Seeking Professional Guidance When Dealing With ADD/ADHD
Even though teachers usually treat the intellectual impairment seen in patients with ADHD, professional counsellors also have a significant role in the management of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Professional counsellors can help in the treatment through various interventions
Various research has suggested that group counseling for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other systemic intervention approaches can help manage the disease.
However, irrespective of the approach, three primary focus areas are essential when counselling a patient with ADHD, most especially children. These areas include conflict resolution, motivation and self-efficacy, and self-esteem. These areas can also help professional counselors when they are consulting with caregivers, teachers, parents and other healthcare providers.
Conflict Resolution
Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) usually experience interpersonal conflict in their home, school, and any other social gathering due to their lack of attention, being off task, and difficulty controlling talking or other hyperactivity impulses.
ADHD patients might find some tasks challenging. Some of these tasks include teacher redirecting them back to individual work, parent repeating instructions and peer expressing different ideas etc
Therefore, for ADHD patient to successfully strive in such an environment, they need to develop conflict resolution skills and strategies. This is exactly what a professional counsellor will help them achieve.
When it comes to helping people, especially adults, resolve conflicts with their peers, teachers, and parents, peer mediation programs have proven to be effective. Those who failed to get training in these programs tend not to resolve interpersonal conflicts and further strain their social relationship.
However, peer mediation programs have successfully utilized negotiation and mediation skills and have more productive social relationships. Therefore, helping children with attention deficit hyperactivity syndrome and their parents learn skills to resolve disputes can be essential in reinforcing conflict resolution skills in multiple environments.
Given the proclivity to interpersonal conflict among those with ADHD, professional counselors assess your ability to manage and constructively resolve conflict. Numerous conflict resolution approaches are age-specific and have proven to be an effective weapon against ADHD.
Professional counselors also help the parents of those with ADHD understand the biological and environmental factors that can result in conflict and develop skills to facilitate parent-child interactions.
Therefore, helping those with ADHD develop conflict resolution skills will help minimize social alienation and improves self-esteem and a sense of self-efficacy.
Motivation and Self-Efficacy
When it comes to treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), it is difficult to differentiate the general psychological effects of motivation from the disorder’s symptoms. It has been proven that motivation affects children with ADHD in a variety of environments.
It is common for children with ADHD to submit assignments often not, submit messy assignments, or submit incomplete assignments. This might be easily perceived as due to low motivation.
Those with ADHD struggle to complete schoolwork or homework activities, requiring a high mental focus and attention level. Most of them avoid this situation altogether.
However, children who have had successful experiences at school and home are most likely to struggle with motivation. But, children with ADHD are known to have often accumulated a series of negative experiences in multiple settings that decrease their wiliness to engage in any new behaviours.
Self-efficacy is considered to be a central component of successful living condition and is closely related to motivation. Researchers have shown that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder often struggle with self-efficacy concerns. Many result from repeated experiences of failure and rejection in both home and school settings.
This is because even though motivation is considered part of the initial energy directed towards an activity, it’s the child’s feelings of potential success that determine how long they will continue to be active in the activity.
During professional counseling sessions, the counselor can help address motivation and self-efficacy in children with ADHD to identify and promote strategies to engage in and complete activities both at6 school and at home. For older children and adolescents, cognitive-behavioral interventions may be of use to help assess self-talk and negative statements that can contribute to motivation.
Self-Esteem
Those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more socially rejected than those without ADHD in any setting. Therefore, self-esteem may be a significant concern for those coping with the disease.
The low esteem seen in those with ADHD may be due to the perceived incompetence and continual social rejection that may affect learning and may lead to feelings of isolation.
Hence, professional counselors assess for low self-esteem when dealing with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). One of the approaches used is to develop stronger self-esteem by learning how to focus on personal strength and recognize that they don’t have to attribute their self-esteem with weakness.
There are numerous strategies available for a professional counselor when it comes to the management of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. By focusing on these three major areas, you are sure to be on a safe hand with one.
