Child needs rigid schedule - why?

Has he been evaluated by a psychologist? My son had similar behaviors and our psychologist said he had obsessive-compulsive tendencies but if it didn’t affect his life as a whole, we should just work with him and no aggressive intervention was necessary. Sometimes kids just need security like you said, but it might be worth a professional consult to ease your mind if it worries you.

What is his LD label specifically? What other behaviors does he have? Have you ahd OT for SI?

Often children with LD’s have trouble with transition and also with change, and find a great deal of comfort in rigid adherance to known scheduling. This is a primary reason why the prison population is has a far geater percentage of men with LDs than the general population. Prison allows them to have a very predictable life with a great deal of the randomness of life on the outside removed. (Not saying your child is headed for prison you understand.)

Might this be a manifestation of a mild to moderate obssessive-compulsive disorder? Has high functioning autism been ruled out?

This would probably more be a factor related to ADHD and other disorders rather than pure LD. The prison population is heavily weighted in ADHD persons. When a person has SEVERE ADHD that was never treated, then the probability of not acquiring literacy increases dramatically. Also, a manifestation of ADHD is difficulty organizing and disciplining oneself. ADHD students NEED structure. A prison provides structure.

Pure LD w/o ADHD really does not manifest typically in the need for structure, per se. My LD youngsters that I have taught for 14 years, 80% of whom do NOT have ADHD, do fine in most areas outside of those specifically effected.

Please, let’s not confuse LD with ADHD. Yes, about 40% of the ADHD population is believed to also be LD (these are excellent candidates for prison if not treated and managed). But, as I have said before, most LD youngsters who don’t have the ADHD traits or conduct disorder (read sociopathology) never set foot in a prison.

Now, some children who really are not purely LD (there may be some HFA traits or the OCD traits), are EDUCATIONALLY diagnosed as LD for the purpose of receiving services. These very few students are not typical of the LD population.

It sounds to me like he’s got some amount of obsessive-compulsiveness going on. I would definitely call his pediatrician, explain what you’re seeing and request a referral to a psychologist.

The basic thing about OCD is that, unless it’s interfering with your life, you can manage OK with it. But it depends. Some people don’t want to have to do those little rituals and would like to stop them. They’re a symptom of anxiety. The rituals are a way that people have found to calm that anxiety but they can take on a life of their own. Kids with LD’s often have a fair amount of anxiousness as it is, so it’s not uncommon for some of them to become a bit OCD.

I’d want it treated though. Your son is approaching puberty which, all by itself, is anxiety-provoking. It would be good to know this is under control before that point.

Is this a new symptom or an old one? The reason I ask is that I recently read an article about children who suddenly exhibit obessive-compulsive behaviors after contracting a strep infection. The acronym for the syndome is PANDAS, but I’ve forgotten exactly what that stands for. Sometimes the infection itself goes unnoticed, and the connection is not made unless the physician looks for it. The good news is that early treatment with antibiotics is very effective for kids who have sudden onset OCD caused by strep infection.

Andrea

You can go to the National Institute of Health website for more info about PANDAS. Sudden onset Tourette’s Syndrome and OCD are the two conditions that have been associated with the strep bacteria. The key element is sudden. There’s not a whole lot known about it as yet. It’s hard to diagnose. The strep goes “underground”, hiding within the cell walls and ordinary strep tests may not discover it. One can suddenly develop Tourette’s or OCD many months following a strep infection which makes it even harder to diagnose.

If your child has an LD, however, especially if it’s ADHD or if he’s on the autistic spectrum, OCD often appears as time goes by. From what I’ve read, some specialists think it’s another manifestation of the condition (some say it comes on with the approach of puberty), whereas others think it’s environmental, meaning that if a child isn’t meeting with success at school and is becoming anxious about it, she or he might develop some OCD behavior.

Thanks for all the input. I’d say OCD is a good bet. You know how OC people check and recheck things to make sure they’ve done them? My son, who also has a fear of being alone or abandoned, will keep checking the room I’m in to see if I’m still there; every few minutes he’ll just peek around the corner. I have no idea where this anxiety came from. If anything, we have spent too much time attached to each other. Attachment parenting is supposed to create independent, secure children. Not in our case. He began biting his nails at age three.
Is there such a thing as borderline Asperger’s? Some of those characteristics could be applied to my son, but just to a slight degree. He’s had educational screenings by a psychologist, but these things weren’t really addressed.

Aspergers is the first thing that popped into my mind but come from an autistic world perspective. If you want to exchange more information, I’ll be happy to tell you what I know.

What exactly about this makes you think Aspergers? I have read some about AS, but my son only seems to have some of those characteristics to some degree. He has always obsessed mildly about certain subjects, one at a time, even since he was a toddler, starting with doors, then toilets, vacuums, drains, highways, trains, etc. He has always made up interesting, colorful words that he repeats over and over, but in normal conversation. He echoes his own words quite frequently in a whisper. He is quite happy being on the fringe, quite unhappy in a crowd. (Me, too!) Functions pretty well, just seems odd and loud to other people.