Hi Everyone,
My 7-year old son has ADHD and SPD. Right now, with school having started just last week, we're dealing with more than the usual sensory-seeking behavior. In the evenings, he's often crashing into walls, taunting his brother (and me), grabbing everything he can find. Just about every night last week he had a major meltdown with destructive behavior. I would like to learn some techniques that will help to give him the input he needs, but that won't rev him up even more -- ways to help him calm down.
I'm happy to have found this forum.
kel

Well hi there Kel

Welcome to SPD International. I'm sorry to hear you are having so much trouble as of late. Here are a few ideas of mine:

1) Does he have an OT? If not, he needs one. If he does, is he going regularly? If he's not, then it would be a good idea to get him back in there more regularly.

2) School just started = big change in routine and environment. This almost always means huge meltdowns, especially if he's at a new school, or even just in a new classroom with new classmates and a different teacher. There are so many changes he has to adjust to, and those are huge for this.

3) Does he have a trampoline? Something to spin on? These are good ways of giving him the proprioceptive and vestibular input he is craving so badly. Deep pressure is a good one. You may want to try weighted gear, like the vest, belt, lap pad, and a weighted blanket. These shouldn't rev him up too much, but rather, should give him the input he needs.

I hope you are able to see it through this hard time here. Let us know how things go. Oh, and since you're here, is there anything else of interest you might want to tell us about you and your boy? Perhaps activities you like to do together, things you enjoy doing on your time off, stuff like that. We like to get to know each other on here too .

Again, I hope you are able to get the support you need here. Feel free to post around and ask questions. Get the help and friendship you probably need on here from people who understand you and where you're coming from!

Hello,

I myself have a 7 year old boy. He has had sensory Intergration since he was 6 months old. He was premiee, so he has a little more than that. Speech,add,fine motor delay,visual processing. He is in a OT. What we do for him as he runs as fast as he can and crashes into the couch. He needs deep pressure. I take a work out ball- big plastic kind. have him lay down. I start at the feet and work my way up his body. You apply presure on the top of ball with your weight. Work yourself up and down the body. It sends him into a different planet. He loves it and he is more foucsed afterwards as well. We also have him on L- theanine it just settle him down a little bit and helps with foucs. I have used all kinds of medicaiton and have had all kinds of reactions. But is great for my child. He is still him self on it. Just a little bit more with it and foucsed. Hope that that helps.

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(09-19-2010, 12:07 PM)D1G1T Wrote: Hi LoveMyBrandon, and welcome to you too.

If you want to edit that post and try again, there is an 'Edit' button on the bottom right of your post. Press that and you will be able to go back in and add your own message. Or, simply post again, and I can delete the old one for you .

Thank you I saw that.. I get a little pushy with the buttons.

Hi there LoveMyBrandon,

That is also a really good technique that I forgot to mention, so thanks a lot for posting it .
Therapy balls can work wonders, can't they? I have a couple in my room and they help a lot. They're good for both vestibular and proprioceptive input. They're basically little sensory exercise toys, if you will.

Oh, if you would like to introduce yourself and your son to the group, please feel free to start your own thread in this Introductions forum, so that more people might notice your being here. Thanks.

Quote:Thank you I saw that.. I get a little pushy with the buttons.

LOL, no problem. I understand. I've gone ahead and deleted my response too, as it no longer made sense without your post being there. Again, welcome to the site .

Thanks for the responses. My son does have an OT, who is wonderful, but we haven't seen him since the end of June. We live in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, and many people here go away for the summer because of the heat. So, no OT all summer. I'm still waiting to hear from him regarding our restart date, which should be this week. There are some things I have tried, that work from time to time, to give him sensory input. We have a mini-trampoline, which he will use at times. We also have a hammock inside, which he loves to swing in. One thing he loves, believe it or not, is vacuuming! I think the push and pull is very good for him (and our exercise room stays clean)! To help him stay asleep at night, I put a pillow on each side of him (he pretends they are Mommy and Daddy), and a weighted blanket on top. I also brush him at bedtime -- I have a variety of brushes and he likes to pick out which one he wants for his back, arms and legs. Joint compression also helps. I just haven't figured out a way to reach him when he is in hyper-mode or during a meltdown. It's like he stops hearing me. I've been advised to try big hugs, but he hates this. He has a younger brother (14 months younger) who does not have ADHD, but he often will try to participate in the hyper behavior and will try to get close to him when he's having a meltdown, only to be screamed at to get away or get out of the room. It's hard sometimes.

Oh man, that sounds hard. If the big hugs are not helping, I'd avoid them. Some people do better with something like that, and some get even worse. If you can get him isolated, in a quiet, dark room, sometimes that can help, as well. And, strange as it may sound, he may really not be hearing you when he's in a melt-down. When the sensory overload kicks in, it's often fight-or-flight for many. I know that, even though my melt-downs are quiet compared to some people, even when I'm "hearing" what people are telling me, I may not process it. Routines come in handy for this for me. What I do, is I build a routine of what to do if I feel something out of control. (I have to do this well in advance and practice it.) For your son, you might work with him after he's calmed down from an episode and ask him questions about what might have helped him most. Some suggestions on your part might help; any strong response for or against would be good indications. Then, ask him how he would like to learn things to make it a little easier for him. I'd be willing to bet he'd be game. Then, if you have a set way you plan to do things and signals you practice and ingrain, it may make calming down easier. As for the younger brother, if you give him strategies as a way of allowing him to help, too, I'll bet that would help, as well. I would imagine that he idolizes his older brother (no matter how much they fight, lol), so any way he can "help" would be very attractive to him. He would just have to be prepared to accept that, even if he does help, he might not always get the response he wants from his brother.

I'm sorry this got so long. I know that preparation for meltdowns can only help a little in some cases, but I have learned that any amount of control I can get, no matter how minimal, makes me less likely to completely panic and more likely to calm down in a reasonable amount of time. Any kind of feeling of control can help create some triumph and strength in that kind of adversity.

I have found that even "normal" people will break out of a tantrum/fight if you turn off the lights and all the sound (music), as long as there is just enough low light to not walk into anyone or anything.

For me personally, my family and friends know to start removing anything that might be sensory input if I suddenly just stop stunned. My husband sometimes tries yelling at me in that state if he has tried everything else, but I don't think it is affective and it just upsets me. A light tickle will sometimes break me out of that stunned state. My Personal Assistant has permission to tickle me if I shut down.

Normally I hate to be tickled, but it causes an adrenaline rush of fury that seems to help me over come the stunned state.

I know for me, being ADD/ADHD is a big obstacle when it comes to school. What I've found helps me focus best is very loud music played directly through headphones that completely cover my ears (ones like these, they even come in cool colors if you're willing to dish out a little extra money http://www.elitalice.com/wp-content/uplo...phones.jpg ), and a desk to sit at with nothing else distracting in the room at all. A completely quiet, empty room with just a desk facing the wall. If my work is on the computer, then that computer has to be facing me, so I can face the wall. I tend to listen to Drum n Bass, because I crave the deep thump and rise and falls that it brings. Some kids may prefer softer things, like classical or trance (trance is more fun than classical tbh ) , but having another thing in the background "distracts" us from thinking about unimportant things.

Like, for me if I'm not listening to music while I'm doing my work, then I start thinking about stupid things. About how my ears are ringing from the silence. Or are my shoes tied, my shirt is bugging me, just random things that aren't important. But with the music playing, I'm oblivious to external stimuli.

If he's having trouble with the actual homework, like if it's reading, try alternate reading style (that's what i call it lol). like you read one paragraph, he reads the next, etc. Or you read all dialog from one character, he reads dialog from the other character. Extra characters are a toss up. If you make it into a game, he'll be more likely to focus on it and want to get it done to "complete" the game. :3

Hopefully I helped touch on the ADHD side of things, as often I've noticed they can coincide with one another. He'll want to get up and run around from ADHD and from SPD, but if you can combat one at a time then the other shouldn't be so bad.

Hi Kel, and welcome!
I'd love to learn some of those same techniques, myself! I have a five year old that in NOT SPD or ADHD, but he winds up in much the same way in the evenings. We have figured out that when he is overtired, he goes into overdrive.

Wish I had some amazing answers for you, but I don't. So instead, I'll offer a welcome and a listening ear. Great to see you here!
Caryn