Ask the school who the 5 year old bullies are in school. Pay them to gang up on anyone who hits or bites others.

Problem should slowly work itself out….

God bless your wife.

And best of luck to you too.

AgLiving06 said:

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Jack Klompus said:

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Does your 3 year old also have a speech delay or speech impairments?

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No, He's quite good on the speech. He may have a mild lisp, but nothing the doctor thought was concerning.

We met with someone today who put it out there that he may have some sensory development issues. That his overreaction is part of him stimulating his nervous system. He's got some other quirks (lack of eye contact, will sometimes complain about noises being too loud, but other times not).

We have a call with the other place supposedly happening today. This is a place the school recommended. I was at least happy when I talked with this place the first time because they were quick to clarify that there cannot be oppositional defiance in a 3 year old.

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My 7-year old has speech issues, sensory processing disorder, autism and ADHD. At age 3, we were kind of in your boat and he was dismissed from his preschool due to biting. Much of it we thought was speech or "just a phase." Come to find out, we had much more going on than it being just a phase.

Since your son is 3, you could have your child evaluated by the local school district for speech and any special needs for early development. He might qualify for speech therapy and/or ECSC (basically Pre-K) through your school district.

You as his parent know him best, and if you think there is something not right, trust your instinct and keep digging. There might be something more. Early intervention will pay off in the long run.

You also may want to reach out to TCH Meyer Center to see a developmental pediatrician or Think Neurology. The lack of eye contact might be a symptom of Autism, but don't want to alarm you.

We've had him informally reviewed by a speech therapist and basically you only hear a slight lisp if you are told to listen for it. His vocab and educational skills are on par.

We had a call with the second OT and both are seem to come to similar opinions. We should be doing in-person meetings with them next week over spring break.

The second one was harder to get a read on, but I got the feeling that both are coming to the conclusion that it's sensory process related.

Something that I didn't realize before having my son in Speech Therapy (for the past 2 years) is that speech therapy goes far beyond linguistics. He has improved his emotional communication significantly. Also very much depends on the therapist.

Yeah, my wife is a speech therapist and I'm amazed at the things she works on with kids from a socialization perspective. It's not just fixing lisps. I'm also amazed with her patience and techniques with her nephew who has a lot of this Oppositional Defiance and ADHD in him. I'm ashamed how much a 4 year old who isn't my kid stresses me out. My response to the kid would be "Spank him and throw away his ****ing toys". She's got a bit more of a measured response.

Jack Klompus said:

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AgLiving06 said:

---

Jack Klompus said:

---

Does your 3 year old also have a speech delay or speech impairments?

---

No, He's quite good on the speech. He may have a mild lisp, but nothing the doctor thought was concerning.

We met with someone today who put it out there that he may have some sensory development issues. That his overreaction is part of him stimulating his nervous system. He's got some other quirks (lack of eye contact, will sometimes complain about noises being too loud, but other times not).

We have a call with the other place supposedly happening today. This is a place the school recommended. I was at least happy when I talked with this place the first time because they were quick to clarify that there cannot be oppositional defiance in a 3 year old.

---

My 7-year old has speech issues, sensory processing disorder, autism and ADHD. At age 3, we were kind of in your boat and he was dismissed from his preschool due to biting. Much of it we thought was speech or "just a phase." Come to find out, we had much more going on than it being just a phase.

Since your son is 3, you could have your child evaluated by the local school district for speech and any special needs for early development. He might qualify for speech therapy and/or ECSC (basically Pre-K) through your school district.

You as his parent know him best, and if you think there is something not right, trust your instinct and keep digging. There might be something more. Early intervention will pay off in the long run.

You also may want to reach out to TCH Meyer Center to see a developmental pediatrician or Think Neurology. The lack of eye contact might be a symptom of Autism, but don't want to alarm you.

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When my son was going through his tough time, we also had him evaluated for autism with a specialist in BCS (where we were living at the time). The therapist did think he had some signs of Asperger's, but at the time, that diagnosis was being phased out, so it didn't really help, hurt, or make any difference. I have the diagnostic report, but it really didn't end up being relevant to his treatment.

That was part of the issue we had with the psychiatrist we saw in Houston. At the time of our appointment with her, autism was on the table as a possible diagnosis (I can't remember if he had been evaluated at that point or not). After making a 5 year old wait in her waiting room for over two hours past his appointment time (and well into lunchtime), when she finally let us into her office for the consult. When I mentioned autism, she basically said there was no way my son had autism because her child had autism and my kid's symptoms were nothing like hers (all in a very condescending and dismissive tone). Ugh, just thinking about that appt gets me upset. She was so awful and unprofessional and horribly misdiagnosed him and prescribed a completely inappropriate medication. And then chastised me again when I called and told her the meds were making his symptoms worse.

Anyway, we were redirected and wound up spending quite some time with the staff at the TAMU Counseling and Assessment Clinic. At the time, the director of the clinic told me that he'd never evaluated a child with the combination of issues that my son was exhibiting.

Just based on some of the things my son told me after he had one of his meltdowns at school, I think there were some sensory related issues, too (along with the emotional distress of some major life changes that happened).

I think you're going down the right path. Listen to your gut…if you don't trust what a supposed "expert" in the field is telling you, find another. As we have all come to learn the last couple of years, not all doctors/health care professionals are created equal.

And like I said previously, the good news is my son grew out of nearly all the issues he was having. I tend to think it was all rooted in delayed development of a certain part of his brain, but because it's the part that affects emotions and impulse control, younger kids who already aren't great communicators, really struggle and act out.

Just to add - when my son very first started getting in trouble at school, my first response was to spank him. Mainly because that was the punishment that I received as a kid, and it was an effective deterrent for me. The problem with this approach was, usually several hours elapsed between whatever happened at school and the spanking. By the time I gave him the punishment, he had calmed down and probably forgotten most of what even happened. He was too far removed from the event to associate the punishment with the behavior. On top of that, he wasn't acting out to be defiant - it was usually some sort of emotional or sensory event that triggered it, and it just spiraled out of control (in part because a teacher didn't know how to handle it). So, as much as he hating the spankings (I swear, I have PTSD from those punishments), they didn't prevent another meltdown because in the moment his emotions were too out of control for him to even recognize he was going to get a spanking a few hours later.

This thread is incredibly fascinating to me.
Good luck to all of you guys, esp op, I'm praying for you!

He's at your Churches school. He absolutely loves Pastor Paul and pretends to be him all day long when at home.

04aggiegirl said:

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Something that I didn't realize before having my son in Speech Therapy (for the past 2 years) is that speech therapy goes far beyond linguistics. He has improved his emotional communication significantly. Also very much depends on the therapist.

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This is 100% what we are finding out too. Occupational Therapy for someone his age is really not about physical, but really about non-physical developmental opportunities

pastor Paul is definitely awesome. I hope yall find good solutions for your little one.

Exactly! We started speech and OT at about 4.5 years and I wish we had started sooner.