Behavior Management Techniques for ADHD Kids
Does your child struggle with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder-related behavioral issues? ADHD can affect your child at home, in the classroom, during interactions with peers and in other social situations. Though it will not completely eradicate difficult behavioral responses, modification techniques can help your child learn to cope with and control them. This can lessen the impact of these behaviors on the day-to-day life of your child.
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Behavior Modification and ADHD
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Behavior modification strategies attempt to change behavior and are typically used as a component of a treatment program. You can also adopt these techniques into your current parenting practices to help your child with the symptoms of ADHD. These include difficulty paying attention or focusing, hyperactivity and/or difficulty staying focused. Behavior modification can help your child get through emotionally difficult events, finish schoolwork and learn organizational skills. It can also provide strategies to help your child monitor and manage behavior, says the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
Token Economy
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Giving rewards for a target behavior can increase the behavior. Token economies can be used at home or in the classroom and allow your child to build up immediate rewards that can then be exchanged for a desired object in the future. This type of behavior modification has been found to be effective for children with ADHD, according to a study published in the "Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorder" entitled ̶0;A Control Evaluation of Behavioral Treatment with Children with ADHD Attending a Summer Treatment Program.̶1; If your child is having difficulty completing chores due to ADHD symptoms, for example, you can set up a system where coins are given for engaging in the target behavior and taken away for failing to. The final reward should be something that your child would value, such as a family trip, a game or toy or a favorite dessert or meal.
Consequences
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Though children with ADHD do not always respond to punishment the same as other children, it is still necessary to implement consequences for bad behavior. Removal of privileges and assigning timeouts, for example, work better for ADHD kids than yelling or spanking, says an article on Kids Health entitled ̶0;What is ADHD.̶1; Timeouts in behavior modification directly follow a negative behavior and remove the child from the situation to a specific area with no toys or other means of entertainment.
Parent Training
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Some parenting practices can be counterproductive to managing ADHD symptoms. Skills training will provide you with education about ADHD and can help you adopt strategies for coping with your stress, your relationship with your child and the symptoms of ADHD. Some specific factors that can positively affect how your child responds to you include the concise presentation of rules, consistency and finding ways to make tasks more interesting, says Dr. Russell A. Barkley, clinical professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, in an article published in the "Journal of Clinical Psychiatry" entitled ̶0;Psychosocial Treatments for ADHD in Children.̶1;
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