Descriptions of Behavioral Therapy? | ADHD Information

Alot of people who are ADD/ADHD have difficulties with multi-step instructions(my son does). I agree with psbml5 on waiting till 5th/6th grade for Behavior Therapy as your son may not be old enough to benefit from it. My son is now 16, tried 3 diff. meds and was put through the ringer. All the meds he tried were stimulants and at this time, I'm trying a non-stimulant med. w/my daughter. I'm also taking her to a pediatrician who believes in natural OTC remedies vs. medications. I also have ADD. I struggled all through school and life and developed anxiety problems as a result of not knowing and not getting help. I don't like meds but if I find out that this med. works for my daughter and doesn't cause her side effects, I may continue. In all honesty, I'm waiting to see the alternative Pediatrician cause I will choose natural any day over meds. I think it depends on the individual child's needs too.I don't feel your son is "immature", maybe he is ADD/ADHD and if so, this is commom behavior and has nothing to do with maturity. BTW.....I consider ADD a blessing in many ways-we are extremely intelligent-lol-but seriously, we are. Good luck, let me know if I can be of help.

I am a newcomer to this forum, and am interested in learning about what I can expect in the way of behavioral therapy, if I begin taking my child to a psychologist for the treatment of ADHD. I have a 5-year-old son who in fact has not yet been tested (for ADHD or anything else). I know the risk of labeling him myself, as there could very well be other things going on, but, here I am.

He is an intelligent, sweet kid, who was placed in preK instead of kindergarten this year because he was deemed "socially immature" by his private school administrators.His "immature" behavior includes frequent (FREQUENT) jumping, difficulty in cooperative play, difficulty with multi-step instructions, frequent daydreaming, etc., etc. My husband is an intelligent, successful professional, who claims to have behaved similarly as a child. (Indeed, he STILL shares a fondness for repetitive, rhythmic, vocalizations, and he and our son enjoy "being goofy" together, as they call it.)
Because my husband learned to work through his "quirks," he is prone to think that our son will, too. He believes that testing will be minimally useful, because we are both disinclined to medicating our young son. (I know. We are not denying the existence of ADHD, believe me, but it is very difficult for me not to worry about the effects of medicating his developing brain. Surely everyone else went through this, and can understand our hesitation?) I have managed to alienate some parents I know who do medicate their kids, simply because I express hesitation at medication. I just want to know: can I expect anything truly useful from the the behavioral therapy? Book recommendations are also very welcome.
My humble thanks!
I see that no one has answered your post. To my knowledge there is play therapy and social skills classes for the little ones, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for older ones, and ADHD coaches. All can be googled, as I believe those are the common terms. Social skills classes are through Speech and Language centers. You just have to cold call to find out where.

You cannot talk ADHDers into behaving as expected, or tell them how they should have responded and then expect them to do it. But you can give them tools that help them compensate for their impairment.

30% if people outgrow ADHD.

Hi,

Our DS, age 7, is not on ADHD medication (for various reasons).  The Dr who diagnosed him told us that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy should probably wait until he is in the 5th/6th grade.  He is highly impulsive and "unable" to control the things which we would be hoping to change.  We were informed that if he was medicated...they recommend two years of intensive therapy to teach behavioral skills.  The hope is that while on the two years of meds ..they can learn tools to help them...if they are able to come off the meds.

FYI:  I am a homeschool mom and I use the book Social Skills Activities for Special Children.  Many of the activities are for older kids..but our DS definitely benefits from the ones that relate to "when to be quite/keep your hands to yourself" type of expercises.

Good Luck and welcome!

Thanks to both of you for taking the time to respond. I appreciate having some vocabulary to begin my research, and I will definitely look into the suggested books.
Take care. cookiebaker40564.4890740741