ADHD and Tantrums

[theriviera]

I have no advice, but just wanted to offer hugs. So much of this sounds like what we are going through with DD1. It's hard.

[lizzywednesday]

Has she been evaluated by the school district? Does she have an IEP/504? I would request one ASAP if not because you want disciplinary goals to be a part of that (going off of what niccig mentioned).
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She has an IEP for speech. We didn't have the ADHD diagnosis until October 2016.

DH was reluctant to add the ADHD to her IEP initially. His SIL is a special-ed teacher (not in our district) and recommended that we add it to her IEP for DD's protection. (Which is what I was saying to DH.) And he changed his tune. A little. But only recently okayed pursuing counseling.

I'm just going to add in that my DS is 9.5 yo now and we have struggled over the years with his ADHD.

One thing that struck me about your previous posts is that you are seeing some behavior that you haven't seen since kindergarten when you were led to seek an evaluation. I recently said the exact same thing about DS. Everything had been going ok with his medication until it suddenly wasn't. But what I didn't know, is that it wasn't "suddenly" not working. It had been not working for several months with low levels of symptoms until suddenly DS had enough and started exhibiting explosive behavior.

...

The slightly increased dosage of the medication has helped DS get back on track and the therapist gave DS some worksheets about how to recognize stress and how to manage it (geared towards kids).

It is not at all uncommon as children grow for the medications to need to be adjusted or changed altogether. For this reason alone it is important to pursue a psychiatrist. They are the ones best equipped to recognize typical behavior issues from symptoms of untreated ADHD.
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She's only been on medication for a year and her in-school outbursts have typically coincided with days when there's a substitute teacher in her homeroom.

It could easily be the meds, or it could be something else. I've got an appointment set up with one of the therapists from our pediatrician's list (she's covered by our insurance) for Tuesday. I'll be bringing DD's diagnosis paperwork as well.

[lizzywednesday]

You and DH need to get on the same page and get more help for her. The psychiatrist and counseling sound like places to start. Call the school psychologist now, leave a message asking for referrals. The school needs to know you’re trying to get help. If she continues to have tantrums, throw things, they could say she’s a danger to herself or others and recommend moving her to a more restrictive class setting. I’ve seen this happen too many times. If child’s behaviors improve (meds, counseling, maturity), we want to move them back into gen ed but they’re behind on academics.

Don’t wait any longer to get more help.

I have a meeting set up with one of the psychiatrists on Tuesday. On Monday, I'm going to call the insurance company with a couple of questions as well, like how many sessions we get and whether we need pre-authorization.

[lizzywednesday]

I met today with the therapist and we have DD scheduled to go in next week.

We'll see what happens next; hopefully, it's another baby step in the right direction!

[lizzywednesday]

2nd Update (June 2018):

We've seen the therapist 3 times.

In between the 2nd and 3rd appointments, DD had a Really Bad Day where she threw fits (substitute teacher), ran away from teachers (who she doesn't normally see), and fought with classmates.

The therapist wants to see if we can note any pattern to these kinds of outbursts because DD is showing what could be anxiety-expressed-as-OCD symptoms in her (the therapist's) opinion.

So, does anyone have any recommendations for note-taking apps that could be linked to my calendar? (I have an iPhone 6S.)