![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 8 of 8. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Shoeshine on August 24, 2004, at 14:01:47
My brother is now 8 years old. He has had speech, behavior, and anger problems his whole life. My mother and I have done everything possible to get him help and nothing seems to work. He has been on several different medications that work for a few weeks then stop. The doctors tell us that he has severe speech apraxia. We know that there has to be more than that. He cannot say more than 2 word sentences, he curses, spits, hits, bites. He throws huge fits whenever he doesn't get something that he wants. People have told us that we haven't raised him properly, but I know that is wrong. We have used several different approaches to punish him. WE have had time out chairs where he is supposed to sit but doesn't b/c he kicks curses hits cries and screams at us. We have spanked him on the bottom, took away toys or games, grounded him, talked to him calmly, anything imaginable. It seems like there is something blocking him from comprehending things we say to him. Also we try to do homework with him and he doesn't seem to hear anything we say. He has been doing speech therapy for several years and it seems to only help him annunciate better, it doesn't help him speak more. He was put on a medication called Respidol yesterday. I have been trying to read about it but nothing seems to help me understand this medication. He will be starting school tomorrow which scares me b/c the last school he went to kicked him out b/c of his outbursts. I know that he doesn't realize what he is doing. And I know it's not his fault. He doesn't seem to remember the fits that he has. It is very sad and teachers and other people don't seem to understand. IT is only my mother and I taking care of him and it is very hard b/c I am a full time college student and work 30 hours a week, my mother works 12 hour shifts 3 days a week so that she can be at home when he is at school so that she can be available to pick him up from school if there is a problem with his behavior. I have noticed what ticks him off is telling him no or trying to get him to do something he doesn't want to do. WE have tried to work on this but nothing is helping. NOw that I have told ya'll my problem, I am asking anyone out there to give me and my mother suggestions on how to deal with all this. Some questions I have is: is this medication safe for him? How do we find help from professionals to help him behave better? what is the best way to get him to speak? where can we get help on finding a sitter for him so that I can do work and school and so that my mother can do work, sleep, and finish her schooling so that she can afford medical bills, food, a home, and education for her son? Please help us.... we are open to any suggestions.
Posted by King Vultan on August 24, 2004, at 17:21:38
In reply to Help my brother, posted by Shoeshine on August 24, 2004, at 14:01:47
Your story reminds me a bit of a book I once read called "And I don't want to live this life", written by the mother of Nancy Spungen, best known as the late girlfriend of Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols. As I recall, her mother felt that many of her daughter's problems had to do with the fact that she was a "blue baby," the deprivation of oxygen at birth perhaps having something to do with her severe behavior problems. I am a little dismayed that the medical profession seems to have done such an ineffectual job so far in helping your brother. I'm afraid I have little to offer other than suggesting to keep on seeking information. You may be forced to educate yourself to some extent on childhood behavior disorders in order to best act on your brother's behalf. However, it sure seems like there should be someone, somewhere, who has a clue to what's going on and can give you some real insight into the underlying problem.
Todd
Posted by linkadge on August 24, 2004, at 19:00:46
In reply to Re: Help my brother, posted by King Vultan on August 24, 2004, at 17:21:38
The risperdal is worth a try, but it seems that there is certainly something more complex going on. Did you mention autism ? Perhaps there is a well versed pedicatrician who might know more.
Did you say he had mood swings or not. Is there any indication that he might be seeing, hearing or beliving things that aren't existant ??
Linkadge
Posted by xjs7 on August 24, 2004, at 19:25:24
In reply to Help my brother, posted by Shoeshine on August 24, 2004, at 14:01:47
Has your brother had an MRI of the brain? There are some malformations and tumors that can cause behavioral disturbances in children (and adults).
xjs7
Posted by J. Backer on August 24, 2004, at 20:55:08
In reply to Re: Help my brother, posted by xjs7 on August 24, 2004, at 19:25:24
sounds like he has many of the symptoms of ADHD, but nothing is so cut and dry. he might also have other things going on. i defently suggest a very experienced specilist.
i would try zyprexa at night and adderal in the morn. but im not a P-DOC (yet) so check around man.
peace j
Posted by Jeroen on August 25, 2004, at 11:13:21
In reply to Help my brother, posted by Shoeshine on August 24, 2004, at 14:01:47
try this new medication www.abilify.com it might cure his problem
go ahead and try
best wishes
Posted by Cairo on August 25, 2004, at 12:46:07
In reply to Help my brother, posted by Shoeshine on August 24, 2004, at 14:01:47
If your brother's receptive or expressive language disorder is severe, some of the behavior you see may be due to inability to understand or communicate. My daughter was prone to outbursts when she was younger, but fortunately I knew is was due to mixed receptive/expressive problems and I ignored the first Speech and Language therapist we went to who said it was mostly behavioral because she pointed to a picture of a volcano and said "a volcano is very hot!" What he didn't want to listen to was that with an expressive language disorder, spontaneous speech can appear fine, but speech "on demand" is the problem. If you know in your gut that there's more to his language problems than what they are saying, find another Speech and Language Therapist who is more skilled, even if you need to do it privately rather than through the public school system.
As my daughter's language developed (with lots of Speech and Language therapy as well as testing and therapy for auditory processing), her behavior improved. I think she was frustrated with her inability to understand and communicate. We still have expressive issues, but it has improved immensely. Unfortunately, we are now going through anxiety, depression and social phobia, but no behavioral issues.
One thing you might consider is having your brother homeschooled by a tutor if you cannot find a public or private school that can meet his needs. We live in Florida where it is easy to do so and have variously homeschooled as well as partially homeschooled and had her enrolled in a private school for LD kids. The trick is finding a teacher who is good. I never thought that we would homeschool in a million years, but it has been the best thing for her; one-on-one work tailored to her needs has made all the difference. She is starting high school and we're working for a regular diploma. While it took us awhile to figure out everything that was going on with her, the difficult part is remediation rather than diagnosis. And the one caveat that I have learned over all these years is that intensive remediation is better. The whole once a week speech therapy that the public schools push is simply not going to do it. We went private and found that daily therapy for whatever we were working on works SO much better than once or twice a week. This has been true for language, auditory processing and phonemic awareness for reading, writing, spelling, etc. Integrating therapy into classroom work for severe cases is more effective IMHO than doing language "therapy" which may not transfer to the classroom or real world.
And find a good doctor/clinic who can evaluate the whole child. Kennedy-Krieger in Baltimore has top notch people, as well as Mass General, Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. Where do you live? Seeing a pediatric neuropsychologist could be a useful first step and could point you to other areas that might need further testing, such as auditory processing.
Regarding learning and language issues, here's a couple of sites of interest:
LD Online: www.ldonline.org; check out the "LD in Depth" topics as well as the bulletin boards. They were tremendously helpful to me when I first started looking into these issues and specific remediation.
Judith Kuster's Speech and Language website: http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster2/welcome.html
Mel Levine, MD, All Kinds of Minds: http://www.allkindsofminds.com/
Caroline Bristol's CAPD website: http://pages.cthome.net/cbristol/
Fast ForWord: www.fastforword.com; a computer program targeting language and processing issues
Dyspraxia therapy Ideas: http://home.comcast.net/~speechguide/sample.html
There's also a good, but basic, book: "Childhood Speech, Language, and Listening Problems: What Every Parent Should Know" by Patricia Hamaguchi.Your brother is lucky that you are on his side. Don't ever let anyone chide you for not bringing him up right. He's a neat kid just trying his best to come out! Good luck!
Cairo
Posted by Dr. Bob on August 27, 2004, at 8:44:41
In reply to Re: Help my brother, posted by Cairo on August 25, 2004, at 12:46:07
> There's also a good, but basic, book: "Childhood Speech, Language, and Listening Problems: What Every Parent Should Know" by Patricia Hamaguchi...
I'd just like to plug the double double quotes feature at this site:
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faq.html#amazon
The first time anyone refers to a book without using this option, I post this to try to make sure he or she at least knows about it. It's just an option, though, and doesn't *have* to be used. If people *choose* not to use it, I'd be interested why not, but I'd like that redirected to Psycho-Babble Administration:
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20020918/msgs/7717.html
Thanks!
Bob
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Medication | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.