COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY FOR ADHD

5 min readMar 24, 2021

If you are one of those who are worried about your child’s impulsiveness and distracted behaviour, then stick to this article till the end. Because you are not the only one, there are numerous cases of children with poor school performances due to ADHD “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.”

Definition of ADHD

ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. And it is a type of Neuropsychiatric Disorder in children that can cause unnatural impulsive behavior. Therefore, people with this type of mental illness have trouble focusing on a single task.

It’s a very common disorder among children above the age of 6, but it can happen to anyone and at any age. According to the study of Polanczyk et al. (2007), the existence of ADHD disorder in children (4–5%) was much higher than the adolescence (1%).

However, due to avoiding the symptoms of ADHD, a child can develop a much higher risk at adolescence age.

REASON BEHIND DEVELOPING ADHD

Many parents believe that ADHD happens due to a poor parenting style. However, ADHD is majorly caused by genes and heredity. So, stop using a harsh parenting style and get a simpler way to treat ADHD with non-medical therapies.

Research has shown many things may cause ADHD. Some are listed below:

BRAIN FUNCTION: Less activity in the parts of the brain that control attention and activity level may cause ADHD.
GENES AND HEREDITY: A child with ADHD has a 1 in a 4 chance of having it genetically by having a parent with ADHD.
SIGNIFICANT HEAD INJURIES may also cause ADHD.
PREMATURITY increases the risk of ADHD.

“ According to the National Institute of Mental Health (2017), The prevalence of ADHD is rising at 11% among children in the USA.”

SYMPTOMPS OF ADHD

ADHD symptoms in children are highly genetic. Where 76% contribution of genetical factors to phenotypic variance (Faraone et al., 2005). For instance, your child may be less interested in studies and more active in extracurricular activities.

There are many symptoms associated with ADHD, and these are the most common symptoms of ADHD listed below:

Having trouble in focusing or concentrating on tasks or activities.
Forgetting about completing tasks
Getting easily distracted by anything
Having problem sitting still for a while
Interrupting other ones while they are talking

If you doubt your child having ADHD, they may have these symptoms. You need to notice them.

ALSO CHECK: CHILDHOOD OBESITY AND SCHOOL PERFORMANCES

TYPES OF ADHD

There are three types of ADHD presence by the American Psychological Agency (APA). These are predominantly inattentive, predominantly hyperactivity impulsive, and a combination of both:

PREDOMINANTLY INATTENTIVE: This type is categorized as distractibility without hyperactivity. In this type of ADHD, your child would face symptoms like not being attentive to a task.
PREDOMINANTLY HYPERACTIVELY IMPULSIVE: This is the least common type of ADHD. In this type, the child would face sudden impulsiveness in doing tasks.
COMBINATION OF BOTH TYPES: This is the most common type of ADHD. In this type, the child would face the symptoms of both the types mentioned above.

COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY (CBT)

ADHD is a neuropsychological disorder which means only mind-related therapies would work wonderfully.

But we can’t ignore the fact that Psychiatric experts claim that CBT is an amalgamation of medical and non-medication treatment to suppress the symptoms of ADHD (Vidal et al., 2015).

Besides, there are several combinations of behavioral therapies and medication to deal with ADHD. But they only can help in dealing with the disease and not cure it properly. And the most popular one is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most popular form of behavioral treatment for children with ADHD because It doesn’t have any side effects.

However, a professional therapist can teach the children how to express themselves with their thoughts and feelings without being impulsive or hyper towards other people.

Moreover, parents can help their children in this process by rewarding them for their positive behavior.

According to the report published in the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (2018), 47% of ADHD children between the age of 2 to 5 years take only behavior treatments. At the same time, 30% of children treat their ADHD symptoms through medication only.

CHECK MORE MENTAL ISSUES

CONCLUSION

ADHD stands for ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER.

And there are three types of ADHD which several reasons may cause. However, the prime cause of ADHD is genetic.

If your child has this disorder, you can help them deal with ADHD by adapting Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which is the most popular way to deal with it. As the cases are at increase, most people get ashamed to open up on the topic.

There is nothing to be ashamed of if your child has ADHD. You must go to a professional therapist and deal with this problem. Otherwise, it can cause problems in adulthood too.

References:

Danielson, M. L., Bitsko, R. H., Ghandour, R. M., Holbrook, J. R., Kogan, M. D., & Blumberg, S. J. (2018). Prevalence of Parent-Reported ADHD Diagnosis and Associated Treatment Among U.S. Children and Adolescents, 2016. Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology: the official journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53, 47(2), 199–212. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2017.1417860

Franke, B., Vasquez, A., Johansson, S. et al. Multicenter Analysis of the SLC6A3/DAT1 VNTR Haplotype in Persistent ADHD Suggests Differential Involvement of the Gene in Childhood and Persistent ADHD. Neuropsychopharmacol 35, 656–664 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2009.170

Vidal, R., Castells, J., Richarte, V., Palomar, G., García, M., & Nicolau, R. et al. (2015). Group Therapy for Adolescents With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal Of The American Academy Of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 54(4), 275–282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2014.12.016

https://chadd.org/about-adhd/general-prevalence/

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/adhd/Pages/Causes-of-ADHD.aspx

https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/ajp.2007.164.6.942#

https://adhd-institute.com/disease-management/non-pharmacological-therapy/cognitive-behavioural-therapy-cbt/#:~:text=Cognitive%20behavioural%20therapy%20(CBT)%20involves,and%20behaving%2C%20including%20social%20interactions.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/adhdadd