My oldest daughter has ADHD, and we have suspected for while that our 4 yr old does also. Everyone keeps tell us He will outgrow his behavior, he is a boy and its natural for him to act this way, that once he goes to school he will be fine.....

Well He is on his 4th day of school (pre-k, afternoons) The second day he went, he hit a kid, spit on him then told the teacher he was going to have his daddy kick her butt.. Sigh.. So off We go to school, had a meeting with his teacher. She said that by far he is the most active of the kids and has the smallest attention span and is extremely impulsive with a hair trigger temper, and is in danger of losing his busing privlages (he does well on bus but not waiting in line) Well of course we had known all of this since he was about 6 months old, lol. But had hoped that once he started school it would magicly disappear like everyone has been telling us.

So monday I am seeing about setting up an appt with his Ped doc to get a referral for testing. I guess my questions are though I am quite familar with ADHD due to my daughter, and At times, DD and DS behavior are exactly the same at that age, He is very different from her with his Temper and aggression. I have tried applying the same behavioral mods I did with my daughter with him with no success what so ever. She is doing great, 12 years old and has been off her ritalin for a year now and is doing wonderful in school. her major problems were inattention and activity along with some impulstivity. His is the Impulstivy, inattention and the aggression and activity. Does anyone have words of wisdom I can try to help him in the mean time because I know its going to take months to get him into testing, through testing and such. I dont want him to get kicked off the bus or out of school, he loves it very much. Thanks for any help and for letting me bend your ears:)

Traci

Traci,

How's it going with your son?

Great big hugs hon

My biggest suggestion is to begin modifing his behavior now. My general rules when dealing with all of my children are below. They worked for my ADHD son as well as my hormon raged daughters.

1. Choose your battles......Understand that your not gonna win them all. Don't sweat the small stuff.

2. Be clear about what you expect. Instead of saying you must behave in school explain what is acceptable behavior and what is not.

3. Be concise. Remember children begin hearing you like the teacher from charlie brown after just a couple of seconds. So make your first words count.

4. The most important thing is be consistant. If something is bad today it must stay bad forever.

5. Always remember that raising children is like a game. Play to win.

Hope this helps but if not here is a great big hug for you.