Discipline, Stressors for Parents with Children and ADHD Essays

Discipline, Stressors for Parents with Children and ADHD Essays Discipline, Stressors for Parents with Children and ADHD Essay Discipline, Stressors for Parents with Children and ADHD Essay Imagine being stuck in traffic waiting to cross an intersection. You have an important meeting to attend and an absence may revoke your chance of a promotion. This particular traffic light takes longer than average to change green. As it finally turns green, the cars ahead of you ease off the brakes and slowly accelerate past the intersection. Not being aware of the light change, you are distracted by a nearby billboard sign. Finally you regain focus, Just as you are about to cross the intersection he traffic light turns red and you slam on the brakes. For some people this type of situation happens quite often and engrosses them with animosity throughout the day. There are many instances like this one which can hold adults and children back from Jobs, academic success, and many other things in life. This struggle is called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Many children are diagnosed with this behavioral disorder every day. There are many articles written today which speak of the facts and struggles children with ADHD deal with. But many f the articles do not really speak much of how the parents cope with the daily stress. Only a handful of studies have addressed the question of how parents cope with stress. Why? This is only one of the many questions and curiosities which will be discussed in this editorial. Parents go through many types of stress raising children who have behavioral problems such as ADHD. As discussed in one of the four articles which will be assessed in this paper, authors William E. Pelham, Jr. PH. D. , and Alan R. Lang, PH. D. tates Children with ADHD often disregard parental requests, commands nd rules; fght with siblings; disturb neighbors; and have frequent negative encounters with school teachers and principals (Pelham and Lang, 272). Why would there not be more discussions on this topic of parental stress and how to cope with For example: Children who act out in a store and the parent is looked down on because he/she cannot control the child, if the child has ADHD or another behavi oral disability the problem is not visible to the naked eye. The public in general will Judge the parent because they cannot see a physical disability such as Down syndrome. Some parents may or may not cope well with this type of situation. Children with ADHD have impulse issues and sometimes cannot control their actions without medication and/or behavioral intervention. A recent article titled Behavioral and Emotional Outcomes of an In-Home Parent Training Intervention for Young Children written by Kristen Hurley, Annette Griffith, Kathryn Casey, Stephanie Ingram and Amy Simpson discuss how families need to be involved in home training techniques which help with behavioral training and to cope without medication. Yet author Susan Hawthornes article ADHD drugs: Values that drive the debate and decisions argues whether medication and intervention ot behavioral and discipline raining is better. Pharmaceutical companies pay off doctors to push the medication but, on the other hand many parents and children would not be able to cope with the daily stress which comes from the behavioral struggles of an ADHD adolescent. According to Hurley, Casey, Griffith, Ingram and Simpson Many children who engage in disruptive problem behavior tend to come from families who demonstrate inconsistent and punitive parenting practices, experience considerable stress, and have frequent changes in family structure (Hurley, Casey, Griffith, Ingram and Simpson 1). Children with ADHD who go through the in home training and who take medication seen huge improvements, although children who do not take the medication seen improvement, the improvement will be short term vs. he child who takes the medication along with the in-home training. It is a lot easier to manage a child who is not running all over the place and getting into things on a daily basis. Parents need to complete the training and practice to make the change or there will be no significant improvements. It has also been discussed for years parents should always be involved with their childrens schools one way or another. This would help out significantly with communication between the teacher and parents. Several professional psychiatrists believe ADHD is a mental disorder and can be treated with medication and parental training. However, there are a few professionals out there who believe ADHD is Just a label and can be treated with Just training. For example, the article Self Handicapping Prior to Academic- Oriented Tasks in Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Medication Effects and Comparisons with Controls, suggests stimulant medications influence self-handicapping (Waschbusch, Craig, Pelham Jr and King, 275). However, if you teach your child the medication is only to help with your education or focusing and their actions are their responsibility truthfully; it is not self- handicapping to give your child a stimulant or non-stimulant. All children with ADHD should not be in a home with corporal punishment or a lot of inconsistent parenting technique. They feed off of the inconsistency, not wanting to follow direction and will play both of the parents against each other. Parents need to be more aware of this and prepare so they can cope with this type of stress. In a study described in he article Can Your Child Drive You to Drink Pelham and Lang discuss, how the study strongly support the assumption the deviant child behaviors represent major chronic interpersonal stressors for parents of ADHD children are associated with increased parental alcohol consumption, thereby confirming a child-to-parent influence on the same relationship (Pelham and Lang 298). Can Your Child Drive You to Drink is a complete cop out it is a study which gives parents an excuse to drink and not deal with the problem. One could only wonder how to handle a child with ADHD on a daily basis, there isa variety of teaching recommendations and ave been suggested through the years for children with ADHD to get into physical activity environments. Teaching relaxation training and developing strategies to increase self-regulation, along with using positive verbal reinforcement. There are many behavioral therapies which can help with controlling the child when he/she is out of control. There needs to be more information out in the media for parents who need help dealing with their child even without ADHD. With all of the violence involving children these days there should be more resources to help cope with this stress. Many people do not know how to deal with their own emotions and nger let alone deal with a disruptive child on a daily basis. As the exploration of these articles show, there is significant discussion regarding how to help children cope, but very little on the parent perspective. This affects parents by not knowing what to do and in some results the parents using corporal punishment out of frustration. Many parents feel there is no-one listening. A change in how studies are done should be analyzed by physicians and psychiatrist because the effects on the child can be detrimental to their mentality, emotions and social skills. If the parent cannot cope very well. There is hope with greater awareness on how parents cope with the stress and giving the right tools and information it will help parents deal more appropriately. Authors Harvey, Fagan and Kassis state, A few major outcomes might be achieved with combining use of social skills training and the empathy approach (Harvey, Fagan and Kassis 34). This is true, positive encouragement is used in many mental health clinics in the US. Bad behavior is Just as noticeable as good behavior if you shine a light on it. So if there is a light shined on the good behavior maybe the bad behavior will dissipate making less stress on he parent and the child. No one said it would be easy to raise a child and being a parent dont come with a manual. So the next time you are in a store or somewhere in public and you see a child who may be out of control try not to think Oh my! Look at the parent not controlling their child think, Maybe there is a reason why it is hard to control their child. Remember, Just because this disability is not visible to the naked eye it does not mean it is not there. Work Cited Pelham,William E. , Jr, and Alan R. Lang. Can Your Children Drive You to Drink? Alcohol Research and Health 23. 4 1999): 292-8. ProQuest. web. 13 NOV. 2013. Hurley, Kristin Duppong, et al. Young Children. Journal of At-Risk Issues 16. 2 (201 1): 1-7. Harvey, William J. , Terrance Fagan, and Jean Kassis. Enabling Students with ADHD to Use Self-Control in Physical Activities. Palaestra summer 2003: 32-5. ProQuest. web. 7 NOV. 2013. Waschbusch, Daniel A. , et al. Self-Handicapping Prior to Academic Oriented Tasks in Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Medication Effects and Comparisons with Controls. Journal of abnormal child psychology 35. 2 (2007): 275-86. ProQuest. web. 7 NOV. 2013.