The start of the school year is often the time parents assess and figure out how to advocate for their child with ADHD.
Knowing what to do, and how to go about it, can be overwhelming.
Lara Honos-Webb, Ph.D., author of “The Gift of ADHD Activity Book: 101 Ways to Turn Your Child’s Problems into Strengths” (Amazon.com, $10.36) offers these tips:
1. Your child needs for you to be on his or her side. In short, he needs for you to become an advocate for him. Research has shown that a teacher’s perception of your child will dramatically impact his actual performance in school.
2. As an advocate for your child, you should try to get the teacher to make accommodations that are not punitive or humiliating for her. Many times what happens in the classroom is that teachers ‘diss’ students in front of their friends causing them to feel humiliated which provokes them to act out even more.
3. Remember that it is more important for you to stay connected to your child than to enforce conformity, control and compliance. This one can be tough for parents. We often believe that getting our children to do what we tell them is fundamental to the job description of being a parent. However, for a child with a difference that gets labeled as a “deficient disorder”, he needs to have someone on his side or behavior will get worse because he feels alienated.
Laura Honos-Webb, Ph.D., is a licensed and clinical psychologist. She specializes in the treatment of ADHD and depression.
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Genevieve Hinson is a social media coordinator for Children's Hospital Central California. She's also a writer, wife and mom to two boys and a girl. The opinions she expresses here are her own, as is her obsession for coffee.
