My son is 8 years old and has always had a problem with impulsiveness. He is on 36 mg of concerta morning and 10 mg ritalin afternoon. He also takes Zoloft for anxiety. I feel like every time we turn around he has done something else. One day it was breaking bottles in the recylable container. Another day it was hiding in the clothing racks at Kohls and not coming out. The latest was smearing marshmallow over our sofa because he liked how his hands stuck to the sofa.
We have talked to him about making good and bad decisions, consequences, etc. and he says he understands, but it will be something else next time that we can not predict.
I have a meeting with his psychiatrist next week and we obviously need to look at his meds. But I don't think that is the total answer. We need to somehow get him to stop thinking for the moment about himself and look at what could possibly happen next (glass cutting him, security being called at the store, ruining furniture).
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
First of all, remember he needs very specific direction - "be good" won't work.
Second, have you tried goal setting? It works very well with my son. We picked one specific behavior for him to focus on. After about a week he was able to control his impulsiveness. He was talked to about it about once an hour from the time he got up to the time he got to bed. We were very positive about it, and he picked the reward for having a good week. Have you tried baby step goal setting yet?
His impulsiveness will get better eventually, and with maturity. Right now he can't help it -just thinks it and then does it. My son at this age was the same way. I always made sure he made up for the problem he caused. ie: helped to clean the mess up, or earned money (chores) to pay for things he broke. I found it helpful over the years to pretend these things didn't bother me, you don't want to pay off the behavior, just matter a factly let him know he needs to make amends. Then he will start eventually to think ahead -slow process.
Good luck
I agree with momiss2, you child will mature somewhat out of this but not entirely. ADHD'rs live in the moment. They generally look one minute behind and maybe a minute or two into the future, so prior experiences don't necessarily modulate their response nor do the expectation of a future consequence. What's on their minds are generally on their tongues or in their immediate actions. You can attempt to slow them down a bit with meds, giving them more time to think, but remember the negative behavior is not generally premeditated.
Nevertheless, whatever the consequence you've assigned you still need to follow through. I agree, that the consequence may not mitigate the next incident, but your child will at least know that there is a consequence for behavior deamed unacceptable.
Paul
Paul