ADHD - ADD Behavior Management

To Manage ADHD / ADD, the use a token economy based on positive reinforcement is the recommendation of nearly every single profession, group and organization that works with kids who have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

This includes Medical Organizations Such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and The British Psychological Society to name but two. From North America to Australia and around the world, the consensus in Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Psychology, Government, Private Sector and Educational Institutions, is that the best treatment of ADHD lies in the use of Medication coupled with a Behavioral modification program such as a token economy utilizing positive reinforcement.

 

KidsMakingChange.com Can Help

Deciding if medication is the right choice for your child is something you will have to work out with your treatment team. Your treatment team being all those people who advise and help you and your child on a professional and personal level.

While there is some controversy over the medications for ADHD / ADD, where there is consensus is that a behavior modification system such as a token economy works for kids with ADHD / ADD. The best treatment success is shown to happen when a behavior modification system is used along with medication but your child does not need to be on medication for you to benefit from KidsMakingChange.com's community of parents and caregivers who support positive reinforcement for children.

The best part of a behavior modification system is that it won't harm your child. Medications can be tricky and over diagnosis is talked about quite a bit but children without ADHD benefit from behavior modification programs as well.

It is estimated that 5% of the world’s population has ADHD / ADD. That means that approximately 300,000,000, or roughly the population of the entire United States has ADHD / ADD world wide. Even if it is over diagnosed by a factor of ten, the number of people who have it is still 30,000,000 people! If your child has ADHD/ADD then you are definitely not alone.

Here are some great sites to start. If you are looking for some of the best ADHD / ADD books out of the thousands out there, click on the KMC Store link for our handpicked list of the best.

American Academy of Pediatrics article on ADHD

Great Resource list for all things ADHD

For those of you who have already researched the subject, we are not going to get detailed here as to what it is or what causes it, as there are many other resources for that. Children who have ADHD / ADD generally have some or all of the following:

• Hard time focusing / Inattention
• Hyperactivity
• Distractibility
• Impulsivity
• Forgetfulness

Anyone who has parented a child with ADHD / ADD knows that it can be very challenging if you don’t have some techniques to deal with it. You can literally find yourself running around after your child yelling "no", "no", "no" all day long. The child feels like they can do nothing right and has their self esteem suffer horribly. You feel exhausted and like a totally ineffective parent.

To be successful as a parent of such a child, you have to do things a little differently. You have to let some things go. You have to decide what is important in the big picture and if it is something to get upset over.

The other major thing is to work on a plan to get them to behave the way you would like them to without scolding them all the time. The vast majority of experts recommend focusing on what they are doing right and encouraging it with positive reinforcement.

You want to “catch them doing something right” and positively reinforce that behavior using praise and rewards. You want to reward that behavior with points, tickets or whatever you have implemented in your token economy so that they can build their self esteem and give them something to work toward.

You want your child striving to earn praise and rewards for behaving rather than hoping they will stop acting out of control because you are threatening them and yelling at them.

Self esteem is a major issue for most kids who have ADHD / ADD. Most of these kids are of above average intelligence and they certainly see that other kids around them don’t create the reactions in adults and their peers that they do. It is not hard to imagine that they at times can feel like no one likes them, no one understands them and that they can’t do anything right. This is why building on what they ARE doing right is so crucial to their success and to your sanity.

Once you start reading and hearing more information about ADHD, the more you will see that almost every source recommends parents get help and support. Get it at KidsMakingChange.com:

Click here for much more information about ADHD, token economies and positive reinforcement.