Tips on How to Have Good Communication With Your Child With ADHD

Start by learning more about how an ADHD brain works and how that may affect behavior. Knowing why your child acts in certain ways can help you approach them with more compassion and understanding and less frustration. 

Keep requests short and to the point. Instead of, “Why are you still watching TV? It’s very late and you need to get to sleep, so start getting ready for bed.” Try, “Go to the bathroom and brush your teeth, please.” Using fewer words helps keep communication simple.

It’s common for kids with ADHD to receive more behavior correction than kids without ADHD. Any time you can “catch them being good,” call it out so they hear as much about their positives as they do their areas that need improvement.  

When kids with ADHD “hyper-focus” on their activities, they become less aware of what’s going on around them. Give gentle prompts several minutes before it’s time to move to another place or activity so they can prepare for the shift in focus.

Talk about what kinds of behaviors will work and which behaviors won’t, whether in your own home or in other places. Be clear, and focus on what they can do more than what they shouldn’t. 

Prioritize special time with your child each day where they get your full attention, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Share a silly joke, ask about their day at school, or plan a dance break in the kitchen.

Calendars, charts, and timers are just some of the tools that can help kids with ADHD make better sense of what’s expected from them at home and at school. A schedule with pictures instead of words is a quick and easy way to show them the structure of a day. 

For some kids, having music on in the background can help “wake up” many parts of their brain at the same time. When these areas work together, they can get stronger and help them feel more motivated and focused. 

It can be difficult to remain calm in the face of a child’s anger, yelling, and chaos. Prioritize your well-being so you’re set up for success: Get quality sleep, eat nutritious foods, exercise, and carve out personal time for yourself when you can. When you replenish your own stores, you have more bandwidth for accessing the tools you need to parent with a cool manner. 

ADHD can be genetic. Consider asking your doctor if you could have ADHD yourself. The better you understand your own behavior, the better you can parent your child.