New findings confirm the effectiveness of a team approach when treating children with ADHD, as opposed to simply medicating them. Photo credit: yazsy/morguefile.com.
A new study from the American Academy of Pediatrics finds a team approach involving parents, clinicians and doctors significantly improves social skills and overall behavior and has a positive impact on a child’s impulsiveness. Psychologist Carla Allan says these findings confirm what many parents often say that they want more than medication for their kids with ADHD.
“Treatments designed to teach their children new skills, ways of managing their behavior better, ways of making and keeping friends, those are kinds of things parents really want for their kids to have,” says Allan.
The study appears in the journal Pediatrics. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 15 percent of Tennessee children ages four to 17 have been diagnosed with either ADHD or attention deficit disorder. That’s higher than the national average of around 10 percent.
Allan says parents’ involvement in ADHD treatment is critical, no matter what sort of intervention is used.
“Even if you’re just using medication, it’s dependent on the parent remembering to give the child the medicine every day, being able to get the child to take the medicine when the child maybe wants to do something else,” she says. “It’s dependent on parents being able to remember, ‘Oh my gosh, their prescription’s almost out.'”
In 2011, six percent of U.S. children and more than eight percent of children in Tennessee were taking medication for ADHD.
