His therapist thinks he has ADD I doubt my district would do that. They say he is fine by their standards. I just get the brunt of his frustrations when he gets home :( Most ASD usually have attention problems. My kids only become very attentive when they want to or doing their favorite things. Big M dxed with ASD, ADHD traces, little M's doctor didn't give him other sub-dxes (different doctors), just autistic disorder. But in his report he addressed  little M's short attention spins and poor emotional control. From my own experience, my younger one is very compulsive and my older one is very screamy. He could cry over nothing. Some parents think that ASD kids, even kids with ADHD not mature as fast as their peers, which means, he is 10, but his maturity possible about 6 to 7 year. You would have more patience with 6 year old, not with a 10 year. They can't control their emotions and compulsive behaves without help and support from adult.     You need a behavioral plan. My kids are going to an ABA based PDD class. At home I use a lot of ABA techiques. It works well for us, but not screaming free. And you have to be very creative, one thing worked yesterday, doesn't mean it works today. Contact your school district see they can provide ABA home training for you as well as your son. My son has very bad emotional control. I have thought he was ASD since he was 2 and I will say he has improved in some areas (eye contact) but he still gets frustrated and flys off the handle often and it almost constant from 3PM - 8PM. I am dreading the summer since I dont know if I can take another summer of being screamed at for everything or of him screaming at his 3 yr old sister. He goes from 0 to 60 in 2 seconds over everything. His therapist thinks its ADD and from what I have read I just dont see it.  Do you think ASD and ADD have similar symptoms ? ADHD is PART of autism (sometime with hyperactivity, sometimes without).  Unfortunately, SOME kids with autism spectrum disorders have bad reactions to ADHD medication, so it's critical to have a doctor who medicates ASD kids on a regular basis and who has lots of experience with various meds do the medicating.  If this doctor fits that description, work with him.  ADHD can be very detrimental to any child -- his behavior, his academic progress, etc. Yes, I agree, kids with autism also often have ADD symptoms.  When our school district evaluated my son the psychologist said he has severe ADHD as an Other Health Impairment.    My sons developmental ped says ADD is a part of ASD . I here you with the 3pm thing ,for my son he is out of school at 2 and for the first hour he has a very hard time ,for him its the transition ,and he holds all his frustration in Until he sees me. He is alot better when he is not in school, I feel for you,is he on any Meds,if not maybe you could find one that could help with his moods? Linda Schools are behind the curve when is comes to recognizing that ADHD is a part of autism. That is because having ADHD qualifies a child under the classification of Other Health Impaired.  Schools prefer this classification to Autism because it puts them on the hook for fewer sorts of therapies and interventions.  With a classification of OHI, the schools feel totally free to ignore the autism part. When my son was on Ritalin he had rebound hyperactivity starting about 3 pm every day.  There were days that were harder to get through and you second guessed going anywhere some evenings.  He developed tics which made us wean him off of the Ritalin (that was unbelievable hyperactivity coming off).  He is now on Risperdal which is so much better, he is calmer and there is no more spikes of hyperness every evening.  Our Dr. says that when kids are ASD they have a higher chance of Tics / OCD / ADHD or ADD.  Some kids will get all 3 and others maybe just 1 or 2.  The lucky ones are just ASD.  We started out PDD NOS (dx age 5), got ADHD dx age 6, and now tics and OCD dx age 8.    I agree with the pp's.  I would like to add that while ADHD may be contributing to your son's symptoms, don't discount that our ASD kids really do have the issues your child is struggling with.  My son is 11 1/2.  His emotional maturity is all over the map, but generally quite a bit behind boys his age.  He can't articulate what his needs are very well, so he yells.  He gets frustrated very easily-about on par with a 2-3 y/o, so he screams and yells.  He likes things on his terms so he yells.  He dosn't like the noise his sister makes so he yells.  Sometimes he breaks things too.  This is at anytime of day, but he has always been worse in the afternoon.  Its been 2 1/2 straight weeks of misery for me and the ABA therapist for exactly the above reasons. My son and "nt" dd also are ADHD.  He takes meds for this, while it helps ds's impulsiveness and attention, it does not help his afternoon emotional outbursts. I think it has more to do with the fact that the kids are worn out from a hard day at the office (school) and just can't hang in there anymore. One of the very best social things I have done for ds is to keep him involved in Boy Scouts, even though he "doesn't want to," they accept him and he's developed a lot of social and functional skills. They also have summer day camps that are well supervised and the boys stay BUSY.  In the afternoon he couldn't stay awake long enough to give me too bad of a time . My dd was put on 2.5 mg of Focalin 7 weeks ago she takes it at 8 am, 11:30 am and now just started taking it at 3:30 pm when she gets home from school. It does wear off by 7 pm and we can tell when it does. But lasl night it's like she hadn't take it at all. She was crying, saying she was scared, didn't want to pick up her room before bed, yelling at dad that she hated him, kicking and hitting him. All she wanted was me. She has been realy clingy to me lately grabbing my leg and even pinching if he tries to pull her away. We don't know what is going on, she doesn't know what is going on. I wish we could get into these kids' heads and read thier minds and help them! Does anyone else use Foclin? Has it helped your child? I would look at a mood disorder, too.  It can sometimes show it's self in ways that you wouldn't think.  They can exist with ASD. http://www.bpkids.org/site/PageServer?pagename=lrn_about I copied these symptoms for bipolar disorder from the site above, print it and highlight what you see and take it to the doctor.  Also look at family history for mental illness.   There are other mood disorders, but I think this one covers the basics. Behaviors reported by parents in children diagnosed with bipolar disorder may include: an expansive or irritable mood extreme sadness or lack of interest in play rapidly changing moods lasting a few hours to a few days explosive, lengthy, and often destructive rages separation anxiety defiance of authority hyperactivity, agitation, and distractibility sleeping little or, alternatively, sleeping too much bed wetting and night terrors strong and frequent cravings, often for carbohydrates and sweets excessive involvement in multiple projects and activities impaired judgment, impulsivity, racing thoughts, and pressure to keep talking dare-devil behaviors (such as jumping out of moving cars or off roofs) inappropriate or precocious sexual behavior delusions and hallucinations grandiose belief in own abilities that defy the laws of logic (ability to fly, for example) Symptoms of mania include: elevated, expansive or irritable mood decreased need for sleep racing speech and pressure to keep talking grandiose delusions excessive involvement in pleasurable but risky activities increased physical and mental activity poor judgment in severe cases, hallucinations Symptoms of depression include: pervasive sadness and crying spells sleeping too much or inability to sleep agitation and irritability withdrawal from activities formerly enjoyed drop in grades and inability to concentrate thoughts of death and suicide low energy significant change in appetite
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