12 CORE PRINCIPLES FOR MANAGING ADHD

Russell Barkley, Ph.D., outlines 12 core principles for managing ADHD.

1) Bridge time: Externalize time limits via time schedules.

2) Immediacy of consequences: Use feedback and consequences as quickly as possible following the desirable or undesirable behavior.

3) Frequency of consequences: ADHD children require feedback and
consequences much more often than normal children.

4) Intensity of consequences: ADHD children seem to need higher magnitude consequences than normal children.

5) Change rewards periodically: This prevents boredom.

6) "Act don't yak": ADHD is not due to a failure of knowledge or reasoning. Use feedback, rewards, and punishments swiftly and often.

7) Use positives before negatives: Set up a reward program to encourage desired behaviors.

8) Anticipate problems: ADHD children often have trouble in the same
situations over repeated occasions. Set up a plan to manage the problem before it occurs.

9) Keep a disability perspective: ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a strong hereditary predisposition. Their handicap manifests itself in the way they regulate their behavior. Although they do not look disabled, they are neurologically handicapped.

10) Maintain a sense of priorities: Do not engage in conflicts with the
child over trivial, minor rule violations.

11) Don't personalize the child's problems: Maintain a sense of humor,
your methods and programs will not work all the time with an ADHD child.

12) Practice forgiveness: For your child, others and yourself for the
mistakes that are certainly going to be made in managing such a child.
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