Treating kids with ADHD will involve more than just the quick fix provided by medication; they need help on the educational, behavioral, and social level too.  As such, the best way to treat ADHD is through a comprehensive, multi-modal approach – a treatment that involves various techniques like diet, detoxification, and psychosocial treatments.

Psychosocial treatments are among the more well-studied non-medical treatments for ADHD. Also known as behavior modification or behavior therapy, psychosocial treatments are a series of behaviorally-oriented treatments designed to correct the problems posed by ADHD symptoms in daily life.  Children with ADHD are plagued by problems that go beyond hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention.  Inability to make friends, poor academic performance, and defiance of authority are just some of the difficulties they have to deal with everyday. It’s important that they overcome these problems because their presence will make a long-term impact on a child’s relationships and academic success. Below are some of the psychosocial techniques that can help your child:

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Even with proper management, many ADHD symptoms continue to persist into adolescence and adulthood.  Hyperactive behavior tends to decrease with age, but disorganized behavior, poor impulse control, and disorganized behavior are common among teens and adults with ADHD.  Many have difficulty filtering out irrelevant stimuli and focusing on the task at hand, particularly when they are in monotonous situations or are unmotivated.

These ADHD symptoms can also make an impact on one’s personal life, causing conflict, low self-esteem, and emotional instability.  The good news is that these problems can be treated naturally through a form of cognitive behavioral therapy called dialectical behavior therapy (DBT).

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Stimulant medication may be the most widely-used treatment for ADHD, but more and more parents are looking into natural ADHD treatments after learning about the debilitating side effects of these drugs.  Still, the transition from ADHD medications to natural treatments isn’t always easy. A lot of lifestyle adjustments have to be made, and it takes weeks for any positive changes to appear.   For this reason, parents prefer the quick fix of medication over drug-free treatments, especially if the symptoms are severe. But if there was a way to beat your child’s symptoms without medication and its side effects, wouldn’t you take it?  Here are the most popular ways to beat ADHD without medication.

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Children with ADHD are by no means easy to deal with, even when they’re already taking ADHD treatments that will help them focus or keep them calm. When the treatments don’t quite deliver the results they promise, families and teachers get frustrated and feel at a loss as to what to do next. Let’s examine five reasons that explain why ADHD treatments sometimes fail.

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Video games have long been thought to worsen ADHD, but current research seems to be turning the tables on popular opinion. L. Eugene Arnold, M.D. of Ohio State University is working to develop a video game system that improves ADHD through neurofeedback.

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In the United States, parents of ADHD kids have it a little easy during summer. From New York to California, ADHD summer camps are popping up all over the country, allowing kids with ADHD to learn social skills, keep up with schoolwork, enjoy a new hobby, and make new friends who share the same symptoms. Aside from providing a variety of activities and a structured schedule, the ideal ADHD summer camp should also have therapists, medical personnel, and counselors on-board.

Of course, not all summer camps are created equal.  When comparing various ADHD camps, parents should make sure that the camp has the structure and facilities to cater to their child’s unique needs. Some questions you might want to ask are:

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The most popular ADHD natural treatments involve changing the way kids with ADHD think. After all, a child’s brain is still very malleable and can form new neural pathways to alter the way it thinks and responds to certain situations.  Wouldn’t it be better to just teach a child’s brain how to focus instead of using strong stimulants that cause serious side effects? Neurofeedback and Cogmed Working Memory Training are just some examples of brain therapies that help ADHD kids control their impulses.  Another option is the cognitive training programs from the Brain Potential Institute, which can now be done through the Internet.

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A colleague once remarked that in his experience working with families and children with ADHD, fathers rarely participate in behavior modification programs. This phenomenon has more to do with cultural forces than anything else; generally speaking, topics covered in these programs fall under the mother’s domain (time management, organization, and self-control). Such traditional parenting programs seem more relevant to mothers than fathers.  However, the success of a holistic ADHD treatment program requires the involvement and active participation of both parents. Fathers have just as much influence as mothers when it comes to a child’s academic achievement and self-esteem.

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Several months ago, I blogged about how ADHD can be caused by retained primitive reflexes.  For those who missed this, let me give you a brief recap about this condition. Primitive reflexes are an infant’s automatic reaction to certain stimuli, which are designed to protect them from harm and facilitate their neurological development. A baby’s tight grasp on your finger is a good example of a primitive reflex. As the baby grows, the brain integrates these primitive reflexes so they can evolve into higher brain processes like logic and reasoning. However, the integration process can sometimes be problematic, and the baby ends up “retaining” the primitive reflexes into childhood. These retained reflexes can cause symptoms of ADHD and other neurologic problems.

A group of experts from Purdue University recently discovered a simple technique to treat retained reflexes and reduce hyperactivity among children with ADHD.  This technique is no other than re-learning to crawl!

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It’s not uncommon for doctors to prescribe powerful stimulants to children who cannot focus at school. In fact, many teachers suggest using Ritalin to control ADHD symptoms in the classroom, even before a child is properly diagnosed.  While it’s hard to blame overworked teachers who have to deal with noisy, hyperactive children every day, a Scandinavian study shows that adding white noise to a classroom is just as effective at helping kids focus than drugs.

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