As parents, our mission is to nurture our children’s unique qualities and support them in reaching their full potential. With the right support, we can empower children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to flourish.

With their boundless energy, quick thinking, and unique perspective on the world, these children often bring a special vibrancy to the family. However, moments of restlessness and difficulty focusing can be overwhelming.

Understanding how to calm and support a child with ADHD is key to helping them thrive. In this article, we’ll explore seven effective strategies to create a calming environment and guide your child through moments of hyperactivity or stress.

If your child is diagnosed with ADHD and begins treatment, as a parent, it’s your job to follow through on recommendations.

If you decide that medication for your child is best for both of you, consistency is critical. It’s difficult to tell if your child’s treatment is working when done sporadically. It’s also important to communicate with their doctor if you have concerns about medication selection and side effects.

During this time, you may want to seek other services like parent training, social skills groups, and therapy for your child to help improve their symptoms.

Just like you need to be consistent with treatment instructions, you need to be consistent at home.

You may notice that hyperactivity becomes worse during unstructured times, and without supervision, it may increase to an excessive level. By building a routine with some flexibility, you create fewer possibilities for hyperactivity to intensify.

Over time, a stable structure can transform into healthy practices. This will provide your child with the ability to manage their hyperactivity. While you don’t need to micromanage, you do need to put some reasonable orderliness into place.

Asking a person with ADHD to sit still and stay quiet for a certain amount of time is insensitive. It’s better to break up activities that require calmness into chunks of time to help them succeed.

If your child can only tolerate a few minutes of homework, ask them to do as much as they can in those minutes. Following the work, they can take a 3-minute break to stretch, hop around, or whatever they decide on before they sit down for another couple of minutes.

This approach may help create productive homework time, versus being filled with squirming and excessive movements.

Shaping is a psychological method used in behavioral and cognitive behavioral therapies. In shaping, you accept the behavior at its baseline and work to make small changes using reinforcement.

If you wanted to incorporate shaping into the previous homework example, you would start at 6 minutes, break, 7 minutes, break, 8 minutes, etc., until their homework is complete.

When your child accomplishes the fixed amount of time at regular activity levels, you give a reward.

Rewards can be kind words, a hug, small amounts of money, or a fun activity later on. This process empowers your child to associate extended periods of desired activity levels with positives. With consistency, the times will stretch and become longer.

Allow your child to fidget while engaging in a task that requires a lot of patience. Allowing them to play with a small toy, a piece of clothing, or a fidget tool (like a fidget cube) can help improve attention and focus while simultaneously reducing activity levels.

Your child may do well if they’re allowed to burn off excess energy through playtime before they’re expected to sit still for a number of minutes.

For example, if your child has been sitting all day and bottling up their energy, completing homework as soon as they arrive home may not be the answer. Instead, find some physically demanding, fun activities for them to do when they first get home.

Allowing your child to play for a half hour may make focusing on homework more effective and efficient.

Learning about, practicing, and teaching your child about relaxation techniques may help to increase their awareness and understanding of their bodies, feelings, behaviors, and hyperactivity.

Relaxation techniques may include:

  • deep breathing exercises
  • progressive muscle relaxation
  • mindfulness meditation
  • visualization
  • yoga

Finding the best times to implement these skills will take some experimentation, but the results will be worth it.

NewLifeOutlook aims to empower people living with chronic mental and physical health conditions, encouraging them to embrace a positive outlook despite their circumstances. Their articles are full of practical advice from people who have firsthand experience with ADHD.