To give a brief history, our oldest was dx at 5 with ADHD and at 7 SPD was added to that. He is now 8, takes meds (has since age 5) and is doing great. His younger brother is 4 1/2 and in the last few months has gotten so sassy & so outright disrespectful that I'm beginning to wonder about him. I can't decide if it's an age thing (4 was awful with our oldest also but in hindsight...we were headed to an ADHD dx) or if he's starting to develope issues. We are very insightful to what ADD/ADHD looks like & honestly don't see any of the attention deficit issues w/him, he's more capable of certain tasks than my 8 yr old! Mostly it's his moth & his attitude, he does things & asks questions & pushes just to make you mad and I mean MAD! Always says no when asked to do something, argues about everything...literally everything! "Mommy, is it snowing?" "Yes, it is" "No, it's not" So, he knows it's snowing, yet he still asks if it's snowing and then argues when I answer him that it is! I would have to say it's gotten progressivly worse in the last couple of weeks and I can't put my finger on why. We've had no changes around our house, routine is the same as always. The one thing that is different in the last 3 mos is that hubby is laid off. DS4 goes to Pre-K 3 days a week and was going to daycare the other two days. When hubby got laid off, we decided it was financially beneficial for us to not pay daycare when he could just be home w/DS, so in the last few mos, DS has not gone to daycare those 2 days a week. Could that alone be making this difference? He's still getting interaction & structure 3 days a week, is it possible that could be making the difference? Or should we be consdering the possibility that he may be developing issues of his own. If so, what would those possibilities be since he doesn't have attention issues & it's just his sassing & defiance? I do not want to have him evaluated cause I feel like if we do that, he will be labeled regardless since older DS DOES have issues. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
You might want to do some research on ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder). It sounds like he would fit into this category more than the ADHD category. But, at the age of 4 1/2, it could just be a phase he's going through.