I’m looking for suggested behavior modification techniques to use with my 11 year old son who has ADHD. Over the course of the past 6 months, medication seems to have lost it’s effectiveness and ADHD behavior is becoming more problematic. My son shows real difficulty with controlling his impulses, especially blurting out. As of late, he constantly interrupts or blurts out his thoughts before considering the appropriateness of his comments. We have just returned from a holiday in DC and I observed him interjecting himself into other people’s conversations constantly. After the fact, he is often aware that his behavior was inappropriate and he is embarrassed by it, however he does not seem to be able to regulate this behavior. In school last spring, blurting out in the classroom was an issue.
He is entering middle school in another month. I would like to address this problem at home with a successful strategy that I can pass onto his teachers and support staff at school. I will be talking to his neurologist again about medication, however at our last visit in May, the neurologist indicated that he thought perhaps Sunshine had given up making an effort and was relying solely on medication as the miracle cure. He had been on a combination of Dexedrine and Wellbutrin, which seemed to work very well until February of this year, when the medication seemed to have little effect. He is currently on 54 mg Concerta and 2 mg Risperdal; this combination has never produced the same peak results as the Dexedrine and Wellbutrin.
Audrey
Re: Behavior mod for ADHD 11 yr old
Hi Audrey,
Is you son on medications? My son is also 11 and had the same symptoms as yours. Check out my numerous messages on various threads with our history, what worked for us and what not. Look under mlwmc or Lorena:
Teaching students with ADHD
Teaching students with LD
I hope it helps.
Good luck,
Lorena
Your Dr. may be right. Meds do not work alone. Yor Sunshine needs to do his part by teaching himself to think before he acts. I know this is very difficult. A positive behavior program where he is rewarded for appropriate behavior usually helps. A sheet that is divided into half hour increments (for school and home) where he gets positive points for on-task, following directions, getting work done, raising hand for comments and other appropriate behaviors and no points if he had inappropriate behaviors during that time period. It works best if points are given in a timely manner. Find out what he will work for, movies, time with mom or dad, 5 minutes later bed time, whatever will work for him. When he has a period of no points, be sure to have him tell you why he thinks that happened and encourage him to do better. Also be sure to point out that it’s really important and how proud you are of him that he was able to turn around a time span of no points. This is especiall helful for ADD/ADHD students that are having medication problems because you may see patterns or time slots that tend to be more difficult for him. Drs. are often interested in these behavior sheets Good Luck