ADHD Brain Storm

ADHD Treatments with Rewards

There are many beliefs about ADHD treatments and what will and will not work for the child.  No matter if your child begins to take medications for their condition or not, there are likely to be benefits to the child’s behavior if they are able to work with a reward program.  These are programs that are designed to help a child to realize that some actions will result in negative reactions from you and that when they do good things that good things lead to positive responses from you.  Children that have ADHD need constant reminding of these goals as well as the means to put in place a system that is consistent. 

To help your child to learn how to control his behavior, there are several things that you can do.

•    Set up a program that will reward your child for good behavior.  Determine what the reward is and communicate with the child about what they can do to get that reward.
•    Determine a system of punishment that is clear and consistent.  A series of warnings that lead to the same punishment each time will help them to recognize what bad behavior leads to. 
•    Punishments can including removing of various privileges that the child enjoys.  In addition, it can include anything but should be consistent each time the child does the negative behavior.
•    The things that are negative behavior should be clearly defined.  What things will lead to the punishment?  This will help to encourage the realization that poor behavior leads to this punishment.
•    Rewards should be provided immediately.  Things like words of encouragement, positive reinforcement through spending one on one time together or a special prize are all rewards that can be appropriate.
•    Different levels of rewards can be included.

Often times there are goals set forth for the child to accomplish.  By having a chart or other mechanism in place where the child can visually see their progress will be helpful as well.  This is common done in the form of a chart that allows them to place a check mark or other mark when they accomplish their goal.  They can work up the chart to achieve the previously set forth goal then.