Going Down Hill Fast | ADHD Information

my son was on tenex only for awhile - that is a mood stablizer. He is only on 1/2mg a day. Over the course of time he developed ODD and life at home and school was HORRIBLE!!! We added concerta and he was transformed. he is still a little hyper, he can still be moody, he can still get distracted but then again he is a 9 year old boy. But now he has the tools to focus and see his potential. We also use Tenex and Concerta.  The combo is great for my daughter.  Switching to a stimulant was my thought as well.  How high is his tenex dosage?  Is it broken down through out the day.  It also might be too high for him.  I think it was Bethann's son that was more irritable when they increased it.  I'm sure she'll jump in here if I am misspeaking.

My other thought is that it sounds like he could be under a great deal of stress.  The more stress my daughter is under,  the worse her behavior.  First grade was a terrible year for us in terms of temper issues.  Maybe finding ways to take some of the pressure of school off would help.

The gun thing - I think it's very much a boy thing.  I've got two girls, but my nephew is constantly turning everything into a gun.  He mom was also very careful about what her boys watched on TV and the games they played.  However, it would concern me if he pretending to shot people in anger.

A couple of good books you might look into are Greene - "The Explosive Child" and Gottman's "Raising an Emotional Intellegent Child".    Helping your son with a feelings/emotion vocabulary could help.   His anger is probably a manifistation of other emotions - frustration, disappointment,etc - and he may not know how to express it.  Have you thought about working with a therapist?   We started working with one when my daughter was in 5th grade.   I really regret not having done it earlier when we had issues in both 1st & 3rd grade.
That sounds like my son recently. He's just received a prescription for
Concerta, so I can't tell you if the meds will make any change.

The first thing I would do if I was you would be fight for an IEP. It sounds
like the teacher will back you up.

As difficult as it is, focusing on the positive really helps with my son. It
almost feels manipulative it works so well. I give him a goal - go see a
movie of his choice at the end of the week or something - and it's
assumed we'll do it, unless he does X amount of incorrect behaviors and
loses his "privileges".

When we started, I had shorter term goals. There was a cartoon he
wanted to watch on TV. When he earned it, he watched it, period. I made
sure he knew his rewards were as important to me as they were to him. I
would leave events in the middle, you name it, in order to get him home
to watch his show. When he saw I was committed to him, he became
committed to helping me. He didn't want me to get "disappointed" by not
getting to watch his show with him.

Keeping a consistent schedule is very helpful for him. He goes to bed at
8PM, and if we're not home by then, he will have a tantrum. He's as
regular as a clock.

It also helps that he sees other kids receiving the exact same treatment
for behavior issues. He checks in at the Special Ed room at the end of
the day, and they have this great system in place (that they came up with
thanks to my insistence on assuming he was going to do well). All the
kids report in their behaviors. If they have an issue during the day they
have to sit at a desk for 2 minutes (the kids are as old as 9 - 2 minutes is
not that long, but just long enough to get their attention). If they have a
perfect day, they get to play for 5 minutes on the school's Wii (they have it
as a therapy for kids with mobility issues.) They also can earn little toys,
like Bakugon (however it's spelled) cards. Don't you wish you went to his
school?

As far as the Star Wars stuff, I'd talk to the teacher about it. Find out if
he's playing and it's leaking into the classroom, or if he does it as a
retaliation thing. Make sure he doesn't feel like he has to defend himself
or is being bullied.

Other than that, it's a matter of boundaries. If he learned about it at
school, he can't be the only one playing that way. He might have to be
reminded (50 million times) when he can play, what the boundaries are.
He could have an executive function problem, one of the hallmarks of
which is an inability to keep simple social rules in the mind - they just
don't stick. If that is one of his issues, and everyone knows it, they
probably will be more sympathetic about giving him reminders.

Good luck!Switch to a stimulant?