I'd love to find parenting classes but I have searched high and low and can't find any in my area. I think I'll ask this new psychiatrist if he knows of any.
My husband and I are getting all our parenting info from ADHD books.
Goodness knows my pediatrician is clueless.
I totally agree, his executive functioning skills and constant academic struggles are causing the "I don't care attitude."
It's a circle - convince him he needs help, he denies he needs help, he fights the help given, freaks out, calms down when assignments done, acts okay - then it all starts again as soon as there are more demands put on him.
That is good to know that a neuropsych is not necessarily needed.
For the past two days I've been repeating my new found mantra "Patience, Patience, patience,"
Now, if I could spend most of the day in shoulderstand or other calming yoga poses and meditate, I'd be fine; boss frowns on employees spending the day on their heads for stress relief.
I called, yet again the special needs dept. of the hospital that is supposed to be testing my son. Well, good news, I should be getting a letter telling me the type of tests he needs.
But, I'm confused. They said they won't be giving a neuropsych. He said that is not the definitive test needed for ADHD. So, I should not get myself in an anxiety mode yet, but I hope they evalulate my material, and test for ADHD - not learning dissabilities. They said he'd be meeting with a developmental pediatrician.
THe core eval. did not show learning dissabilities. His teachers seem to feel his "I don't give a D---" attitude is more of a problem than the executive functioning problems.
Oh well, I'm interested to see how he reacts to this new psychiatrist. We have to reschedule the appt. because it is no the last day of school and my son just announced last night "I don't need to talk to any B--l Sh-t, Doctors"
Thank goodness the school quarter is over Friday.
My husband and I are going to use the summer firm up our discipline plan, and work on some of his defiant behaviors, while the added pressure of school is not there.
The source of the attitude is from always getting into trouble and struggling academically (and maybe socially) right? He's given up. Executive functioning problem ---> gets into trouble a lot ---> gives up ----> bad attitude. At least that's how it usually works. I'm not sure you can fix the attitude without providing some serious help with the executive functioning, because that is what is making him feel the way he does.
Before firming up a discipline plan, you might want to attend parenting classes that are specifically targeted for parents of ADHD children. They are not the same as regular parenting classes, and they are very helpful.
rswf, if there is no concern for LD I think their approach sounds fine. A full neuropsych eval is when you need to sort out what is going on. If you are pretty sure it's ADHD and they just want to evaluate for that diagnosis he wouldnt need the extensive neuropsych eval. Take it one step at a time. It takes forever, but going step by step is a good way to figure out where things are. Especially if school is not worried about LD. I am glad their not, my daughter does have LD so we never really know why she cant' grasp things, due to attention disorder or learning disability.