Parenting Techniques to Combat ADHD

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder- ADHD is one of the commonly diagnosed mental disorders that affects children and adults. Those affected are usually hyperactive and fail to control their impulses. Approximately, 5 percent of children and 2.5 percent of adults suffer from ADHD. The very first symptoms of ADHD have been seen in school going children. It is more common among boys. Parents of such children often face challenges in the child’s upbringing.

According to a research, reduction in the use of harsh parenting techniques such as yelling, criticism, physical punishments, has the potential to calm children with ADHD. The research suggests that an improvement in parenting can change kids biologically. The motive is to prevent such children from running into big problems such as criminal behaviour and delinquency. During the research, parenting training was provided to parents of 99 preschoolers suffering from ADHD. Skills such as positive parenting, problem solving, effective responses to child’s behaviour were taught to the parents. Before the training, the parents and their children were engaged in play sessions involving frustrating block building exercise.

The heart activity of children during the play sessions was recorded. To determine the effect, the families were sent back to the labs for retesting after their training. On comparison, the research found that reduced negative parenting caused improved biological function in children. Increased positive parenting had no effect.

Content: www.psychiatry.org

By: Anuja Arora