Coping
Skills: Valuable Help for Children with ADHD
Failure is hard. The disappointment of failure that
follows an honest effort to succeed is enough to get
anyone feeling blue. Children with ADHD are not immune
to this disappointment; on the contrary, having attention
difficulties in this unsympathetic world is almost
a guarantee that feelings of failure for the ADHD
child will crop up, even when these feelings have
no basis. For this reason, help for children with
ADHD must equip the child with coping skills so that
failure does not scar a child for life.
Help
for children with ADHD in the form of coping skills
is a process by which you teach a child how to turn
failure into a positive. This may seem like an impossible
task for a child, since the child is feeling grief
over defeat. Here are some steps you can take to provide
valuable coping skills and help for children with
ADHD:
Put
the failure in perspective. Find ways and
examples to explain how the setback is not the end
of the world.
Use
examples from real life. Share stories about
your own failures and how they eventually worked out
for the best. Also look up stories about real-life
heroes—sports stars, presidents, inventors,
movie stars, etc.—who experienced failure yet
eventually rose to the top.
Write
down all the positives that come from the disappointment.
Help for children with ADHD can come in the form of
a list of positives that he or she can refer back
to. For example, the child may have failed to win
a soccer game, but you can point out the good plays
he or she made during the game.
Give
the child a creative outlet for stress. Let
the child release some disappointment through exercise,
drawing, writing, and other venting techniques. Creative
outlets offer extra help for children with ADHD because
they give the child a sense of accomplishment.
Explain
the importance of perseverance. All failures
offer the chance for your child to learn and grow.
While failure makes your child feel hurt and disappointed,
the key is to keep trying because your child is bound
to do better next time. A reason to hope for the future
is perhaps the best help for children with ADHD.
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