If your child or teen has been recently diagnosed with ADHD, you may be wondering about treatments. Kids and teens with ADHD may struggle in various aspects of their lives, such as completing schoolwork, managing their behavior, making friends and controlling their emotions. Parents need to work with their pediatrician and their child to find the right type of treatment that helps improve the routine and makes things more manageable. For kids and teens with this diagnosis, it’s beneficial to focus on gifts for children with ADHD, special schedules for them and activities that help them stay focused.
Medications
The most common way to treat ADHD is with medication. Some pediatricians start children on a daily stimulant medication to help alleviate the symptoms and improve school performance. Besides the stimulant route, there are other types of medications that some parents and children have used to successfully treat ADHD, such as anti anxiety meds for teens or antidepressants.
Parent Counseling
ADHD medications are often paired with other types of treatments to improve the child’s prognosis. Parents can take a more active role in their child’s treatment by undergoing parent coaching and counseling to help support their ADHD child or teen. Parents can learn different strategies to help their children be more successful. They may learn how to create a solid routine for their child, how to limit distractions, tips for managing conflict and ways to discipline a child positively.
Classroom Interventions
Another part of treatment for ADHD happens in the classroom for some students. Students may have a 504 disability plan if they have a diagnosis of ADHD. In the classroom, teachers and counselors may develop a plan to help a student achieve more. This may include preferential seating, daily check-ins, organizational strategies and weekly counseling. They may also get extra time or instructional supports for some assignments.
Behavioral Therapy
A counselor or psychiatrist may also recommend children with ADHD do some kind of behavioral therapy in addition to medication. With a dedicated behavioral therapy plan in place, parents may be less likely to ask themselves, does Brillia work for ADHD? This could look like cognitive behavioral therapy or group therapy with the whole family. A cognitive approach is an individual therapy with the child designed to provide support for managing different types of situations and negative thinking patterns. This gives the child the power to harness negative thoughts and deconstruct them.
Executive Functioning Skills Workshops
The last type of treatment that some children and teens with ADHD may be part of is an executive functioning skills training workshop. Children suffering from ADHD may struggle with their executive functioning skills, which include focusing, organizing, prioritizing tasks and controlling impulsive behaviors. Children, teens and their parents can take workshops designed to improve executive functioning skills and encourage the child to make better choices.
There are lots of treatment options for parents of children and teens with ADHD. If your child’s ADHD is not under control, consider a different style of treatment or combining medication with a behavioral approach to give your child a way to be more successful.