"Hot saucing" mama:

I just saw this piece on ABC news (I recommend reading it for context ;-).  It made me very sad as I think I can empathize with the kid and could offer some perspective for the mom.

The mom obviously is having difficulty with her son.  If she is to the point of "hot saucing" him, giving him cold showers and ordering him to do jumping jacks to the point of exhaustion, I think she should ask herself why her son is having such discipline issues.

My mom went to some pretty extreme measures in disciplining me because I offered such a challenge to her.  In hindsight it is so obvious as to why.  I had ADHD, as well as a number of other learning disabilities and she had no experience with this.  Because I was otherwise very bright, it was assumed I must just be "willful".

If I had been diagnosed at age five--or even 10 or 15--instead of 30, we could have avoided a lot of trauma on both of our parts. 

The article says that the boy (and his twin brother) was adopted from Russia.  That in itself could be part of the issue.  I don't know how old he was when he was adopted, but if he was old enough to remember it he could have very easily be traumatized by the process of being given up for adoption and/or the adoption apparatus in Russia.  I don't know why he was given up for adoption, but he could have been the victim of abuse by one or both of his biological parents, his biological mom could have been an alcohol and/or drug addict during her pregnancy, or any other number of traumatizing incidents could have occurred.  Or, he could "simply" (relative) have a learning disability like me.

As in my case, it seems like his behavior is being attributed to his character, or lack thereof, rather than the more likely presence of traumatic history or "faulty" wiring.

I hope that somewhere in the legal process that appears to be developing over the case the boy gets a good and thorough mental health evaluation and a therapeutic plan is put into place for him.  Otherwise I'm guessing he will be in for a rough ride for the foreseeable future.