Helping Children Get Control of ADD/ADHD: Top 10 Strategies for Parents

Raising a child with ADD / ADHD can be very difficult. Parenting does not cause ADD / ADHD, but how parents interact with their child may do better or worse. Here are ten ways to do things better:1. Provide a structured environment. Children ADD / ADHD work best in a planned, structured and predictable. Your home is a bit hectic and chaotic? If so, unpredictability and lack of structure and routines can add to the difficulties of his son ADD. To increase the structure, daily schedules and routines, predictable rules and consequences, more supervision, more organization, etc.2. Create incentives. Incentive makes a big difference in behavior. There incentive when the task is more interesting or fun, or is there a reward or a predictable and meaningful result. ADD / ADHD children need to know that it's worth their effort to behave appropriately.3. Action, not words. ADD / ADHD children misbehave more often, not because they do not know what is right, but because they have a performance problem. Conferences, persistent and tirades are not helpful. Children learn the consequences of their behavior. Use immediate consequences - rewards for good behavior, misconduct penalties. Do not delay.4. Set for success. Before tackling a problem it is sometimes useful if we step back and look at what we can contribute to the problem. Then we can work to change things first. Here are some ideas to consider: rearrange the environment / development of consistent / make sure your commands and requests are clear, polite and understood / treated with care, respect and love / teach new skills / clarify rules and expectations routines / be compatible with the limitations and discipline.5. Positives before negatives. A good relationship with your child, emphasizing the positive aspects of the child and his appreciation of good behavior is important if disciplinary methods must be efficient and self-esteem must be maintained. Surprise your child to do something good. 

 Be quick and generous in praise. Make sure your child is receiving high doses of positive attention on a consistent basis. Provide meaningful rewards for good behavior. Focus on strengths. Increase positive interactions.6. Be careful what behaviors you allow to succeed. Be careful not to reinforce misbehavior by giving too much attention to the desired gain, back or arguing in a power struggle, etc. Parents often inadvertently reinforce misbehavior (whining, tantrums, defiance, angry, etc.). Identify the gain of maintaining a repetitive misbehavior and retain.7. Be a man delivering appropriate for your child's behavior consequences. Pay attention to your child's behavior - good and bad - and stick with appropriate consequences. Children learn behavior and are motivated by results and the results of their behavior.  

For good behavior, make sure that you are recognized and rewarded immediately - specific praise, tangible rewards, positive attention, special privileges. For bad behavior - ignore unimportant misbehavior, set limits to bad behavior and consistently most significant negative consequences follow. Determine in advance the consequences are appropriate and make the punishment fit the crime. Make sure the rules are clear in advance.8. "Stop, think, make a plan." Promote good problem solving and help your child reduce impulsive behavior, causing your child to catch up, slow down, and think "what if ..." in key situations. Teach and encourage your child to think before acting through three steps: 1) "STOP" - Feel 2) "think" - about possible actions and potential consequences; 3) "make a plan" - To better handle the situation.  

Parents can help their children learn to solve problems by promoting and strengthening the use of this strategy.9. Anticipate problems and have a plan. Children with ADHD tend to repeat the same problems in similar situations again and again. You can anticipate what settings can be challenging.  

Prepared and have a plan for these situations. When entering a planned situation, follow these steps:1) review the rules; 2) will establish a reward for appropriate behavior (incentives), 3) imposed a penalty for disobeying the rules; 4) give positive attention for good behavior; 5) follow throughwith consequences.10. Change the unnecessary thoughts. Many children with ADHD become negative thinkers over time due to the negative experiences they have accumulated. Self-esteem can suffer.  

Help your child identify their own negative thoughts, and to counter the unnecessary thoughts with positive thoughts. Ask: "Why do you think that what" and "How do you feel when you think about it," Then help your child think of more helpful thoughts to replace unnecessary Try to model realistic thinking, positive .. Learning to cope with errors and failures is important for children with ADHD. Emphasize make a mistake does not mean he's stupid or bad.