The Best ADHD Treatment
Learn about the best ADHD treatment options with alternatives to Adderrall and Ritalin to eliminate symptoms. These may include positive behavior supports, integrated listening systems, a special diet for ADHD, free printable behavior charts, and medications. Treatment will also typically involve applying behavior intervention plans specifically related to home or school discipline along with poor listening skills, attention and memory.
Finding the right interventions are unique for each child depending on the signs of ADHD that are being displayed and more specific needs. I have to say that I personally do not condone the use of medication as an exclusive treatment. I believe that focusing more on the causes of attention deficit disorder and eliminating them has the greatest success in treatment.
If you have taken the time to read my free eBook, Taming Your Child's Inner Tiger, you will discover helpful information related to ADHD treatment by eliminating symptoms and what I have found to be root causes of associated behavioral challenges. Be sure to also look at this when considering alternatives to ADHD medication.
Behavioral Interventions
In addition to eliminating environmental factors, there are also many behavioral techniques that can be used to help with symptoms of ADHD. Interventions that more specifically target certain symptoms include:
- Listening skills
- Attention and memory
- Defiant children
- Aggressive children
- School bullying
- Help with sleep problems causing symptoms
If you pay attention to the areas your child is struggling with the most it will be easier to provide your child with the ADHD treatment he/she needs. You may also consider using my free printable behavior charts as a way to give reinforcement for certain behaviors, such as doing chores or school work. I have even created one specifically for use with children that have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
A recent treatment option for kids with ADHD related to help with listening, reading, auditory processing, concentration and attention includes a program by integrated listening systems. If you are interested in doing this program with your child, feel free to also contact me for more information. I am an associate and currently willing and able to supervise children receiving this type of therapy, which you must have someone supervise your child in order to obtain this treatment.
Diet for ADHD Treatment
One type of treatment is to put children on a special diet. This may be simply adding more foods with omega-3 fatty acids, which has proven to help with symptoms. It may also mean limiting foods high in sugar, caffeine, and artificial colors, such as red dye 40 or eliminating foods with gluten and casein. A commonly known diet for ADHD is the Feingold Diet. It is considered to be very restrictive, but it reportedly has very good results in eliminating symptoms.
I have found the book Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies by Kenneth Bock M.D. and Cameron Stauth to have the most thorough and detailed information about biomedical treatment options, which includes the use of natural treatments for ADHD symptoms. You can read more about this book on the Child Behavior Help Resources page.
ADHD Treatment in School
Some children are easily distracted by noise and other stimuli, which affect their ability to concentrate. They may need to be seated in the front row of a classroom to pay attention to the teacher and have the television turned off when spoken to. I personally find that I have a difficult time paying attention to someone that is talking when there are other distracting noises.
Using study tips for homework, or homework charts can be extremely helpful when trying to get homework completed. A reinforcement system or token economy at school centered around staying seated, turning in homework and paying attention in class can be very successful in increasing these behaviors.
It's also possible that you may need to use alternative teaching methods from the traditional sitting in a seat all day long. One option may be to consider homeschooling your child.
This may sound like an extremely difficult task, but there are so many home school based curricular available these days that make it very easy for you to teach your child.
This may end up being the only ADHD treatment needed. It also provides the opportunity to spend more quality time with your child and to do more hands on activities for learning, such as going to the zoo when learning about animals or a science museum when learning about science.
Using games to help children develop impulse control and learn to pay attention may be another consideration, such as ones like these.
Learning Styles
Every person has their own personal learning style and unfortunately school generally focuses on visual and auditory learning. For children that are kinesthetic learners, it can be very demanding to sit through a class that is solely based on visual and auditory learning. Should children be punished for their personal learning style?
Kinesthetic learners are usually good at sports, unable to sit for long periods of time, are fidgety during lectures, have bad handwriting, aren’t very good at spelling, need lots of study breaks, enjoy role playing, building things, science, adventure books, and loud music(1). Do any of these sound familiar?
With all of these treatments combined you are sure to find success for your child, but the most important treatment components you can provide for any child are love, patience and understanding.
References
1. Fleming, Grace. Learning Styles: Know and use your personal learning style. www.about.com. 12-1-09.
If you haven't already, be sure to download my eBook with the best tips and techniques for helping all children by clicking the image below!