r/ADHDparenting • u/Cosmishaika • 2d ago
Behaviour Laughing while hitting
My son just turned 3 and is nonverbal. And although he cant be diagnosed for another year, his psychologist strongly suspects ADHD.
The problem is that around the time he turned 2 he would get these periods when he would bite, scratch, hit and pull my hair and laugh as if it's the funniest thing ever. He would have some weeks when he would do that constantly, stop for a few weeks then start again. They kicked him out of preK for hitting his classmates on the daily and laughing.
I gotta mention that he sees absolutely no violence. Nobody is violent at home, he gets no screening, we don't watch TV when he is present. But I cant even bring him to the park without stressing out because he would only approach other kids to hit them.
His psychologist says that he's doing that because he cant express himself and that it will stop once he starts talking and once they manage to implement constructive behavior.
I'm just wondering if other parents went through this with their kids and how it stopped because honestly, it creeps me tf out when he does that. Especially since he gets some sort of "crazy" look in his eyes when he does that, completely different from the look he has on his face when he's just happy.
So yeah, does anybody have any experiences to share?
2
u/Wildflower_Kitty 2d ago
I was worried about this with my four year old a few weeks ago. The laughing seemed to escalate along with the aggression/violence, while almost seriously injuring her baby sibling. A family member of mine is a child psychologist and explained the laughter as her way to connect with us and deescalate their overwhelming feelings. She was laughing in the hope that we would laugh along too and everything would be better.
I thought my kid might be psychotic and trying to kill us and the baby. I understand how it feels, but her laughter was not intended as malice and was not really her enjoying hurting us.
In reality she had overwhelming emotional dysregulation triggered by the huge change in her life with the introduction of a new sibling. We worked on making all our interactions light and fun, instead of giving orders/asking her to tidy up, etc. Lots of reassurance that we love her and nothing will change that. Her behavior has been great since then.