When it comes to coping strategies for coping with ADHD, most parents are not well prepared. They find it hard to deal with the hyperactive behavior of their child. It is very tough as your child is not listening to what you are saying. it is no surprise that they are going crazy about the fact how they should deal with their child.
At first the diagnosis of ADHD might feel as a relief because there is finally a reason why you child was so hard to handle. However, after the diagnosis the behavior continues and it is still very difficult coping with ADHD. This article will try to give some basic coping strategies which could help parents manage their children.
An important aspect of learning to cope with it is trying to understand it. ADHD is a attention and learning disorder. The child has an inability to learn from experience. The difficult part about this is that you can punish the child, but it is not capable of relating the punishment to the crime committed. This aspect has a great impact in the social life of a child with ADHD. He is always blamed as the ‘bad guy’ or ‘naughty one’ but he can not relate to this fact. The only impact of punishment is that you are hurting his feelings and self esteem.
But if punishment is not the way how to cope with ADHD, than what is? There are 5 basic strategies you could apply when coping with ADHD.
Consistency: As the child can not learn from experiences, consistency is an important weapon you could use. It will not understand punishment, but he is able to learn that something will happen if he for instance hit someone. The Difficult part in this lays in the fact that everybody should use the same consistency, the teacher, parents, others.
Simple to follow rules: When you are trying to set up rules to create consistency, create very simple rules. try to implement only a few rules that are not to difficult for the child to keep up with. If you make too many rules the child will be frustrated because he is not able to abide all of them.
Focus management: Because the child has problems focusing on one thing at the time he has to learn this. A good way in doing this is by letting him do activities with immediate rewards within a short time frame.
Appraisal and Rewards: Instead of judging and criticizing him, try to give him appraisal and rewards when he does something right. This is a good way for him to build up self esteem when he did something good.
Redirecting: It is very hard for someone with ADHD to stay focused on one activity. Try to redirect him everytime he is losing focus. Try to be ahead one step before he is losing attention.
These basic 5 strategies might guide you in coping with ADHD. Don’t expect this to work overnight, it is a very time consuming strategy that can only work if you put enough time and effort in to it.
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