New Here with- Intro

[slobberslinger]

Hello everyone,

I am happy to have found this place. I was on a similar bulletin board for my easy child who has Tourette Syndrome. I found it to be very helpful to know I'm not alone and read other people's stories and get stuff off of my chest. So, I'm hoping for the same here, with my difficult child.

difficult child is my 5 year old son. He has been "high needs" since birth. Cried all the time. I remember the first night in the hospital, I wasn't a first time mom but I could not console him...the nurse had to come in and "fix" him. From that moment on, I figured I was in for it.

difficult child has always been what I consider off the hook. He has always been obsessed with fans, lawnmowers, and fire. For years. Last summer, right before he turned 4, he threw a kitten we had so hard against the wall that it broke it's back and we had to put it down. That was the moment I decided to seek outside help. I called around and then a local place with a children's treatment team got word of what happened and called me and said that a therapist on the team was willing to take us pro-bono.

So in Sept 2009, she diagnosed him with ODD and we started the PCIT program. He graduated the PCIT program in Feb, 2010. He seemed to be doing much better. Went from having quite a few tantrums a day and hitting and kicking us to having less than one tantrum a week and no more violence.

He graduated preschool in June 2010. Had a decent but exhausting for me summer and then started Kindergarten in September. Kindergarten has been awful for him and us. At first, he didn't want to go...he would scream and cry at drop off and fight the teachers...but do fine during the day...and then he stopped the drop off behavior and started acting up throughout the day. We considered taking him out in Sept, but he was doing better so we kept him in. Now I have decided for sure that I am taking him out. Wednesday will be his last day because there's a Halloween party that he really wants to go to.

His home behavior is so bad that I'm losing my mind. I'm starting to think he has ADHD because he is constantly on the go....he cannot sit still for 5 seconds unless he is asleep. There's so much more but that's where I'm at. I've got the teacher filling out the checklist and I'm filling on out and we're setting up an appointment with the pediatrician. I just want to know if he's really just a high needs child or is this something we can fix with therapy or medications.

Anyways, that's the short version of my story. I hope to learn a lot from this board and plan to contribute as much as possible. Thanks for reading...look forward to getting to know you all.

 

[BusynMember]

If this were my child, knowing what I know now, I would take him to a neuropsychologist for a complete evaluation. I wouldn't trust a pediatrician for this. I think he has some serious autistic spectrum disorder traits, but a neuropsychologist would have to catch that. Pediatricians and regular therapists usually miss that and call it ODD, which is not a helpful diagnosis. Good luck and welcome!

 

[SRL]

Hi and welcome to our world.

I'm wondering what the specialty area of the therapist was that did the diagnosing?

I agree with midwestmom that I'd like to see your little guy get a complete evaluation, including for Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Sensory Processing Disorder. The obsession with spinning things is a big red flag for Autism so be sure to research that, keeping in mind not all children show all symptoms for most disorders of this nature. For the younger ones we recommend a developmental pediatrician or pediatric neuropsychologist (or Autism Clinic is that's suspected) as the primary diagnostician as parents here have reported closer to accurate diagnosing than with other specialty areas.

What's his speech like? Any delays, or speech that's advanced compared to his peers?

 

[Hound dog]

A warm welcome

And I firmly ditto the other responses as that is what I would have advised.

Hugs

 

[slobberslinger]

I truely do not believe he has Autism or any form of Autism. Not that I'm an expert, by any means. We went through the whole Autism testing thing with our easy child and so I am very much aware of what to look for.

His speech is completely normal. Not delayed, not advanced. He went to Head Start and no one mentioned a concern, other than behavior. He has little friends and exhibits empathy is pretty much a normal, loving guy when he's not being off the hook. I realize spinning is something that Autistic kiddos are attracted to....I think he's more into things that "destroy" things...

As far as the woman that diagnosed him with ODD, she's part of the Children's Resource Team at this place called OPTIONS...which is a mental health organization in our town. She's an MFCC, LPC.

I will definitely consider the testing you guys are suggesting, I'll have to see if I can get a referral, as we are on state insurance. We live in Southern Oregon. We actually took our easy child to a pediatrician neurologist when he was 3 for his Tourette Syndrom diagnosis...I'm assuming this is different than a neuropsychologist?? I'll have to investigate.

I hope I don't sound like I'm blowing off your suggestions...I really appreciate your welcomes and imput! Thanks again!

 

[HaoZi]

Not all autism spectrum disorders are the same. My daughter had no delays, is gifted in fact, but it's looking likely that she has Asperger's, which is on the spectrum and doesn't tend to really show up until later, as opposed to "classic autism" that shows up at a very young age. NonVerbal Learning Disorder (NVLD) is another one that as far as I can tell shows up very similar symptom-wise but tests out differently. (Anyone who knows better please step in to clarify or correct me here.)

 

[SRL]

The specialist that you saw was a marriage, family and child counselor.

I'm not saying the ODD diagnosis is wrong. ODD is a limited diagnosis because it only relates to the symptoms and does nothing to get to the core issues. It's sort of like taking a kid who has the flu to the doctor and coming out with a diagnosis of "vomiting". They aren't telling you anything you don't already know and you still don't know the reason behind the symptoms.

Some thoughts for you as you do your research:
ADHD and Autism are all on a continuum of human behaviors. There are kids with Autistic traits who are very hyperactive and there are kids whose primary diagnosis is ADHD, but who have some Autistic traits. Often kids like these won't be so cut and dry in terms of diagnosis, and when they are little it's really hard to nail them down because you look at the symptom lists of various disorders and wind up checking a few from here, a few from there because no one seems to fit.
I would also suggest looking further into sensory processing disorders. Many babies with sensory processing disorder (SPD) will be very high needs and the stimulation from the school environment can be excrutiating. Some sensory seeking kids look ADHD as they are on the go to try and find that sensory place that makes them feed good.

HaoZi is correct about Non-Verbal Learning Disability. NonVerbal Learning Disorder (NVLD) and Autism have overlapping symptoms but it would take testing to flesh out.

A neuropsychologist is a psychologist with a specialty in the area of diagnostics. They will spend a lot of time taking history, and spend some hours doing assessments. A developmental pediatrician is a medical doctor with specialties in pediatrics and advanced work in diagnostics/treatment. I think since you've already been to the counselor and neurologist, the neuropyschologist would be the way to go.

A reading suggestion: What Your Explosive Child Is Trying to Tell You: Discovering the Pathway from Symptoms to Solutions by Dr. Douglas Riley

 

[nvts]

Sorry about me arriving so late! My boys both presented quite the same way as yours and we ended up on the Aspergers page! NonVerbal Learning Disorder (NVLD) is being looked at now as well.

Welcome to the crowd - it really is a fantastic group of people!

Beth