Hi everyone, I am just at a loss.
My son is currently 6 years old and is in prep.
I have always suspected that there was something different about him, he doesn't listen, he has meltdowns over nothing. (As he has gotten a bit older they have decreased in how often they occur).
I share custody with my son's father. I have my son every week from Friday, where I pick him up from school, until Monday, when I drop him off to school.
Home life - He doesn't listen. He NEVER gets tired. He just keeps going and going. He doesn't listen to instruction unless it's something fun or something he wants to do. He has meltdowns over nothing. EXAMPLE of meltdown: A few weeks ago, I took him to the football. We were lining up ready to go in and he ran away from me, all the way to punt road from the MCG entrance (lucky the street is blocked off for the football). It took me 15 minutes to catch him, calm him down and his final excuse was "I was bored". In his younger years when I would try to discipline him, he would just laugh at me. Discipline now, is a 1, 2, 3 and a lot of patience from me.
Kinder life - He attended kinder from 11 months old all the way up until he started school. His behaviour has not gotten better. During kinder, he was very inattentive and just wanted to do what he liked. He hung around himself usually. Did not like to share, just wanted to do what he wanted to do and like a spoilt brat, would crack it and have a meltdown if he was asked to do anything. During his 3 year old group, it was advised that my son be assessed and a lady came out from Connections to assess him and did a report. My son was referred to a pediatrician and they don't believe he has autism (it was suspected because his uncle has mild autism). He started 4 year old kinder, and after a week, was put back down to the three year old group, because he couldn't deal with instructions, uniformity and doing things as a group. When he was 5, he was put into the 4 year old kinder group again, but he was moved to a new kinder, due to change of address. When he joined the new kinder, on orientation, they asked if he has been diagnosed with anything (this was asked by just observing him play with other children). He didn't like the change of the new kinder and had meltdowns every single time I dropped him off.
School life - He has only been there for a half a year, and he is just uncontrollable.
He has screamed at his teacher. He throws his work at her or onto the floor. He won't listen to instructions unless he is interested in what is happening.
He throws bark at other kids, or spits on them. When disciplined by the teachers, it just goes in one ear and out the other.
He doesn't get to go to play time because not once, but THREE TIMES, he has ESCAPED from the school grounds. Apparently he squuezes under the fence. The third time, which was last week (june 16th, 2014), he actually escaped and went onto the ROAD. His excuse is "I miss my mum".
I have had a meeting with the principal and we started a behaviour chart. It worked for almost two weeks, then he went back to his old ways.
I just don't know what to do anymore. I feel like a failure.
My son is booked in to see his paediatrician in September. I suspect he may have ADHD or aspergers, but obviously I'm not a doctor.
He is also doing a program next term at his school for kids from split families run by a child psychologist.
I just want to know, has anyone else had these sort of problems?
1 Replies
I think this question has been posted before. But to answer your question yes. Your not alone! If it turns out to be aspergers (which is actually called autism now as there is no separate diagnosis anymore) there is a huge community out there of parents networking and supporting each other on Facebook. There is a huge amount of help out there, some of it junk and some of it awesome. The raising children network website as a thorough run down on the treatments and scores it's efficacy. There is no magic treatment or cure it's all hard work.