As research shows, children with ADHD have worse social skills than their peers, who don’t have this disorder. Poor social skills is identified as having difficulty interacting with others, not liked by their peers or have very few friends in comparison to children at the same ages. Poor social skills are considered the most serious effect of ADHD, not the hyperactivity or inattentiveness. With poor social skills, your children will not be likely to have a happy life and vulnerable to drug and alcohol abuse. As parents, what can you do to help your kids improve social skills? If it is your concern, sit down for a while as I’m going to share with you some useful tips that can help improve your kids’ social skills.
Why ADHD/ADD kids have problem with social skills
You recognize your child have social skills when he/she comes home and tells you: “No one like me”, “My classmate hate me” or “No one wants to play with me”. If you know the symptoms of ADHD/ADD, it’s not too hard to understand the reason.
Social Skills Is Vital To Your Children
With ADHD kids, because of their hyperactive, they always running around and annoy their peers. While playing games in group, they show some behaviors which are not welcomed such as cannot wait for turn, refuse to admit their failure… with such behaviors, you cannot expect other kids will like him/her.
For ADD kids, the problem occurs in different way. As you might know, ADD kids usually found to “live in their world”. They appear to be shy and don’t know what to do to approach other kids though they really want to. As a result, ADD kids usually enjoy their own world or find entertainment in things they can do alone such as reading books.
Having poor social skills is serious and the way ADHD kids see their situation makes things worse. They don’t understand why people don’t like them. Most of ADHD kids think that they have good social skills and don’t recognize the problem. Even when it is pointed out, they don’t admit it and blame others for not having “good enough” social skills to match their level. This is why improving social skills in ADHD/ADD kids is difficult.
How can you help your kids improve their social skills
Help your kid identify the problem
As mentioned above, kids don’t see their problem spontaneously and they think the problem is others’. This is where parents come into play. Having some discussions with your kids and help them recognize their problem is very important. When they complain “no one wants to play with me” or “no one at school likes me”, you can ask question such as “Do you know why?” Questions like this will help them look into the situation and find their problems (ADHD/ADD kids are smart, believe me). You can talk with your child and find out what skills are most troublesome and work on improving them. Don’t try to solve more than 2 skills at the same time as it can be too much for the child to handle.
Apply social skills group therapy
Social skills group therapy has been proven to help the kids improve their social skills. First of all, kids with same problem will be gathered by therapists and they will be trained essential social skills. While surrounded by others who have the same problem, kids don’t feel isolated. Instead, they will find it easy to speak out their problems and others as well as the therapist will provide the solutions. In the social skills group therapy, the therapist has great opportunity to observe the kids and identify their problems.
Conclusion
Improving social skills for ADHD/ADD children is not an easy task. Don’t ever expect that your child will have awesome skills after a few months, even after they attend the social skills group therapy. The key to success in improving your child’s situation is consistency and through discussion.