7 Ways to Help Your Child with ADHD

What Does ADHD Look Like in Teens?

During teen years, especially as the hormonal changes of adolescence are going on and the demands of school and extracurricular activities are increasing, ADHD symptoms may get worse. Because of problems with getting distracted and poor concentration, many children and teens with ADHD have problems in school and grades may fall, especially if the student is not getting ADHD treatment.

It's not uncommon for teens with ADHD to forget assignments, loose textbooks, and become bored with their daily class work. Teens may become inattentive or excessively attentive, not waiting for their turn before blurting out answers. They may interrupt their teacher and classmates, and they may rush through assignments. Teens with ADHD may also be fidgety and find it tough to sit still in class.

Symptoms of ADHD in teens and children can include:

• Distractibility

• Disorganization

• Poor concentration

• Hyperactivity

• Impulsivity

What is the best treatment for Teens with ADHD?

ADHD treatment focuses on symptom management and not curing ADHD because there is no cure. Although the symptoms of ADHD may change with age, children and teens with ADHD still require treatment to target these symptoms and may require treatment into adulthood.

Having ADHD does not have to define the course of someone’s life. ADHD has particularly manageable symptoms, and when treated properly, does not have to get in the way of your child’s success. Nevertheless, it is crucial to address mental health and developmental issues as they arise- there is a big cost to delaying treatment or avoiding issues. It is easier and most effective to to engage in therapy and coaching as early as possible.

The most common and effective treatment for teens with ADHD combines medication, psychosocial treatment like therapy and coaching, accommodations at school and work, and parent training. Engaging in several types of treatment is referred to as multi-modal treatment and has shown to be most effective in helping people with ADHD.

Medication for Children and Teens with ADHD

It is a myth that medication becomes less effective in the teen years. In fact, medications for ADHD should be as effective, but patterns of co-occurring conditions may require changes to the treatment regimen. Additionally, many teens may benefit from changing to long-acting medications to provide better symptom management throughout the day as many teens have activities after the school day has ended and into the evening hours. Another myth is that medication use may increase the risk of substance abuse. In fact, as mentioned above, medications reduce the risk of substance abuse for teens with ADHD.

Therapy and Coaching for Teens with ADHD

Behavioral intervention is another common treatment approach for teens with ADHD. Proven treatments include ADHD therapy and coaching. During ADHD therapy the therapist may use some component of cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the type most used for ADHD and is especially well-suited for adults. Behavioral therapy is simply therapy that helps you change your behavior. CBT helps you change your behavior by changing your thought processes.

7 Ways to Help Your Child with ADHD

In addition to engaging in professional treatment, there are many ways you can help your child with ADHD. ADHD is a disease of impairments in executive functioning skills. Executive function refers to the cognitive and mental abilities that help you engage in goal-directed action. Executive functions direct actions, control behavior, and motivate us to achieve our goals and prepare for future events. Executive function skills are the skills that help us establish structures and strategies for managing projects and determine the actions required to move each project forward. To improve any executive function, practice is critical.

Try these 7 easy, concrete strategies tailored for children to improve their executive functioning skills and decrease their symptoms of ADHD.

1. Tell your child you believe in them and expect them to succeed. Children often internalize our expectations of them, and their own expectations for themselves can become self-fulfilling prophecies.If we expect a child to succeed, that child often will, and if we expect a child to not do well, unfortunately the child often won’t.

2. Assign responsibilities to make children feel important and show that you believe in them.

3. Emphasize that everyone makes mistakes and that errors are part of learning and improving.

4. Teach your child to believe in a growth mindset. A growth mindset means that you believe your intelligence and talents can be developed over time. A fixed mindset means that you believe intelligence is fixed—so if you're not good at something, you might believe you'll never be good at it. By believing in a growth mindset effort is praised and mistakes are seen as part of the process.

5. Focus on strengths. While ADHD can be discouraging for your child, it’s important to teach them to focus on their strengths. Help your child see that they are funny, caring, warm, or a good friend. By helping your child focus on their strengths they will become more confident.

6. Give do-able challenges. Pride, self-confidence, and joy come from succeeding at something difficult. Sports and other activities allow children to have the experience of repeatedly conquering challenges through effort and practice. It is critical important that the challenges be do-able, however.

7. Be patient. Feeling rushed can contribute to stress. Stress creates more impairments in executive functioning. Give children time and space to figure out how to solve problems on their own.

There is Hope for Your Child with ADHD

Getting an official ADHD diagnosis for your teen can help your child get appropriate and effective treatment and accommodations at school. Whether your teen is committed to the idea of trying therapy or you or they are not quite sure yet, we can help you figure out how to know if you need therapy and tell you more about the ADHD therapy process.

Here at the Thriving Wellness Center, we specialize in ADHD Evaluations for Teens and ADHD Treatment for Teens. We have locations in New York and New Jersey and perform thorough and professional ADHD testing for teens and therapy for teens in-person and online. If you are newly diagnosed with ADHD or interested in getting a diagnosis in New York, New Jersey, or virtually please contact us to see how we can help you improve your life.