ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER – BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS
General Considerations
Behavioral & educational “treatments” for ADD ~ ADHD can be grouped into 3 broad categories:
- Structure (both at home and at school).
- A positive approach to both discipline and criticism.
- Specific help in any other problem areas (e.g. reading tutoring for a kid who’s behind, counseling when parents are going through a divorce, etc).
Specific strategies for implementing these non-medical principles vary between home, school, and socialenvironments, however.
* While the material in the rest of this article is fully my own, credit for the behavioral treatment recommendations outlined below really belongs to the many psychologists & educational specialists I had the honor & pleasure of working with at Children’s Hospital and elsewhere from 1986-2002, as well as to the faculty of many conferences on ADD I have attended. Over the years I have “collected” behavioral recommendations from these colleagues, combining similar ones, adapting others, to arrive at the list presented here. Unfortunately I have not kept track of the specific individual sources of each recommendation, but I do owe them all a debt of gratitude. I am sure none would object to their presentation here in the interest of helping children with ADD and their families.