Does your child have ADHD? Let's learn about the benefits of family therapy.

Does your child have trouble staying focused? Does he/she struggle to stay focused? Does he/she constantly complain about school and classes? These could be signs of a condition we call ADHD ( Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). As a parent, your first thought at this point may be medication. While medication is a great tool, it can’t do everything. No pill can teach you the right parenting strategies to control your child’s behavior, boost their self-esteem, and most importantly, help you manage your child’s anxiety. However, family therapy can help the entire family work together and produce lasting results.

How can family therapy help?

When you have a child with ADHD at home, you may have noticed that the "traditional" methods we usually use to discipline children, such as punishment and rewards, don't always work. Their attention span and impulsivity make them more difficult to control than other children. But constant punishment only worsens their behavior, and it also takes a toll on their self-image.

Imagine, when your son drops a toy on the floor, you tell him to put it away, but he doesn't seem to listen. When you tell him to do so, he starts crying. When such incidents happen frequently in a house, the atmosphere at home becomes very chaotic.

This treatment can be parent-directed or involve the child in sessions. In general, the following things happen with any of these approaches:

• The whole family learns to work together as one unit .
• Strengthens the child's sense of control over their emotions and actions.
• The child's behavior improves at school, at home, with others, and in public places.
• We teach you, the parent, the most effective ways to deal with your child.

Parent-Directed Treatment

If you have a child with ADHD under the age of 12, you may be the best candidate for behavior therapy. We also call this parent training , behavioral parent training. What happens here is that you work on the concept that your child's best teacher is you. Experts say this method is effective because young children cannot manage their actions on their own without the support of their family.

In this, you will meet with a therapist for about 8 to 16 sessions. During this time, you will learn new ways to work with your child, as well as how your child's mind works and what causes their behavior. The child will not come to these initial sessions. When they are ready to join you, which is around 8-10 years old, we call it integrated parent-child treatment. At that point, these sessions may be just you and your partner. Sometimes there may be group sessions with other families like you.

Between these sessions, you should practice what you've learned at home. Sometimes the counselor will meet with your entire family to see how the methods are working and how you're progressing.

What do you learn from these treatments?

Parent training covers almost every aspect of daily life. Simply put:

• How to set boundaries in a way that your child understands? How to set clear rules and tell your child what is expected of them in a way that they understand.
• How to organize your home environment. Creating a home that is punctual and has rules.
• How to target specific behaviors. You pick a specific misbehavior and learn how to respond to it. This can mean rewarding good behavior, temporarily removing privileges for bad behavior, or using things like 'time-outs'. You also learn when to ignore certain misbehavior.
• How to turn your child's mistakes into learning opportunities. Children with ADHD have a hard time understanding the connection between their actions and their consequences on their own. You can show them that connection.
• How to inform other caregivers (e.g., grandmother, aunt) about these new methods and gain their support.

Family counseling and medication for ADHD

For children under the age of 6, experts strongly recommend trying parent behavior therapy before giving medication . This does not mean that medication should not be used at all. However, the results of counseling are long-lasting, and there are no side effects from medication. What’s more, even if a child is misdiagnosed with ADHD, these behavioral therapies will not cause any harm.

But studies have shown that giving medication along with family counseling is a winning combo for school-age children. Even so, the FDA in the US says that children over the age of 5 should only be given medication if counseling does not improve at least one aspect of their lives.

Also, research shows that children who benefit from family counseling while taking medication may be able to reduce their medication dosage .

Integrated Parent-Child Treatment

Although parent training is usually recommended for young children, studies have shown that parents and children can achieve greater results when they meet with a counselor together. This method is especially effective as the child enters adolescence and young adulthood. Although ADHD symptoms may decrease over time, the child may still have academic and social problems. And the conflict within the family may remain.

Even if your child is young, you can still learn valuable parenting strategies. But they will vary depending on the child's age and personality. For example:

• The young child participates in counseling sessions with their parents.
• You can also help your child find solutions to their bad behavior and decide what punishments to use. For example, assigning homework instead of 'time-outs'.
• If he studies well and gets good test scores, he can set a reward as a goal . That means something important to him, like being allowed to go out with his friends.

ADHD, Family Counseling, Family Therapy, Children, Mental Health, Parents, Behavioral Therapy, Sri Lanka