Cowgirl_Mom

Ramblings of a Mom
2003-11-04 21:59:28 (UTC)

I'm Baaaack!

I haven't written in a few days, and that's my bad. To be
honest, I just wasn't up to sharing much of anything. What
drove me to write this afternoon was my son.
After his diagnosis of AD/HD (mild), we worked together
with the school to put him on a customized reward program
to get and keep him on the right track. He has done
awesome up until yesterday. He has to 'follow his rules'
for eight sections of time throughout his day to color in a
lilly pad for that section so that he can 'leap to his
goal'. He was slowly increased on his expectations of
lilly pads to successfully complete until he is up to 8
now. But yesterday, he came home with NONE of them
colored. We let it go, telling him that everybody has a
bad day, just make the next day better. Well, he made it
better, he just got to color ONE! Not cool, not good at
all! I'm at a loss cuz all that I read and am told, we are
not to 'punish' him per se with AD/HD because it's a
neurobiological disorder. But we can't just let this go
on, either! He's telling me that it's because they added a
new rule for him, which is to raise his hand before he
speaks and not to call out. That is fine, then how do we
reinforce it so that he can learn?
I called my husband to discuss it with him. I suggested
just telling my son no TV for tonight. That we are not
angry, no, he's not going to get a spanking or anything
like that, but we are disappointed and we want him to learn
and comprehend this new expectation. If he pulls it out
tomorrow, he gets it right back. We are not supposed
to 'take anything away' once it has been 'given to him'.
We are supposed to just not reward him, since his behavior
was not up to par. But I can't just sit back and let this
happen, either! I want him to be successful and it seems
that parenting makes that such a daily challenge.
Well, I guess I better go check on him, he was only
supposed to fill the dog's water bucket and then it's
homework time!




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