Wybie In Coraline

Coraline Analysis
Symptomatology

In Coraline, the titular character makes friends with a boy named Wybie Lovat who displays a number of ADHD symptoms over the film’s running time. The movie shows him frequently stimming/fidgeting with his hands, for example, letting off excess energy and restlessness through that movement. Wybie is also highly emotionally impulsive; at one point in the film, he insults the lead only to retract his statement immediately after. In fact, Wybie often says things and doesn’t realize that he said them until after they’ve been said. Early in the film, he takes a doll from his grandmother and gives it to Coraline because it looked like her, not seeming to realize that he was stealing until much later.
We see how only his impulsivity causes problems, such as when his grandmother becomes angry at him for giving away her doll without permission. Generally speaking, ADHD is best treated with the use of short-term punishment/reward systems that accommodate for the ADHD brain’s way of processing consequence and planning. The aforementioned grandmother gets portrayed as having a strained, distant relationship with Wybie, and he considers her grumpy and unreasonable - someone likely impatience to set up that kind of system with him. Looking at his disorder from a holistic perspective, the first step to treatment is to find him an environment where adults in his life will be more attentive and patient. Having more children in the area for him to befriend may also help him learn what is and isn’t appropriate to say to others, although he will still need help blurting out the wrong thing every so often. The next step would be to set up a system that punishes/rewards on a short-term scale “token economy” (such as using stickers to signify friendly behavior) and teaches him healthy coping skills so that he may continue to do the same for himself into