ADHD Help

Sometimes less is more.

This is a counterintuitive statement (goes against intuition) which is often true when dealing with misbehavior in children. Conventional wisdom is that the more you yell at your child for a wrong deed, the better. However, I usually do not find this to be true. What you do when you yell is give your child lots of negative
attention. Sometimes this rewards the behavior instead of punishing it.
The more you yell the more powerful your child might feel.

It is better to deal calmly and efficiently. Tell your child the
consequence and move on.

We define a punishment as anything which follows a behavior and
decreases the probability for recurrence.
A reward is anything which follows a behavior and increases the
probability for recurrence. If you are yelling over and over regarding
the same type of misdeed, you are probably not punishing the problem.

Regarding less is more, shorter consequences tend to work better than
longer ones. When we use long consequences we have a difficult time
following through and can easily end up burying our child in
punishments. Better to use shorter punishments and follow through.
That way children also learn that we mean what we say.

If you overemphasize to your child the importance of the medication, you very well might tap into his/her oppositionality. A high percentage of children with ADHD are oppositional. They do not want to do what you tell them to do.

If they think that you are trying to control them with medication, they might try their best to do the opposite. It is very important that you avoid falling into this potential trap. That is why you emphasize that the child is doing better because (s)he is trying.

When medication helps, the effects can often be remarkable. It is easy to fall into the trap of putting all of the responsibility for the improvements on the medication and forgetting that the child is responsible for her/his own behavior.

Obviously the medication is an important part of the treatment. However you have to remember that children improve because they try to change. The medication does not make them act appropriately. It just makes it easier for them to improve if they try.

When we put all of the emphasis on the medication, the child can stop taking responsibility. Remember to emphasize that your child is doing better because he or she is trying rather than just focusing on the importance of the medication.