Treating ADHD with Mindfulness Meditation

TQ _ Providing mindfulness“Providing mindfulness treatment for parents and children simultaneously may target those parents high on ADHD, who are shown to be at risk of nonresponse to behavioral parent training.” — Saskia Oord

Sometimes the parents of children with attention deficit hyperactive disorder — ADHD — don’t know how to manage their child. This can often lead to bad parenting decision that cause lots of stress of the child. It’s easy to blame the parents, but you should know that children with ADHD can be impulsive and impetuous to such an excessive degree, that it can enrage even the most level-headed of adults. Children with ADHD often have a difficult time completing basic tasks, such as homework and chores. This is because they lose interest with things quickly, and they can be distracted by everything from the presence of another child to their own thoughts.

It is not uncommon for the parents of children with ADHA to have their own ADHD symptoms. This combination leads to lots of conflict between the parent and the child, and ultimately creates a counterproductive dynamic between them. Many experts have realized this is a problem that needs to be addressed and solved. Saskia Oord of the Department of Clinical Psychology at the University of Leuven in Belgium conducted a study to find out if mindfulness meditation could help children with ADHD and their parents form better relationships.

Oord recruited 22 parents of children between the ages of 8 to 12-years old with ADHD. The children and the parents had to go through an eight-week mindfulness training session. They were all observed before and after the training session, and the results were not that surprising. The children did remarkably better after the training session. For the most part, their symptoms subsided. The parents, on the other hand, did improve, but not as much as the children.

 

 

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