Any behavior mod tips on how to deal with my son's losing/misplacing things?

[purehuman]

syracusa.....sounds like you have a normal 5 year old on your hands.....relax....don't worry, he'll probably put things away better when he's in school and sees other kids doing it.....I wouldn't be worried at all....even adults have some quirks.

[magoomafoo]

Originally Posted by syracusa

Yes, I know he might have ADHD. Whatever you call it or NOT call it, he is an inattentive, disorganized, unaware-when-he-drops-things 5 1/2 yo child.

Yes, he was seen, and the psych in question said that she cannot apply an ADHD diagnosis at this age yet but that yes, he is at risk for developing attention problems.

That being said, dx is not my concern right this very moment.
I just need some "how to" tips.

I pray that he will somehow NOT end up on medication and in the meanwhile, I am just trying to come up with some step-by-step practical behavior modification techniques to prevent him from CONSTANTLY dropping things and losing them.

For ex, he has a little desk in his room on which he has some paper, crayons, drawing books, etc. During his "down" time he obviously doesn't nap, but gets up from bed, sits at his desk and draws or writes something.

Every time, I can predict with 100% accuracy (and I do mean 100%) that as soon as he gets a crayon in his hand it will automatically and unconsciously be dropped on the floor when the next one is used. When his "down" time is over, I go to his room and there is ALWAYS a mess on the floor from him inattentively dropping the crayons, pieces of cut paper, legos or whatever else he used at his desk.

I trained him 1000000000 times to focus, pay attention and place the crayons back in the box when he is done with each one of them, instead of letting them drop on the floor; I showed him how, step by step, methodically - but they STILL end up on the floor, regardless of what I do, say, plead, beg, etc.

He doesn't do it on purpose, he generally wants to please (not defiant) - but his brain clearly doesn't pick up on the moment when he drops things on the floor.

Do you have any tips inspired by ADHD behavior modification techniques that I could use and might be of any help?

Again, we are not using any medication right now and pray that there are some effective behavior mod techniques that could address this issue without the help of meds.

Thank you so much!

Syracusa, I went through that with one of my older boys. His school insisted he had ADD/ADHD. It ended up being a mis-diagnosis. He didn't have it just a typical young boy who wanted to be doing something else. Anyway, what I started doing was about every hour to two hours or so, I would ask him to recite to me what he had done so far that day. Like...."This morning I got up and came downstairs, had a bowl of cereal". I ask "Where did you eat your cereal? The breakfast bar or the table?" He says "At the table, then I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth and went to my bedroom and got dressed". Having him get into the practice of retracing his steps helped him to remember where he was when he had whatever it is that he lost. He is grown now and doesn't have a bit of trouble remembering or losing things.