Perhaps I should have entitled this article 'the challenges for parents of a child with ADHD' but the two are so closely intertwined that either of the titles will do the trick. Parents may have the extra challenge of keeping their marriage intact while making sure that the child will learn to cope with his or her own challenges.
Parents will need to take time off for themselves such as making sure they get a few minutes rest for a walk, or just sending an email or unburdening themselves with somebody they can trust. Getting out of the house just one evening a week with your nearest and dearest will be important in many aspects.
The first challenge for both children and parents in coping with a child who has ADHD, is trying to prevent accidents. As ADHD kids are naturally impulsive and hyperactive, there is quite a high risk of accidents in the home and at school. There was a report in the British Medical Journal which reported following 62,000 children who had had suffered from head injuries or burns. Those kids were twice as likely to be affected by ADHD as accident free children. The researchers are not sure which comes first, the injuries or the ADHD. It is a sort of chicken and egg situation.
The second challenge is to know who your child and especially your teen is hanging out with. Make sure you have all his friends' contacts on your cell phone. You may pop up on their contact list as an annoying parent but at least you can keep tabs on your teen and it makes arrangements so much easier especially as credit and charged batteries seem to be in scarce supply.
Thinking of emotional development and being aware that a child with ADHD is rather different will help you to deal with this better. The child with ADHD will mature and develop much more slowly than a normal kid. This figure can be as high as 30% so a ten year old ADHD child will have the emotional maturity of a seven year old. If you are a parent of an ADHD child, there is a much greater chance that you will have to deal with temper tantrums and verbal aggression. Some experts reckon that as many as 65% of ADHD kids have these problems.
Getting over these challenges will be quite a task but there is an easy solution in that ADHD behavioral therapy is a godsend. If you follow such a course, you can learn parenting skills to cope with aggression, verbal hostility and meltdowns: pills will not teach skills such as coping with life's daily tasks and social relationships. That is the real challenge for a child with ADHD. The link below will help you to get through the jungle.
Robert Locke is a Health enthusiast who specializes in Children's Health. He has written extensively on ADHD. Discover what is the best treatment option for a
child with ADHD .
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