I'm wondering if the medication isn't working quite right for him. My child has angry explosions when his meds have worn off, but they don't happen when the stimulant is in his system. Maybe ask the dr. if a medication adjustment might be needed?
Re the violent outbursts, what exactly does he tend to do? Is he throwing objects, hitting people, punching holes in walls, or what types of behavior are you seeing? Maybe you can encourage him to carry a stress ball or wear a coil bracelet, and he can squeeze the stress ball or pull on the coil bracelet when he feels angry? I imagine you've already tried teaching him to count to 10, take a deep breathe, and other things like that.
Re the overnight, I can see both sides here. On one hand, your chlid's outbursts are due to a disability, and thus he shouldn't miss out on this opportunity due to that. On the other hand, if he's having violent outbursts, the staff might be uncomfortable w/ being responsible for him and the safety of those around him. Would it be an option for you to chaperone on the trip and you could take responsibility for closely monitoring him?
My 9 yr old boy has been struggling all year with aggression and anger in school. He has been expelled twice now for outbursts of anger. He has been taking anger management classes, seeing a social worker, seeing a psychiatrist, and seeing the school counsellor. My husband and I are also taking adult anger management classes so that we too can learn the steps and help him through his angry episodes. He is also currently on concerta and epival. So far everything seems to be helping. The outbursts are getting less frequent. We concentrate on rewarding him for his good behaviour and praise him often. His self esteem is very low. Today he had another angry outburst at school, and has now lost the right to go on his year end overnight class trip. We believe in consequences but not punishment, and really feel like he is beinging punished by losing this once a year activity. We have been trying to work with the school and help them understand that he is trying very hard, and deserves recognition for his efforts.
We need help in dealing with the teachers and increasing their understanding. We also need suggestions on how more to help curb these angry sometimes violent outbursts. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
My son was very aggressive when his stimulant level was too high. How much concerta is he on? I hated it when my sons school would do something like that to him. I know there has to be consequences, but you said it yourself, he is doing his best. Gosh, the schools can be so cruel sometimes. It is not like he asked to be born special any more than a blind person asksed to be blind. I may be adding to your frustration and I am sorry, I just wish people good be me emphathetic about what they arent familiar with. They need to be further educated. Sorry that is me rambling, I hope you guys have a good day and can conince the school to change their minds. Good Lucklethy proud mom39617.5007523148Check in with his doctor on this one. We had the exact same challenge and had to add Risperdal to our guy's meds. None of us like adding more meds to the mix but the change/improvement were absolutely incredible and have not only improved his quality of life but ours as well.
Paul
He is on 54 mg of concerta, 500 mg of Epival twice daily, and the clonidine 0.1 mg at night for sleeping. We have just increased the concerta a couple of months ago because we could not get the aggression under control, so I am doubting over stimulation to be the problem. Most of the outbursts seem to occur at school, when socializing with outher children, especially during sports. He's very competetive and thinks everyone should be. Risperdal has been suggested, and just may be our next step. As a nurse, I am very familiar with the drug and don't like it. However we may have no alternative, and it just might be the med for him.
As for the school trip. He did not go. I do understand the concern the teachers may have felt about taking him, however we did volunteer to go with him and our offer was refused. I just wish the school had worked with us to find a suitable consequence for his actions other than the school trip. Detentions for a week, no gym, no recess, whatever, just not the once a year class trip.
I keep thinking, this is a disability. no different than any other disability or medical condition. If he had been epeleptic and siezured before the trip I highly doubt they would have banned him from goin. Why is adhd so different. He tried very hard and sometimes he just can not control the outbursts. The teachers also have told me he seems to hold grudges and doesn't let go of things that have happened in the past. I really feel like he was singled out in regards to this trip. Being the only one in the school not allowed to go on a trip was terribly humiliating for him. He sobbed his poor little eyes out for two hours when he got home the day they told him. Never mind the fact that he was terribly dissapointed in hismelf because he said to me " Mom I really thought i could do it, I thought I could be so good" i wonder what happened to the reward system we we had agreed to work on. The school had just told me prior to this incident, about how great he had been the past couple of weeks. But what did they do to reward him?! Everyone continues to concentrate on the bad. My heart just breaks for my little guy.
Please also be sure you get a Functional Behavior Analysis done by the school, and have a written Behavior Intervention plan. The FBA makes the school identify the problem behavior and find the root cause of the behavior. Then the BIP addresses POSITIVE actions that the school must take to help with the behavior. It is all written into and part of an IEP.
I think this is critical. It puts the responsibility on the school to come up with positive ways to both help curb the behavior and use appropriate methods when the behavior is shown.
Then, you can use this document when inappropriate consequences are given to your son - after all, if they followed the BIP then your son shouldn't have had the behavior. And its all developed by them - so they can't argue (or shouldn't!)
Your guy sounds very much like my son. He is very good with adults and functions okay one on one with kids. But in group settings, it is always a disaster. His inability to accurately read social cues results in his over reaction when teased by the 'team'. Now that the stage has been set for teasing or rough play, he doesn't know when to stop. Remember, ADHD'rs are not good at reading social cues, so if he's talking away and you look at your watch, he's not going to catch the subtle hint. The same takes place in group dynamics. He'll make a joke or shove another kid just like everyone else, but rather than stopping when they other kids display a sad face or say 'stop', he will continue until he believes he's done. And of course it's after the point when the other kids are frustrated so they no longer want to play with him. And then they realize that they now have a new play toy...your son. All they have to do is push his button and he will predictably over-react. (sound familiar?)
Regarding his meds, we went through the same with concerta and infact the increase in concerta actually made things worse. When stims start adverely affecting behavior instead of improving it, we were advised to suspect bi-polar as an affecting condition. Regardless of what labels you want to use, your goal is just to provide the means to make your childs quality of life better. Sorry for rambling...
Regarding Risperdal..small amounts have been prescribed for kids like ours as an 'off label' use for years. Recently, it has been recognized and approved by FDA as a means to treat these kinds of symptons in kids. The big thing you need to guard is for ticks which can be permanent. Thus starting with small doses. If your child tolerates Riperdal, then there is Invega which is a time released risperdal, meaning ya only have to use it once of day. Regular risperdal is only good for about 4 hours.
Remember though that drug stability in growing children is a transient state and as they mature both physically and sexually their needs evolve as well. So if you can obtain some stability for four or five months until you need to change dosage/meds again then savior the time.
Good luck and please keep us posted.
Paul