.