Tips In Dealing With An ADD/ADHD Child
As a parent of a child that suffers from ADD/ADHD, you may feel overwhelmed and even resentful towards your child as the daily stress of dealing with this disorder may seem to be taking over your entire life. There are several ways that you can reduce the stress and begin to enjoy time spent with your ADD child.
When you begin to get tired or even angry with your child after having to tell him ten times to do one task, you should remember that your child is probably more frustrated than you are. He wants to do what you ask but he does not know how to accomplish it. Supporting your child and focusing on the positive can help you and your child cope with his disorder with greater ease. You should recognize and encourage your child’s positive traits and behavior. You can also try to take some of the negative symptoms of ADD/ADHD and refocus them in a positive direction. If your child has difficulty focusing on one idea, ask him to express or write down all the things that he is thinking about. This can help to build his creativity and may also help him learn start to focus on one idea at a time. When asking him to do chores, you should make sure to give him one chore at a time instead giving him a whole list. Be sure to congratulate him on a job well done when he has successfully completed his chore. You should also not be too critical about how well the job was done. It is enough that your ADD child finished the task.
You can also take steps to improve your child’s communication skills. As many ADD children have difficulty maintaining direct eye contact, you want to make sure that your child is looking at you to ensure that he is paying attention to you. With a younger child, you may have to gently hold his face towards you and ask him to look at you several times in the course of the conversation. When giving your child instructions, you should give him one instruction at a time. You should repeatedly ask him to explain to you what it is that you are asking him to do. This will enable you to know if he was listening and whether or not he totally understood what you said. By having your ADD child express your instructions in his own words, you can also help him to build his comprehension as well as his conversational skills.
The most important thing that you should remember when dealing with your ADD/ADHD child is to maintain your sense of humor. By laughing off embarrassing indiscretions that your ADD child may make can help to make him more secure in public situations. It can also relieve any stress that he may be feeling as a result of this behavior once he sees that you are not upset about it.
These are just a few of the many ways that you can help alleviate the stress of dealing with ADD/ADHD for both you and your child. Once you have both began to take a more relaxed perspective in dealing with the disorder, you may be surprised to discover that you can have some control over ADD instead of it having control over you.