Very Violent 4 Year old | ADHD Information

Maybe you should be working with a child psychiatrist regarding meds. They are much more in tune to those types of meds. They just know more. Or a psychopharmocologist. Also we found Play therapy very helful until he was 11.

I was hoping someone might be able to help me with some suggestions!!  My son is 4 and has been diagnosed with ADHD about 2 months ago, we along with the pediatrician have been trying to find the right dose of meds for him.  Prior to being put on meds one of the signs of his ADHD was the frustration and anger and violence.  Last week and today he had those outbursts again, the thing that bothers me is he gets very violent with me, he hits, punches and kicks me (and his punches actually hurt).  I know his meds need adjusting but I also wonder if the violence part is part of the ADHD or if there is something more.  Any suggestions please let me know!!!

 

My son has a heck of a temper. There are a number of things I did to
help stop the tantrums.

1) I learned to see them coming on so I could redirect him.

2) He's not good with transitions, so I give him time heads up.
Sometimes I start a countdown half an hour ahead of time reminding him
every 5 minutes.

3) Most of the time I'm willing to negotiate. If I want him to do something
in 10 minutes and he says 12, rather than have a power struggle I give it
to him. I either adjust my time to allow for the negotiation, or I tell him
straight up why the time is set in stone, like the place we're at is closing
and we have to leave but I'm letting him stay right until the final minute.

4) Discipline doesn't work, but goal setting is great. We decide on a
reward - which can be as simple as me playing with him and his Pokemon
cards for a half hour or to drive him to school instead of taking the bus -
and he has certain behaviors he has to maintain to make his goal. There
is usually fudge room, kind of like 3 strikes and you're out. I also start
over immediately if he misses it so he doesn't figure he can be just awful
without consequences.

5) I usually ignore his tantrums and let him boil it out of him.

6) I don't allow true violence. I restrain his hands and make him sit down
until he can get control of himself. It is a form of force, but I don't want
him to hurt himself either. Once he calms down it's usually over very
quickly.

Best of luck!Frustration and anger are, violence not so much, except that what goes in comes directly out with no filter. There's no filter between thought and action. Jessica N39943.9014351852