How to Provide Structure for a Child with ADD or ADHD

A child who suffers with ADD or ADHD, can fair better if their environment is structured in a way more conducive to their needs. The following article discusses ways a parent or child care provider can structure their environment to help them function more positively.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Dedication to helping your ADD or ADHD child perform their best.

Providing Sructure for a Child with ADD or ADHD

1. Provide consistent rules and consequences that are apparent to the child. Provide for them a clear routine and schedule. Help with organization and divide tasks into smaller units. Reduce environmental re-enforcers for negative behavior when possible.
2. Become familiar with signals that may indicate a loss of control. Help the child to avoid situations that are difficult to manage, or give strategies to cope. Use self monitoring charts when appropriate. Give immediate consequences.
3. Give the child lots of immediate feedback and often. Catch the child doing something right. Set them up for success. Teach good behavior. Prepare a child for events by telling him what to expect and how to behave. Model reflective thinking and problem solving. Share your strategies for learning and memory.
4. Accept the child's limitations and higher activity level. Look for ways your child can compensate. Involve and engage them in positive behaviors with the parent such as helping them grocery shop or put can goods into a cabinet.
5. Change the type of positive reinforcement used about every two to three weeks. Plan time with the child in which no demands are placed on them and they choose the activity. Spend part of the time with them playing games which require attention starting easy and getting harder as they master the easier game. These types of games would be concentration, Simon, puzzles and Memory.
6. Consider parent counseling or involvement in a support group which would provide parent training. These children can be particularly difficult to parent.

Tips & Warnings

• A child's behavior can be significantly more positive if a positive environment is provided for the child. The above tips can be very helpful in providing such an environment for a child with ADD or ADHD.