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RE: At wits end with Step Daughter (Follow-Up #7)
posted by: ceph on 10.18.2008 at 12:36 pm in Stepfamily Forum FDH has a 9 yo son (I call him A__) with ADHD. We have him roughly a third of the time (usually 2-3 days a week) and have made HUGE progress in the last year with his behavior.
I'm going to go through your post bit by bit, so this will get long and may not be what you want to hear. She has been tested and has ADHD and is on medication for it. The one thing that we are really having a problem with is her mouth. She is completely rude! We both talk to her about it but her response is "people need to change for me, I do not need to change for them". Her and I really but heads a lot and I do not know how to fix this. As she has gotten older she has gotten worse with the attitude and mouth. Her mother recently got married. I have asked my SD if she treats her Step dad as bad as she treats me and she will tell you no. She thinks the world should revolve around her. She complains that she is the only one that gets put in time out and the only one that gets yelled at. I am harder on my own children then I am on her. I don’t know how to deal with her attitude and mouth. Plus to be very honest, I do not trust her. She will convince my children into doing things they are not supposed to and then they get into trouble. Last summer she tried to talk my daughter into eating rabbit pellets telling her they were berries. I have told my husband that if something doesn’t change soon, we will be bailing her out of jail when she is 15. The big problem is, she does not live with us and if you ask anyone about her they say that her problems are cuz of her ADHD. I do not believe this; I think it is lack of discipline at home. How can you fix the problem when you only have her part time? Short answer: Slowly and with a LOT of work. Long answer that has worked for us: We started off by making a set of "rules for our family" that has rules about being nice and telling the truth. We went through the rules with examples of following and not following, and then started invoking them as needed. That way, he gradually learned the standard of behavior we expected and we constructively helped him find how to meet that standard. The first few hours of A__ coming over were never good, but after he adjusted to having to live up to expectations, he'd get right into the good habits. We coupled the new rules and expectations with ADHD things like a timer for the computer or until bedtime and so on. We had to use the timer for practically everything for about 4 months, until he got a bit of a concept of time and learned a few time-management techniques. Learning time-management was harder for A__ than for other kids, because of his ADHD, but he did it. We also used lots of other little ADHD management things (checklists, routines, etc) Learning good behaviors is harder for kids with ADHD because they can't give a "neurological self-reward" just for making a good choice. They need to get an external stimulus that gives their brain that reward until they internalize the behavior into a habit or into their nature. So we had to give positive feedback for EVERYTHING (I got so sick of high-fives) for MONTHS. "You hung up the tea-towel when you were done drying dishes! Yay!! Gimme a high-five!" Even once A__ learned to meet behavioral expectations, he still did a lot of things to get negative attention. We talked with him about "good or bad attention" and what each is. So A__'s definition is "good attention" is doing something that someone might give you a compliment for... and "bad attention" is doing something that someone might tell you to stop. We brainstorm with him on ways to get good attention. We ask him "Are you looking for good or bad attention?" or "Can you think of a way to get good attention instead?" and it has gradually worked. We stopped engaging in drama. If A__ screams "I hate you! You're the worst dad in the world! I wish I was dead!" because he was asked to brush his teeth, we respond with a quiet "It's too bad you feel that way, because I love you and am glad you're alive. Please go brush your teeth now." BM has commented to us that A__ is so much better behaved and that she loves how good he is now. But BM does have some structure for him. Her mom, on the other hand, has no rules or expectations and FEEDS bad behavior like you wouldn't believe. So if we pick up A__ from BM's, it's a short changeover to the behavior we expect. If we pick him up from GM's, it's a long adjustment. Anyhow, it CAN be done with a kid who isn't with you much, and is usually in a less constructive environment. It's just longer and harder. NOTES: <none>
clipped on: 10.20.2008 at 09:12 am last updated on: 10.20.2008 at 09:12 am
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