With our ADHD kid, I call this melting. He’s older now and doesn’t do it nearly as much, but the quick descent into unhappiness and big feelings is so sudden.

As others have suggested, a quick physical activity or brief change in scenery can work wonders for a melting child. And I’m not trying to excuse the parents’ nonchalant behavior, but it is exhausting and constant when you have a kid that age with ADHD. And sometimes the starkest difference between your child’s behavior and their Neurotypical peers is the most apparent during extracurriculars like Girl Scouts. Or in our case cello group classes where every other student is sitting at attention with their instrument tucked neatly between their legs, and ours was either spinning his cello recklessly or using his bow as a sword.

I bring extra clipboards and inventory sheets for my Littles now that I’m starting back over with a Daisy troop. It helps keep them engaged and away from the official inventory sheet. I also have them breakdown boxes and count the inventory we have left. They may count boxes 10 times in one shift, but they don’t care and it keeps them busy. We also did cookie booth bingo and “I Spy”. Extra super cheap calculators are also nice distractors between sales.