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5YO ASD/ADHD/PDA & bullying

5 replies

13MAPARTHELL · 20/05/2026 20:14

Looking for advice from parents with experience of autism/ADHD/PDA-type profiles in primary-aged children.

My child is currently under CAMHS referral and we’re also having a meeting with school to discuss his presentation and support needs.

The main difficulty is extreme impulsivity and emotional dysregulation, especially in social situations. He can act very quickly without apparent inhibition, struggle with accepting boundaries, and sometimes says or does things that upset other children during play (e.g. unkind comments, disruptive or controlling behaviour in group play).

I’m also noticing a pattern where peers are starting to avoid him socially, and school are beginning to document concerns about peer relationships.

At home, boundaries can trigger very intense reactions very quickly, and once escalated he struggles to calm down or reflect on what’s happened.

We are waiting for CAMHS input, but I feel quite overwhelmed in the meantime and unsure what strategies actually help with this level of impulsivity and social difficulty.

Has anyone had similar experiences, particularly with children who struggle with both regulation and peer relationships, and found anything that made a difference long term (school strategies, parenting approaches, or interventions)?

hes not a bully, but the impact is the same on the children, he does not get invited to parties, kids flinch when close to him, he points and laughs at children in distress.

sadly, where all his behaviours are so impulsive, nothing sticks no amount of parenting.

OP posts:
Sunshineclouds11 · 20/05/2026 20:32

My DS is very impulsive due to the same reasons.

it’s hard. We had a really bad year with it, getting better but still the odd incident.

things that have helped;
EHCP
movement breaks
ear defenders
chewy necklace
we talk about kind hands every morning on way to school
social group at school (with other kids who are struggling with friendships)

what support does he have at school?

13MAPARTHELL · 20/05/2026 20:38

Sunshineclouds11 · 20/05/2026 20:32

My DS is very impulsive due to the same reasons.

it’s hard. We had a really bad year with it, getting better but still the odd incident.

things that have helped;
EHCP
movement breaks
ear defenders
chewy necklace
we talk about kind hands every morning on way to school
social group at school (with other kids who are struggling with friendships)

what support does he have at school?

Ah i am sorry to hear that but glad that things are looking up!

currently in appeals process for EHCP to be looked at

he wont tolerate any of these things sadly, we have brought them. He actually has no toys, he likes sticky things and chewing gum (we had to stop as kept swallowing) & he just does not form attachments with anything, almost everything gets broken within the hour.

not much! School have called a few times, where hes hit or threatened to murder peoples families etc. its a horrible feeling, and when im present its a awful mix of feeling sad for the other child, trying to understand my child, and trying to also make clear what they did was wrong but he has 0 shame or empathy and does not care.

we cant discipline him, as again, he does not care

it makes me feel like a failure quite honestly, and im about to leave my job so I can try and figure this all out and how to support him

OP posts:
Sunshineclouds11 · 20/05/2026 22:14

You are not failing ❤️ this is honestly the hardest journey. I read something today that we, as parents are having to learn their world. And it’s a minefield.

My DS just recently been diagnosed, ASD and ADHD.
it’s not for everyone but we looking to try medication, some other parents I’ve spoke to have said it’s been life changing for them, something I’m interested to see as I have no idea.

are you appealing to be assessed or was it refusal to issue?

yes I totally get that feeling in regards to work, I went down to 2 days and even that feels too much as times.

Has an early help assessment been done? Have you had meeting with senco?

13MAPARTHELL · 31/05/2026 17:59

Sunshineclouds11 · 20/05/2026 20:32

My DS is very impulsive due to the same reasons.

it’s hard. We had a really bad year with it, getting better but still the odd incident.

things that have helped;
EHCP
movement breaks
ear defenders
chewy necklace
we talk about kind hands every morning on way to school
social group at school (with other kids who are struggling with friendships)

what support does he have at school?

thank you

we have tried all these things, hes not able to interact with them, he breaks them.

if i say nice hands, he will literally hit me and spit in my face and tell me to shut my fucking mouth

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 01/06/2026 20:25

The book Big Baffling Behaviours by Robyn Gobbel to understand their nervous system reactions and how to respond to different points of it. It's the only book I've ever read that actually works for the really dysregulated behaviour. Ignore the bit where she vaguely insinuates that if your child has a sensitive nervous system, you might have accidentally traumatised them without meaning to - she has a trauma background, but ND children often have sensitive nervous systems and/or are constantly getting overloaded because of sensory processing differences and the fact their abilities are so out of step with adult expectations, many of which are invisible to the adults. Aside from that one sentence, the book is incredibly helpful.

ADHD medication was a game changer, completely turned everything around.

Parent Friendship Coaching, a social skills intervention for children with ADHD. (it's absolutely no use learning skills outside the moment IME but there are very few in the moment tools which work). Click "Download PDF" to read: https://chadd.org/attention-article/how-you-can-be-a-friendship-coach-for-your-child-with-adhd/

Stuart Shanker's Self-Reg to understand how aspects from multiple areas can build up to overwhelm a child's systems and capacity to cope. When it seems like they go from 0-60 over very little, it's more likely to be a straw that breaks the camel's back situation - they're probably hovering at 55+ most of the time.

For any of the sensory interventions to work, they need to be offered well before he is in the explosive state where he is breaking things. This is what DS2's school said as well "But he can't have that, he will throw it at people" he was basically in fight or flight mode constantly at school. A sensory fidget or a movement break is going to do jack shit in that situation, it's like turning up to a house fire with a water pistol from the £1 shop. We did speak to an OT who let him try a wobble cushion and a weighted vest, and I think the vest plus ear defenders probably would have helped him as proactive supports in the classroom, because one day when he was supposed to be catching up on his writing during an RE lesson he wasn't paying attention to, they stuck him in ear defenders and told him to get on with it and he LOVED this because he said it made everything so much better. But they wouldn't make them available to him all the time, and even when I asked and they said he could use them, I couldn't convince him of this because I think the way they were available was not explicit enough for him to understand.

I actually think his verbal understanding was (and still is, at 7) way way lower than it seemed from the complexity of his speech. Part of this was that he really struggles (still) to focus for long enough to follow a narrative, and actually any way I could get him to engage with narrative (ie, stories) has been helpful. So TV programmes, often those aimed at a younger age group (at 5 he loved Numberblocks and Peppa Pig) and books, the kind of book he will enjoy is getting harder to find but I did have a talk with a school social worker (they do a sort of pastoral role where we live) and she really strongly encouraged me to keep trying to get him to engage with stories in whatever format possible, and I do think this helps a lot. He now prefers nonfiction like children's documentary type programmes or factual books, but he is drawn to things like gaming videos on youtube or videos which are just collections of jokes/memes/dubious facts and I try to reduce the exposure he has to this kind of thing because I think it's unhelpful. (The gaming videos I find OK but only certain creators).

At home, boundaries could not be drawn as and when by adults - they had to be really clear, consistent and highly predictable, ideally routine-based rather than any decisions being made in the moment if possible, and basically any behaviour which occurred outside of the predetermined framework is just deescalated/ignored. Declarative Language is roughly the way that I had already worked out by trial and error to speak, so that is a useful book and it is a very short one and can be shared with school (though I doubt it will do much unless you happen to have a teacher who is literally asking for resources). It is better when household rules apply to everyone equally or follow a clear predetermined structure, and you are not trying to pull rank or engage in power struggles to enforce compliance. It's kind of hard to explain if you haven't come across this parenting approach before.

The background of Ross Greene's "Kids Do Well if they Can" and the ideas which come with his method are excellent but there is no way that I could actually have a productive conversation with DS2 at 5 and unmedicated about anything in the way the method suggests. I was still able to take things from it but I would not put too much store in this currently. The things which are helpful are the idea of triaging which issues to try to problem solve and dropping as many others as practical in order to reduce pressure, and considering predictable issues proactively and working out what might be able to be put in place in order to smooth some of it. Being proactive is a huge help, and although it is exhausting, it's not really more exhausting than dealing with the fallout in the moment because reactive parenting just adds fuel to the fire.

Trying to observe your child to see what they seem to need to feel safe/what tends to trigger and upset them is also really helpful. Two things which are important to my DS are being able to know what will happen when, so things like social stories, now and next boards, visual timetables, are really helpful to him. And the other thing is that he's very sensitive to sound and sound is an incredibly important part of how he perceives an environment, so knowing what to expect in terms of sounds, e.g. by showing a video, or allowing him control over sound e.g. by letting him use ear defenders, can help him a lot. But I didn't know that when he was 5, it's something I've observed more recently.

How You Can Be a Friendship Coach for Your Child with ADHD - CHADD

https://chadd.org/attention-article/how-you-can-be-a-friendship-coach-for-your-child-with-adhd/

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