impulsive behavior | ADHD Information

You can try the marble system by ogram. Its at the top of this section of the parents board.my son went to behavior ped. and since he was doing good in prep school and after school and since of being 4 she wanted to hold off till sep on meds. but if don't change his impulsive behavior he would probably be on meds by kindergarten waiting too see how transition goes. what ways and how can i help work with him on his impulsive behavior till sep.My son is impulsive but medication is what helps him be successful every day. He had a rough two years in school until we started medication. I actually feel guilty for not starting meds. when he was diagnosed before he began kindergarten. He was labeled, had social troubles. Medication has really changed all thought, however, it takes a long time to change a label, even when the labelers are adults!Impulses is a tough one my girl is now 7 and still is impulsive even on meds.  Without meds the impulsiveness is more.

he does pretty good at home and at school now. but there are places, like a new environment where he is hard too control. at the behavior ped. he was hard to handle for impulsiveness. which she stated being in a small room that he feels a little confined. he has improved alot in a year like maturing a little at a time. the marble system is still working great. think i will start putting marbles in my pockets when we go out in public. for i mentioned the marbles to him at the doctor office and he started cleaning up the toys and doing better. ogram it was a great post . you helped a lot of us out . so i just need maybe to prepare more. but i know the meds will take place due to focusing, distractiveness. and his impulsiveness.

you might want to pm luvmykids02. she is a GREAT adviser on the matter of behavior and meds.  My personal opinion is this:

modifying behavior is very hard to do with out medication for adhd.  ADHD makes children at that age un able to control their impulsive behavior.  If you medicate him now, before the behavior patterns are  concrete, you will be able to catch the bad behavior before the bad habits take place and are hard and almost impossible to correct and/or change.  I put my son on meds at about the same age as your son is now.  It was only going to be temporary, for him to have surgery, but after the surgery and recovery, i thought, Man, I was able to have a "normal" child!  He was sitting still, letting me read to him, he was watching tv, playing with other children and doing other things that he never did before, like SLEEP!!!!!!!!. He has been on meds every since.  I say, try meds for a month or two.  See if it works, how you and he both feel on it.  If you don't like it, and he doesn't respond well to it.  Then, decided what you want to do.  I tell people I know that if you are disciplining you adhd child for things they cannot control, it's kind of unfair.  If he is so young and cannot control his impulsiveness.  Meds can help you child learn to control himself, it might be a good idea to give him the tools to learn for himself with your guidance those tools before school age, so you don't have the dreaded calls from the teacher or the even more dreaded conferences at the principals office.  Those are even worse!  lol  I hope this helps.  But, remember, this is just my opinion and my experience.  I am total pro meds and total pro what ever works.  Keep posting!

agreed if only it was simple... if it helps you any my son has had no side effects from the medicine.  We are one of the fortunate ones. 

Until you do make your decision on wether to use drugs or not I would consider play therapy.  This it the route we went first. 

My 10 year old son has always been impulsive, mostly by making messes and breaking things, not aggressively, but to get a kick out of it. He had side effects with all the adhd meds (dx at age 6).

Last June he was put on Prozac for anxiety (constant vomiting) and lo and behold, it worked on his impulsiveness. Counselor says his impulsiveness was most likely caused by anxiety. He was able to deal with homework without being overwhelmed.

We weaned him off recently and he's driving us crazy.

Gona give it a couple more weeks...

yeah i can see meds in the near future. i just feel like i'm missing something somewhere to help him along before the meds fall into play. he is doing great on the marble system.and at school where they help him with his weaknesses. i just dread the meds , going through the side effects until i get the right med, it would seem like the doctors could see how the child acts to know which med is right , if only it was that simple.

my son was 4 when we started medication...our doctor started him on a low dosage of foaclin xr , nutritional diet of high protein and low carbs, and asked that we use play therapy in conjunction.  (we already had play therapy in place as that was my first avenue before seeing the doctor)

The doctor chose foaclin xr because he felt it was one of the safest on the market for small children. 

I highly recommend play therapy.  My son has made such great progress.