I always joke that if I had a dime for every time I told DS4 "Use your words," I could hire someone just to tell him to use his words!

Sad, but probably just about right! I said it MANY times a day for many years! The scale thing worked much better for us. (Naturally YMMV...)

I guess I just think that if they knew how to use their words, they would, you know? The scale gives them another, very different way to think about the whole thing. That's why it worked for DS4, I think.

Plus it's numbers, and numbers always appeal to him lately...

Oh I don't know if the tantrums or whining is worse I'm going to make sure that he's getting a lot of protein as well.

I'm so glad that I found this board. When I mentioned a change of diet to my friends for his problems they looked at me like I was crazy!

Thanks for the links. Going read them now.

I once knew a very bored elementary student who couldn't sit still, look like he daydreamed sometimes, doodled, and didn't even once glance at the teacher while she was instructing and he was able to get his work done as expected and properly. My guess is that he was highly auditory and had very good perception skills to where he didn't need visual input to "get it".

Is your son still following what is expected in class? Do you think he needs more challenge (not a new lesson but more complexity to his work)?

One way I extinguish whining is to pretend I don't understand a thing.... like he is speaking a strange foreign language. When my son uses his "talking voice", I pretend I clearly understand what he is saying now and very relieved.

How about a stress ball while in class?

He's way above where they are in class so he needs something way more challenging. One example is they're learning to recognize what each letter is and he's reading books probably around a 3rd grade level. I talked to his teacher and explained that he was bored and that was probably part of the problem but they won't work with him because he needs to behave just like all of the other kids. They just don't get it

thanks so much for your post - I have been SO concerned about my DS6 - he has Sensory disorder (but is not on the autistic/asperger scale) and is gifted and he started with his "rages" last year right before we pulled him out of his preschool. He was bored silly, was being picked on my other kids and was totally sensory overwhelmed and learned how to just "rage" to deal with everything he was feeling. We didn't realize it was so bad at school until it had gotten to the point it did and we yanked him. The outbursts have gotten less frequent,but they still occur a few times a week....when he has just reached his point of anything he just has these out of control, bananas rages were he yells and stomps and every once in a while takes a swing at whatever is closest to him ( a HUGE no-no in our books). I have learned that he has OE's and we have been searching and searching our area for a psych or counselor to help him and us to better understand how to deal with them. So I have been following this thread hoping to glean some information to help!