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As a parent this summer, you can resist the urge to over-parent. If your child is busy and happy, you can just take a break and meet your own needs. Sometimes parents are worried that certain activities are not brain building or not competitive so they feel the need to be constantly creating structured activities. When you cut out the need for performance demands it makes it easier for you. If your kids are happy and occupied, take a moment to rest or meet your own needs.
Sometimes parents who work are eager to make all time quality time and are limited in defining quality time as active involvement. If you want to be involved remember that "attention is the most basic form of love; through it we bless and are blessed." (Tarrant 1998) Don't' feel you need to be busy or directly involved with your child. Just by quietly observing him or her you can nurture him and meet his needs as well as your own.
Ideal self-directed activities for kids with ADHD include vigorous physical activity and time in nature. Examples include:
Exploratory Hikes
Pick up Ball Games
Kick the Can
Fishing
Bug Collecting
Fort Building
Dog Walking
Bird Watching
Mucking around in a Pond
ADHD teens learn differently from others. I have wondered if the rise of diagnosis of ADHD corresponds in part to the fall of apprenticeship as a career path. ADHD kids don't learn best by being given a set of instructions to memorize and follow. They tend to learn by having someone show them what to do and how to do it over and over again. The name for that sort of teaching is an apprenticeship. You can offer your teen all sorts of apprenticeships in your own life or with people you know. It can also provide a way for you to spend time connecting with your teen while getting help with projects or aspects of your work.
Your teen can learn valuable life skills such as:
Fixing a Car
Stuffing Envelopes and other Business Administration tasks
Landscaping
Cooking
Construction Work
Carpentry
Summer would be a good time to let your child work through The ADHD Workbook for Teens. (Honos-Webb, 2011).
Below is a sample from the book.
You can begin to ask yourself "What went right?" not only to focus on your successes in some areas, but to translate that success to other areas of your life where you're struggling.
1. Name a success you had recently.
2. Write three things you did that contributed to this positive outcome.
3. Describe a problem you're having right now.
4. How can the three things you did that contributed to a positive outcome help you in the problem you are experiencing now?
Check out the ADHD Workbook For Teens at
http://www.amazon.com/ADHD-Workbook-Teens-Activities-Motivation/dp/1572…
Dr. Lara Honos-Webb is a worldwide ADD expert and offers ADD coaching. To reach Dr. Lara call 925-639-7376 or email lhonoswebb@msn.com. For more tips and tools about ADHD visit http://www.amazon.com/ADHD-Workbook-Teens-Activities-Motivation/dp/1572…
Dr. Lara Honos-Webb is a clinical psychologist and author of The Gift of ADHD, The Gift of ADHD Activity Book, The Gift of Adult ADD, The ADHD Workbook for Teens and Listening to Depression: How Understanding Your Pain Can Heal Your Life.
What is Coaching? Coaching can take your family life into an entirely new direction. Small shifts in response to ADD behaviors can make huge differences in your results. Parents can channel high energy intensity by teaching kids to label, feel, and release emotions rather than acting them out. Kids can learn positive self talk and gain motivation and confidence.
