My six year old son looks like an ordinary child, until he gets mad or upset. Then he looks lik a 2 year not getting his way. He started school at 3.5 (Language and speech). By age 4 the said he no longer needed his Iep, and he was released from the program. He is highly intelligent, could read at 3 and play video games (xbox 360, wii, Ps3) by 4. Last year in K he could read at a second grade level. He is obsessed with Mario, Yoshi and video games/computer. His problem is when he gets upset or angry he cannnot physically control his emotions. In K he was in the principals office twice, and this year he has already been in trouble a couple of times for basically throwing tantrums. We are taking him to a dr. to be evaluated today any suggestions, questions to ask, tips. My boss told me that his actions seem to be very similar to is child with aspergers. Hhis teacher is an ESE specialist and she believes that he can't control his behavior.
My 6 year son. Need Tips
- Thread starter jay8821
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SRL
Active Member
Hi, welcome to our forum.
We are only parents here, so obviously we can't diagnose but we can point you in directions to research. With the issues you're describing in addition to the precocious reading, I would also advise looking in the direction of the Autistic Spectrum Disorders, including Asperger's. Very often kids who are on the fence diagnostically are difficult to diagnose and doctors often miss it, especially if the child is doing well in school.
Such precocious reading is called Hyperlexia and often is associated with the Autistic Spectrum Disorders.
We are only parents here, so obviously we can't diagnose but we can point you in directions to research. With the issues you're describing in addition to the precocious reading, I would also advise looking in the direction of the Autistic Spectrum Disorders, including Asperger's. Very often kids who are on the fence diagnostically are difficult to diagnose and doctors often miss it, especially if the child is doing well in school.
Such precocious reading is called Hyperlexia and often is associated with the Autistic Spectrum Disorders.
SRL
Active Member
One thing I forgot to mention. We suggest that parents check out the book "The Explosive Child" by Ross Greene. You'll find a thread about adapting it for younger children at this link:
http://www.conductdisorders.com/com...the-explosive-child-for-younger-children.864/
http://www.conductdisorders.com/com...the-explosive-child-for-younger-children.864/
BusynMember
Well-Known Member
I'd get him in to see a neuropsychologist. With his speech delay (although it resolved), his obsessions with videogames, early reading (hyperlexia) and other behaviors I am guessing he could be on the autism spectrum/high functioning and, if so, he needs a lot of evaluation by a good diagnostician and school interventions. These kids can be very academically smart, but as socially clueless and really need a lot of help. My son is one of the kids...he is sixteen now and I shudder to think of what he'd be like without the interventions he had.
This is often misdiagnosed as ADHD or ODD. Does he have any other quirks? Sensory sensitivities? Can he transition from one activity to another? Make good eye contact? Have a give-and-take conversation? Does he understand the concept of personal space? Does he blurt out high pitched noises or make odd gestures?
High functioning autism is very treatable. Of course, I don't know if he has it...I'm just a mom with a kid who DOES have it, but I think he needs to be evaluated by a neuropsychologist (6-10 hours of hands on testing). Educators, pediatricians, even most regular therapists are not good diagnosticians.
Good luck, whatever path you decide to take with your son. Just remember that early intervention is always best and it's better to be safe than sorry.
This is often misdiagnosed as ADHD or ODD. Does he have any other quirks? Sensory sensitivities? Can he transition from one activity to another? Make good eye contact? Have a give-and-take conversation? Does he understand the concept of personal space? Does he blurt out high pitched noises or make odd gestures?
High functioning autism is very treatable. Of course, I don't know if he has it...I'm just a mom with a kid who DOES have it, but I think he needs to be evaluated by a neuropsychologist (6-10 hours of hands on testing). Educators, pediatricians, even most regular therapists are not good diagnosticians.
Good luck, whatever path you decide to take with your son. Just remember that early intervention is always best and it's better to be safe than sorry.
Does he have any other quirks? Sensory sensitivities? Can he transition from one activity to another? Make good eye contact? Have a give-and-take conversation? Does he understand the concept of personal space? Does he blurt out high pitched noises or make odd gestures?
That's my five-yr-old in a nutshell!!! If you have any, ANY gut feelings, go with them. It's better to be wrong than to to be right and ignore your own instincts.
That's my five-yr-old in a nutshell!!! If you have any, ANY gut feelings, go with them. It's better to be wrong than to to be right and ignore your own instincts.
Marguerite
Active Member
SRL & MWm, you've beaten me to it. Nothing left for me to say except to heartily endorse what you posted. Hyperlexia - yep. Autism, possibly Aspeger's - yep. Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) questionnaire on childbrain - yep. Do a printout, even if he scores as normal, the printout comes in handy as a memory jogger if noting else, as wel las a snapshot of your concerns at the moment.
Explosive Child - yep.
neuropsychologist assessment - yep.
All these a priority. As for dropping the IEP - crazy. He sounds like he could fall into the category of gifted-learning disabled.
One thing I will add - get a speech/language pathologist to assess the boy NOW. Try to get a good one, someone who will look into the sub-scores and not simply say, "he scores as normal." You want to know whether the scores are high normal or low normal, because even within normal rage, a wide GAP can indicate serious problems now or in the future, due to frustration.
Try to visualise what it's like in the head of a highly intelligent child who simply can't understand why the world isn't following any rules consistently, that he can understand. He also is having difficulty explaining his frustrations in time to stop himself from simply raging. And raging doesn't solve anything either, it only upsets him more and makes everything more confusing. It makes people angry with him, and he's already angry with himself for seeming to be so DUMB! And he's not dumb. Clearly not.
Hyperlexia isn't just early reading. It's where the early reading is also linked to poor understanding of what he reads, where he reads way beyond his ability to comprehend fully.
Example - difficult child 3 could pick up a newspaper and read it aloud, fluently and with expression. Between two and three. He knew his alphabet and numbers to three digits, before 2 years old. But he was non-verbal, apart fomr what he could read. Freaky. He could also read sheet music and play it on the piano.
When assessed by a speech/language pathologist at two and a half, we were told his language levels were at least a year behind. However, he could quote huge chunks of text from movies (which he would watch with subtitles on - at 15 he still prefers subtitles to be on). He could memorise songs on the radio which, considering he was memorising strings of sounds and not word (to him at the time) was an astonishing memory feat.
A brain like this needs help to learn how to work properly. It needs different handlnig, different learning methods but can be a joy to behold as it begins to discover the world.
Marg
Explosive Child - yep.
neuropsychologist assessment - yep.
All these a priority. As for dropping the IEP - crazy. He sounds like he could fall into the category of gifted-learning disabled.
One thing I will add - get a speech/language pathologist to assess the boy NOW. Try to get a good one, someone who will look into the sub-scores and not simply say, "he scores as normal." You want to know whether the scores are high normal or low normal, because even within normal rage, a wide GAP can indicate serious problems now or in the future, due to frustration.
Try to visualise what it's like in the head of a highly intelligent child who simply can't understand why the world isn't following any rules consistently, that he can understand. He also is having difficulty explaining his frustrations in time to stop himself from simply raging. And raging doesn't solve anything either, it only upsets him more and makes everything more confusing. It makes people angry with him, and he's already angry with himself for seeming to be so DUMB! And he's not dumb. Clearly not.
Hyperlexia isn't just early reading. It's where the early reading is also linked to poor understanding of what he reads, where he reads way beyond his ability to comprehend fully.
Example - difficult child 3 could pick up a newspaper and read it aloud, fluently and with expression. Between two and three. He knew his alphabet and numbers to three digits, before 2 years old. But he was non-verbal, apart fomr what he could read. Freaky. He could also read sheet music and play it on the piano.
When assessed by a speech/language pathologist at two and a half, we were told his language levels were at least a year behind. However, he could quote huge chunks of text from movies (which he would watch with subtitles on - at 15 he still prefers subtitles to be on). He could memorise songs on the radio which, considering he was memorising strings of sounds and not word (to him at the time) was an astonishing memory feat.
A brain like this needs help to learn how to work properly. It needs different handlnig, different learning methods but can be a joy to behold as it begins to discover the world.
Marg
We had another episode yesterday before school even started. So we took him to the dr. yesterday and she wrote us a refferal to a psychiatric. so now we have to wait till some time in nov to get an appointment. We have to go to st. pete because my dr. suggests that all the psychologists around us stink.
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