ADD: The Game Plan

Assessment; action plans for self-concept

Game Plans
From the assessments you make in the areas listed above and from the ones from the preceding chapters, you can formulate a game plan for treating your child's symptoms. Remember to work with the child's strengths, but find ways to build up her more limited areas. Any area in which your child scores above a 6 suggests a need that should be addressed. Attention deficit disorder just doesn't go away. Your child will need treatment and counseling, perhaps for many years. I know of fifty-year-old adults still using therapies they learned more than thirty years ago.

Based on your findings with the evaluations, make a priority list, with the most severe issues at the top. Get your entire family involved in the process. Enlist the help of siblings in looking for resources as suggested throughoutthis book. The following are basic approaches you might want to take in specified areas:

Self-concept Issues
Action Plan #1: Daily Positive Hits.
ADD children get so much negative feedback that it needs to be actively countered by positive hits of encouragement and support. Parents and family members get so wrapped up in treating the problem they sometimes lose sight of the individual, his needs and feelings. Too often parents forget to tell their ADD children that they are loved and appreciated. Children need to hear that just as adults do. Make a point to say something positive every day to your child. Let your child know that you appreciate him regardless of the trouble he has caused.

In my hospital programs I have always insisted that each patient be given a positive stroke every day. It is part of any healing process. I believe the body responds, sometimes in miraculous ways, when patients feel they are in a supportive and positive environment.

Action Plan #2: Counseling.
Often ADD children develop negative inner conversations. They take on the labels others affix to them, calling themselves stupid or worthless. It is difficult for an ADD child to break free of that negative thinking, especially if it has been reinforced by teachers, friends, parents, or other family members. Parents sometimes slip up when they become frustrated with a child. If it happens often, however, the child may take disparaging words to heart. Once such comments have been made repeatedly, it can be difficult for the parent to rebuild a child's wounded psyche. This is where the extended family can be of enormous value. Grandparents, aunts, and uncles can be great healers. Their kinship gives them a bond that can open the door to healing with an ADD child. On a different level, professional counselors and psychologists are exceptionally helpful in reshaping a kid's self-concept into constructive modes.