Kids Awareness Series

Children with ADHD have difficulty staying on task and they usually live for the moment and often do not see future consequences for behavior.  On tasks which they perceive as boring (often homework) you have to provide immediate feedback that they are doing a good job.  Positive feedback can be given a number of ways, but it is most often given as praise or as a compliment.  Often it can be given as a reward such as increased privileges or special treats or snacks.  Be sure to be specific when you tell your child the behavior that they did that was positive.  When you are trying to CHANGE a negative behavior, make sure you provide a quick reward and feedback for behavior that is done correctly and have quick negative consequences for acting inappropriately.

A mistake that is often made in parenting a child with ADHD that is displaying noncompliant behaviors is that we as parents forget to praise positive behaviors and we focus on the behaviors that are negative that we want to change.  ADHD children require feedback and consequences that are VERY frequent.  We as parents often get caught up in our own work and household chores that we forget to praise our children when they are behaving themselves at home.  What I often tell parents is to put post-it notes in conspicuous places in their house reminding them to praise their child often.  There is no better way to change a negative behavior then by providing frequent and consistent praise.  Positive behaviors should be rewarded more often than punishing negative behaviors.  DO NOT punish your child for everything they are doing wrong, this will not motivate your child to do well.  The positive’s have to outweigh the negative’s in order to change behavior.