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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