Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed reply.
> f you ever want to feel like you were cut in two and had your beating heart ripped out of your chest - that was that moment.
Just reading it and thinking of the situation hurts - I can't quite imagine living with/through it.
> We asked ourselves many times if this behaviour was just normal kids and that our perspective was just skewed.
This, so many times. The frustrating thing is when describing many of the behaviors, there is nothing on the surface to differentiate it from a kid being a kid. It's only the continued nature of them over time that raises concerns with us. We were deterred by our family physician early on when we first raised these concerns.
We're currently in the process of going through the school's evaluation and paperwork. I do agree - they were hesitant to ask us to take this route because of that usual response from parents, and they seemed honestly surprised when we agreed to do the evaluation. I'm still on the fence around pulling in medical help, because medicating a six year old isn't on my list of things to do...
> Does it affect how she's treated at school, to an extent yes, but on the whole the staff have been amazing and collaborative with us
That's good to know, though certainly it'll vary by school district. The school has been very supportive in our discussions so far, and in how they handle him in class.
Thanks again for taking this time, it's very helpful.
Yeah, I'm still on the fence about medication but I will tell you this for sure. The medication has made the difference between it being more manageable. I won't say it cures all the behaviours, but it takes the edge off. When used with other tools, like learning to discuss and manage her feelings with a therapist, it's made her temper and behaviour on the whole much more bearable.
> f you ever want to feel like you were cut in two and had your beating heart ripped out of your chest - that was that moment.
Just reading it and thinking of the situation hurts - I can't quite imagine living with/through it.
> We asked ourselves many times if this behaviour was just normal kids and that our perspective was just skewed.
This, so many times. The frustrating thing is when describing many of the behaviors, there is nothing on the surface to differentiate it from a kid being a kid. It's only the continued nature of them over time that raises concerns with us. We were deterred by our family physician early on when we first raised these concerns.
We're currently in the process of going through the school's evaluation and paperwork. I do agree - they were hesitant to ask us to take this route because of that usual response from parents, and they seemed honestly surprised when we agreed to do the evaluation. I'm still on the fence around pulling in medical help, because medicating a six year old isn't on my list of things to do...
> Does it affect how she's treated at school, to an extent yes, but on the whole the staff have been amazing and collaborative with us
That's good to know, though certainly it'll vary by school district. The school has been very supportive in our discussions so far, and in how they handle him in class.
Thanks again for taking this time, it's very helpful.