add behaviour

[liehanna]

my daughter is 7 years old.they discovered 2 years ago that she has ADD.her behaviour is not exceptable.she's constantly throwing tantrums, slamming doors, hit het head against the door or wall and her language is very bad. i have 3 children, 3y end 5 years and my house is turn upside down with the 7 year old. there is also signs of autism, she can hear but if you call het she just go on with what she is doing. she screams alot while watching tv or running thru the house.i did everything i possibly can, talk nice and soft, yelled at her but it gets wors by the day. she is using ritallin LA 20mg per day.time out does not work, hiding does not work, taking things away does not work it makes it wors, she would scream and brake things and slamming the doors and hit her head against the walll or door, it is almost if you do those things she cant handle that, it's like you taking the world from her. What can i do because i can't go on like this, my family is starting to fall apart because of this. Please help me or direct me into the right direction.

[Sally44]

Go onto the autism forum and click on the Health Page icon on the top right hand corner of the page.  I have posted the DSM IV diagnositic criteria for autism and parents have posted examples of their childs behaviour that fits the criteria.  Have a look and see if any of that sounds relevant to her behaviour and post back.  It maybe that you have two things going on.  Alot of what you are trying to do with her behaviour would not work with an autistic child, so it is important to know if autism or aspergers is relevant so that you can use other strategies.

[liehanna]

Thanks so much i will have a look and see what i can find. the things i said the first time is only half the things that been going on, there's lots more.But i will have a look and try new strategies if i can come up with any. It's just so hard living in a home with a child like that and it  affects my other two children aswell.I just want to burst into tears because everything that i do is wrong.

[Sally44]

Have a look at the Health Page and then post back with what you think as to its relevance.
If your daughter has the diagnosis of ADD she might also have an autistic spectrum disorder or Aspergers.  If you suspect that then you have to go back and ask for further assessments.  Sometimes it can be hard to get the professionals to agree to do further assessments because they may say 'we know that alot of children with ADD have autistic traits', however, without the assessments and the diagnosis the people involved with her day to day activities/education are not going to be aware of the autism side of things.  As autistic children have a different kind of attention and focus ie. huge amounts of attention and focus for things they are interested in, and no attention or focus or everything else, there is also the possibility that she has been mis-diagnosed.
Anyway, post back with what your feelings are about this.