For a parent, there can be plenty of warning signs that your child is dealing with attention deficit disorder. The child may seem to be all over the place, moving from one activity to another and getting easily distracted, for example. While plenty of children have ADHD-like symptoms to some degree, just because they're full of energy and curiosity, it's often obvious when a child's ADHD symptoms are an issue.
It's important to get your child into a specialist who can assess this condition and discuss medication options. You should also be part of the solution by helping your child in several ways, including the following.
Assign One Thing at a Time
For children with ADHD, it's easy to jump between tasks. To reduce a child's temptation to do so, try to assign him or her one thing at a time. Many parents, in an effort to be efficient, give tasks to their children that can be highly complex. For example, a parent might say, "Run downstairs and bring up the casserole out of the freezer, and please take the soup from the fridge and put it in the freezer while you're at it, while also remembering to shut the basement lights off." Such an instruction can be overwhelming to any child, and especially one with ADHD. Giving simple, singular instructions can be easier for the child to process.
Offer Help with Organization
Children who have ADHD can seem disorganized, and their rooms may be cluttered and overwhelming. Such an environment may come natural to the child, but it's not in his or her best interest. With so many things cluttering the space that can draw the child's attention away from whatever he or she is doing, the ADHD symptoms can worsen. Instead of just telling your child to clean his or her room, offer to help. A helping hand and some encouragement, especially when the child may struggle to stay on task with cleaning the room, can go a long way.
Encourage Singular Focus
Lots of children are interested in a variety of topics and many can effectively juggle them. A child with ADHD will automatically want to jump from activity to activity, so presenting him or her with fewer options can be effective. For example, instead of enrolling your child in swimming lessons, soccer, and guitar lessons all at the same time, choose one activity and focus on it until it's over. Then, choose another. This approach may help your child to stay focused to some degree.
For further resources and assistance, contact services that provide ADHD evaluations.
Share25 May 2018
From the time I was born to the time I graduated high school, my parents were very overprotective of me and shielded me from all of the "bad" things in the world. When I decided to go to college out of state, they wanted me to stay closer to home, but gave into my wishes eventually. Once I got settled at college, I realized just how attached I was to my parents. I began to feel so homesick that I almost quit before the first semester ended. I decided to visit a counselor to see if she could help me get through the semester, and after just a couple of visits, I began actually enjoying my time away from home. I know there are others in tough situations like I was who need guidance, so I decided to start a blog to share my tips for coping with stressful situations.
