Regarding Children
and Healthcare Home

Drugs Aren’t the Sole Answer for Children Who Have ADHD

Prescription medications do have a role in treating ADHD. In fact, a landmark study showed the benefit of drugs. Compared with behavioral therapies alone, medication alone or in combination with behavior-focused methods may work better at easing the condition’s telltale symptoms. Constant motion, talking, wiggling, squirming, and restlessness mark ADHD.

But parents play a vital role in helping children with ADHD. Here are suggestions for parenting a child with ADHD:

• Ask your child’s doctor about training sessions that teach you how to encourage good behavior by praising it. You don’t want children to learn that bad behavior brings them attention.
• Seek chances to praise your child for doing something good. Don’t seek chances to tell your child to stop misbehaving.
• Work with your child’s teachers. Your child may focus better if he or she sits near the teacher. Shorter assignments may help, for instance.
• Ask your child’s teachers and doctor whether the child should be evaluated for learning and language problems. Such problems often go hand in hand with ADHD. You may need to work with the school to draw up an individual education plan.
• Get your child counseling. This can help keep children from taking advantage of the diagnosis and can make them accountable for their behavior.

The ADHD label can lessen kids’ self-esteem or make them see themselves as damaged in some way. Counseling helps convince children that they’re OK.