Impulsive Actions

My son is 4 years old.  He is a smart loving boy with an active, outgoing, fun loving attitude who loves to touch everything and ask questions.  

He has an issue keeping his hands to himself.  In the past month he has hit classmates and had an issue where the teach asked him to put a toy away he held his hands in tight fists as he threw the toy on the ground.  The teacher and myself are concerned for him and the other students.

We had him evaluated over the spring and the therapist said he was borderline ADHD.  When I mentioned that to the teacher she said he sits down and does his work very well.  Its just the hands and the anger she is concerned about.

I asked him why he got mad and threw the toy and he said it was because he didnt want to go to time out.  My guess is he feels that if the teacher asks him to do something it always results in time out thus the anger.

With him being borderline ADHD the discussion of meds has come up but I would rather try to solve this with behavior training because medication does train the right behavior but it might limit the reaction.

Any thoughts would be helpful

[dollyn]

Just because he gets mad doesn't mean he has ADHD.

I would not put him on medicine.The side effects it dose to these young child,like they are not the same little happy people any more.

My son was on medicine and wish I had never put him on it.He now has seizures.

Your son may have a problem with the teachers and the children in class.And may have to do with how things are run there.He may have bipolar not ADHD and even if he did I wouldn't put on those strong medicines.

teachers and other will have to deal with it in other ways.Just because he is young they think that talking to him wont help.

[allmymarbles]

In the first place I am very sceptical about all these ADD diagnoses. Any child who is rambunctious, or can't sit still, or is somewhat rebellious is deemed diseased. It is assumed that little children who act like angels, do their work without prodding, are sweet-tempered, etc., etc., are the norm. (Not only are children like this rare birds, I am not so sure I would want one.) Any behavior that deviates from this "norm" is noted and "corrected," all too often with drugs.

Your poor little son is only four years old. What a fuss about throwing a toy! Just tell him it is wrong and that he can't do it. And then let the subject drop. Keep harping on it, and any kid with guts will react by throwing everything in sight.