The House We Build for ADHD: A Blueprint for Long-Term Care
You're building a home and a family -- one with ADHD in the mix. The sheer volume of information and misinformation about ADHD can compromise your designs and make your house seem built of straw more than bricks. But it needn't be this way. Reinforce the foundation of evidence-based care, build upwards to address the rest of ADHD and your home can be as solid as every other one on the block.
ADHD Care from the Ground Up
ADHD is a common disorder of child development that influences self-regulation and self-management, not just attention and activity level. Seen from this perspective, it's understandable why ADHD potentially affects all of life. It has been linked to everything from behavioral and academic concerns, to difficulty with sleep, eating and, as children grow older, substance abuse and even auto accidents.
Yet while those perils are real, when ADHD is addressed fully, everything changes. A successful blueprint for managing ADHD has two levels. As with construction, ADHD care starts from a strong base on which to build. This solid foundation integrates everything research suggests works for ADHD management into practical, real-life decision making. From there, move beyond crisis management into proactive 'well care' for ADHD, more fully fashioning the home you imagined for your child.
Setting a Strong Foundation
You can consider ADHD management, therefore, in two parts: A foundation, and the house you build on it. The foundational parts are most proven to have large effects on ADHD symptoms. When they are under-emphasized, stress related to ADHD often continues. Three care components (listed below) are the bedrock to consider whenever acute difficulties arise, typically around behavior or academics.
There's no one pre-fabricated plan (or home) to fit all families, and a child's needs may change over time. But when crises flair or progress slows, reconsidering this solid base helps organize your thoughts and leads to concrete actions to take (and what better way to build a foundation than with something concrete?) ....
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To finish reading the full story, visit the Huffington Post: Parents website: http://huff.to/1DPSCwX.
