My 5 YO son is having severe behavior issues both at home and at school.
We've known for a long time that something is not "normal". He was tested at age 4 through an early intervention program and it was discovered that he had some tendencies towards "Aspergers", but not enough to dignose it as such. We were told, "He's a 'delightful' child; and 'not to worry' . . . he'd grow out of whatever minor issues were concerning us." Yes, he can be delightful, but they only saw him for an hour! The bad behavior has only escalated over the past two years. He's aggressive, defiant, impulsive, angry, and very manipulative. He has trouble interacting with other children, and he does not have the regard for adults that other children seem to naturally have. He's reading very well, and has fixations on certain subjects. For the past three months he has been unable to open his mouth without talking about tornados. He's obsessed with them, and it goes way above and beyond a "general interest or fascination". His behavior is disrupting to the whole family and we are worried about our smaller children's safety, because he is so impulsive and physically agressive. We are at our wits end.
We finally took him to a child psychologist that he has seen two times. She's very nice, but doesn't seem concerned about finding a diagnosis of any kind. Are there particular tests that should be done? I have a friend who's child was evaluated by a different psychologist and had some pretty extensive testing done--hours of it. Our psychologist has done nothing. What can I ask for? What do you think should be done?
We've known for a long time that something is not "normal". He was tested at age 4 through an early intervention program and it was discovered that he had some tendencies towards "Aspergers", but not enough to dignose it as such. We were told, "He's a 'delightful' child; and 'not to worry' . . . he'd grow out of whatever minor issues were concerning us." Yes, he can be delightful, but they only saw him for an hour! The bad behavior has only escalated over the past two years. He's aggressive, defiant, impulsive, angry, and very manipulative. He has trouble interacting with other children, and he does not have the regard for adults that other children seem to naturally have. He's reading very well, and has fixations on certain subjects. For the past three months he has been unable to open his mouth without talking about tornados. He's obsessed with them, and it goes way above and beyond a "general interest or fascination". His behavior is disrupting to the whole family and we are worried about our smaller children's safety, because he is so impulsive and physically agressive. We are at our wits end.
We finally took him to a child psychologist that he has seen two times. She's very nice, but doesn't seem concerned about finding a diagnosis of any kind. Are there particular tests that should be done? I have a friend who's child was evaluated by a different psychologist and had some pretty extensive testing done--hours of it. Our psychologist has done nothing. What can I ask for? What do you think should be done?
