just gettin started | ADHD Information

My son and I started a rewards chart this week. On this chart we have things like getting up without being told more than once and he gets a star. His behavior at school is broken down into 4 things a #1 he gets 5 stars, a 2 he gets 3 stars, but a 3 or a 4 he gets stars taken away. We do this for home behavior as well, basically if he doesn't argue he gets stars if he does argue he gets stars taken away. He has a goal each day to reach so many stars and if he does he gets a reward. Like on by the end of Tuesday if he has a total of 20 stars he gets a milk shake. By Wednesday if he has so many he gets 30 min. of video games and so on. We have done this for one week already and so far things are going ok. It seems to have him watching how he response to ppl at school and at home. I just hope it will last a while.

Do a search on the boards on Lawless. I think he is a shyster, wanting to sell himself and his products to worried parents with money in their pockets, but that may be just me. He sure sounds like he has ripped some people off at his clinic.

wow were do i start? this is all new to me however my 7 yr. old son has been on meds for a little over a year now. he had origionally taken the ritalin twice a day but had to change dr's do to insurance and his new dr. decided to try something thing new. at first we thought they were doing fine but now he gets introuble at school and just will not listen at home. eventhough i've delt with this for a while he did so well for a while that i nevre really got into any info on the subject. just never felt the need but now i feel like ripping my hair out and throughing him through a window. i love my son so very much but it seems like no matter what the discipline is it doesn't faze him. if anyone has any suggestions please fill me in.

thanks for listening

Welcome!  What med is your son on now?  If it's not working, why not go back to Ritalin?

A book that has helped me a lot is The Explosive Child by Ross Greene.  Good luck.

 

What kind of behaviors do you see?he now takes the adderall and it seemed ok at first but he even noticed a diff. and asked if he could go back to the ritalin and be the good little boy he used to be. as far as behavior goes he's very argumentative, can't concentrate in school, figits a lot, can't stay on any one subject for any real length of time. he has even started back talking his teacher in school. at the beginning of the year he was on the honor roll making all a's and b's now his teacher is telling me that he may actually fail some of his last quarter classes. at home when he's told to do something he looks for any and all reasons not to do it and argue about it. i know a lot of ppl say this is just a tipical kid but you don't see the attitude and the facial expressions that i do. he states he has no friends at school and they all call him dumb.

i have recently been told to read the book by frank lawlis i think its called "the answer" or "get the answer" not sure but has anyone read it and if so what is your feed back on it before i rush out and buy it . there is soo much info now on this topic i don't know where to start first. any suggestions on references?

tell your new doc that the adderall is not working and perhaps you can go back to the ritalin...ritalin and adderall are in two different drug group....

all stimulants are NOT the same.....

my son does just the opposite....he does not do well on any of the drugs in the ritalin group ( ritalin, concerta, focalin) but does do real well with Adderall

joemom38845.2927546296Adderrall can cause aggression. It did with my son and he's very mild tempered. I'd try another medication. If it has the same affect on him, I'd re-evaluate the child. He may have a mimicker of ADHD rather than ADHD and stims can make mimickers worse. Backtalking teachers isn't normal kid behavior. Very few kids do that. It could be the meds. If not, you need to maybe see a NeuroPsych or Psychiatrist (with the MD). Good luck. OlderMom38844.7767013889

My son originally took adderall XR.  It worked for a while then he started having problems in school again.  We changed doctors and the new doctor liked to start with Ritalin because the 4 hour dosage made it easier to get the dosage right.  Then we changed to Concerta.  All was well for about a year and then more problems at school.  We changed back to Adderall XR and had the same result as before.  Now his problems in school are worse than ever.  We've changed back to Concerta and so far so good, it's only been a week.  Our therapist suggested a psychiatrist because she sees other things like possible social anxiety disorder and ticks.  I'm just beside myself because he comes home saying he's a bad kid.    We've got to nip this in the bud because it breaks my heart to see his self-esteem so low.  He's only 7!