My ADHD child is rude to family members

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]7-year-old son taking Focalin, 15 milligrams in the morning, 5 milligrams afternoon, guanfacine. We really struggle with him being resistant to spending time with family members and being rude to them. Things like repeatedly telling them he does not like them even if they're just mostly ignoring him or just saying hello. We have tried to front-load with him before he goes with these family members telling him when he argues that we aren't listening to it because we have already talked about it. I've done the Socially Smarter course and tried to incorporate those strategies as much as possible. Is there anything else we can try? It gets to a point where it's hard for my wife and I to ever do anything together because it becomes such a hassle when we drop them off to a family member or comes to the house to watch him. Okay. So, number one, Socially Smarter is not the right course for that. Socially Smarter is to help with social skills. This is nothing to do with social skills. This has to do with him feeling entitled to treat people as he wants, okay? So, what I'm going to suggest is if you haven't watched um Capable and Confident, you start there.

[00:00:50]That's the starting point for your son's age, followed by creating daily expectations. There need to be an expect daily expectation in place for how we speak to people, okay? Because if if there's no expectation in place and if he's just earning his currency, whatever that is, regardless of how he talks, so watch Capable and Confident, followed by creating daily expectations, then put expectations in place for, you know, how we speak to people, okay? And that doesn't have to be family members.

[00:01:16]It can be anybody, all right? And if you choose to speak to people in the way that they speak to you, then, you know, you earn your currency. If not, then you choose not to earn it.