Parent's Guide to Parenting a Child with ADHD
Firstly, we want to tell the parents that ADHD can be treated! But for this, there is a need for a specific plan.
- Taking medication. Medicinal support is significant for children with hyperactivity. Various medications help to regulate excitement, cope with stress and improve concentration.
- Meeting with psychologists. Correction of behavior is firstly done individually. But they have a goal of not entertaining a child, but improving self-control and attention, perseverance. A child is learning to cooperate with him-/herself and others and express feelings and emotions in an acceptable form.
- Housework. It is important to do tasks at home with children — games, communication, and keeping specific upbringing rules. A favorable microclimate in the family is also an essential factor. It helps to get rid of hyperactivity.
Often parents find the advice of psychologists unacceptable and weird. They think, «We should be more careful with the child, and his/her behavior will change.» Neither severity nor punishment works with hyperactive children. With all the desire, a child cannot physically sit in one place and concentrate on work. The quicker the parents understand and accept it, the quicker positive changes will occur.
Understanding the features of children with ADHD helps parents to avoid irritability toward the child. They do not accept criticism and do not understand the reason for punishment. Toughness causes resentment and a desire for revenge. It is important to behave in a friendly manner. When you are soft to hyperactive children, they hear you. Participation, respect, encouragement, polite requests, and reminders are what help to achieve the result.
The most important recommendation for children with ADHD is to become assistants and attendants. The most severe problem is low self-control. He cannot concentrate on given tasks, gets easily distracted, and cannot keep away from conflicting situations. Parents should take this function on themselves.
5 Main Rules for Parenting a Child With ADHD
- Stay close when the child is busy with homework. Check together with him if he has put everything into the school bag.
- Remind him what needs to be done. Make up a schedule for the whole family and keep it.
- Send your child to the sports group. Moderate exercise will help using the physical activity with benefits. However, this should not be a professional sport with frequent training. Patients with hyperactivity are advised to swim, walk, and do water tourism, ice skating, and skying.
- Set up behavioral boundaries. A child should have a strict understanding of what can and cannot be done. Try to not limit him too much. Only prohibit what may cause him or others harm.
- Make a comfortable living rhythm. Exciting events, conflicts, moves, and excess of extra classes causes increased excitement. In these situations, it is essential to calm the child and help him overcome this state. There is no need to worry that the child will not learn to be independent. In ADHD, dysfunction of the frontal lobes of the brain is often observed. It is this part that is responsible for self-regulation and self-control. With age, the brain is developing. Hyperactive kids become able to control themselves better closer to their teenage years.
How to Calm Down a Child with ADHD
Hyperactive kids are quickly excited, but it is more difficult for them to calm down. They can be hysterical for a long time, shout, break things, run, and jump. It is not essential to wait for the child to «spill his emotions» and calm him down in this situation.
Ask him in a quiet and kind voice what happened and why he behaves like this. Find a solution to the problem if the child has shared what worries him. Switch the attention to something exciting but relaxing. For example, place an anti-stress toy (even Pop-it). Or have a warm foamy bath. Ask him to drink a glass of water during a tantrum. A person automatically calms down when he is drinking. Hug your child and pay attention to him. Ask him what he would prefer to do together.
Teach a child to express his feelings in an acceptable form using games. For example, Colourful Hands. Cut 3 hands out of colorful cartons: red, yellow, and blue. Tell a child about the game rules. When the red hand is up, he can make noise, shout and run, yellow — you need to behave as quietly as a mouse, and speak only in a whisper, blue - you should freeze in place. Swap the hands every 10-15 seconds. When the child gets used to this, the time of the signal can be increased. «A sparkle of kindness.» Ask your child to close their eyes and imagine how the warmth of his breathing lights up a warm and gentle sparkle of kindness. Offer him to blow on it and send it to everyone he loves.
Performing all these simple actions, you will be able to grow up an intelligent and active person from a fidget, seething with energy, unable to sit still for a minute. With children, it is essential to be patient and loving. The rest is a series of regularly done actions, which will be identified for you by a specialist. Your task is just to perform them.