The Advantages of Behavior Therapy ADHD Sessions

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is thought to be genetic in origin, which means its the person’s physiology rather than attitude that causes the effects and symptoms of the disorder. Because of this, most doctors attempt to correct the problem by prescribing various types of medications, stimulants being the most popular. However, for a number of reasons stimulant medications may not be suitable or may not control all ADHD behaviors. This why so many parents turn to Behavior therapy ADHD sessions to help their kids.

ADHD Behavior therapy sessions are considered by many parents to be better than putting their children on medication or as a way to reduce dependence on the meds, because of the lack of side effects. Behavior therapy sessions are an attempt to correct behavior without resorting to drugs and can offer a long-term solution. These sessions attempt to teach a child how to recognize and amend behaviors deemed unacceptable rather than masking the symptoms with drugs that have a short term effect and can come with many undesirable side effects.

So how do behavior therapy sessions work, exactly? Well, behavior therapy sessions provide parents with a way to connect with their children and reward positive behaviors in the hope that it will increase these positive behaviors.

Most of the time kids with ADHD end up doing something they shouldn’t, behaving in an inappropriate manner and getting told off for it. Tensions can run high and there can be a lot of conflict between parents and children.

Behavior therapy sessions attempt to reduce these aggressions by encouraging parents to recognize good behaviors and allow children to feel like they are pleasing their parents and making them proud. This can be a great motivator especially to younger children.

If you give your child a task to do and when the allotted time is up they haven’t made much progress, rather than berating them over what they haven’t done, praise them on the aspects they have achieved. Then encourage them to complete the task and check back later to see how they are doing. Repeat this process until the task is completed.

Following these steps means that the job gets done, although it may take a while, and your child can see that when they achieve a task they get your praise rather than anger.

When starting out on a behavior program such as this its best to remember not to try and change everything at once. Think about the behaviors that your child struggles with and choose one to concentrate on. You’ll need to be specific with your expectations and what the rewards will be and also what the consequences will be for not meeting those expectations.

It’s important to ensure that you choose achievable targets and try to engineer at least some success early on so that you can give praise and motivate them to continue with their positive behavior.

When thinking up rewards, they don’t have to cost a lot of money. Sticker charts are great way to motivate younger children or a points system whereby they earn points for good behavior that they can ‘save’ to earn a treat or a privilege. It could be a toy, having a friend over to play or more TV time. Choose rewards that you know will interest your child. Older children might want to work towards attending a particular event or being allowed to stay out later.

You also need to put some thought in what the consequences will be. It’s best to think these through in advance and also tell your child what they can expect. This avoids ‘heat of the moment’ snap decisions that you may regret later.

The important point about both rewards and consequences is that they should be consistent. Children will become disillusioned with the behavior program if rewards are not given for their good behavior and will act out more if consequences are not metered out each time on the off chance that you won’t do anything.

Once you feel your child has the hang of a particular behavior you can introduce another one, but don’t forget to keep up the good work on the original behavior.

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The great thing about behavior therapy ADHD sessions is although it can take patience, your child is learning to adapt their behavior rather than masking their ADHD symptoms with medications.