Hyperactive child: what should parents do? Psychologist's advice and recommendations for parents of hyperactive children

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Often the most common cause of hyperactivity in a child is a lack of attention. With his excessive mobility and busyness, he tries to attract parents, peers, teachers to him. Sometimes the reason may be a feature of a person's character. However, many other factors have the greatest influence: children who were born through caesarean section, artificial babies, etc. are at risk. Therefore, it is quite important to understand the root cause.

Judging by the statistics, hyperactivity occurs in almost every twentieth child, by the way, it should be noted that boys are two to three times more likely. It turns out that in the classroom you can meet at least one kid with excessive activity. All and sundry give advice to parents of a hyperactive child, but in fact, you only need to listen to specialists.

Scientists prove that hyperactivity is a diagnosis

For a long time, this diagnosis was considered only a feature of the child's behavior, but more recently it has been proven that thisis a mental disorder that cannot be corrected by simple pedagogical methods. And if there is a hyperactive child in the family, what should parents do? Psychologist's advice will help you figure it out.

Interestingly, in 1970, studies were conducted that showed that this disease is based on physiological and genetic causes, and the syndrome itself refers not only to pedagogy and psychology, but is also associated with medicine.

Main causes of occurrence

• Lack of necessary hormones in the child's body.
• Past illnesses and injuries.
• Maternal illness during pregnancy.
• Any disease that a child had as an infant. They could affect the brain.

And regardless of the fact that medicine has achieved great success in this matter, and there are pharmacological methods of treatment and psychological and pedagogical, nevertheless, childhood hyperactivity is considered an incurable syndrome that can be corrected in adolescence. Based on this, we will try to draw conclusions and give recommendations: hyperactive children, what should parents do?

Advice from a psychologist can help a child adapt to society and become a fully developed personality in the future.

Illness in adulthood

In fact, many adults suffer from this disease, but most often they are simply considered too impulsive, active and flighty. This syndrome occurs in childhood, it is not yet completelyresearched, so it has not been proven to persist into adulthood.

How to recognize a hyperactive child

Parents may encounter the first signs immediately: babies sleep poorly, cry a lot, are very irritable during the day, can react to any noise and change of scenery.

A hyperactive child at the age of one already begins to manifest itself, for example, in speech delay, awkward movements due to impaired motor skills. Nevertheless, he is constantly active, trying to walk, move, he is fussy and mobile. His mood is also constantly changing: at one moment the child is cheerful and joyful, and the next minute he can be sharply capricious. So, before you is a hyperactive child (1 year old). What should parents do? Such children will have to pay much more attention, and efforts must be made to achieve results.

Critical age

When it comes to preparation, it is also difficult for a child to focus on one task: he cannot sit still, complete at least one thing, or do the exercise carefully and with concentration. The kid does everything slipshod to finish the job and start something new.

Reasonable advice to parents of a hyperactive child can only be given by a specialist, as well as to recognize hyperactivity. But before turning to a professional, mother and father should observe their child, determine how much excessive activity and impulsivity interferes with him in learning and building relationships with his children.peers. What situations are alarming?

Main symptoms

1. Inattention. It is always difficult for a child to concentrate on a task or game. Parents constantly have to be reminded of everyday affairs, because the child simply forgets about them, and also constantly breaks or loses his things. In addition, attention is disturbed: the baby never listens to anyone, even when the speech is addressed directly to him. If he does the task on his own, he often cannot properly organize his work, being constantly distracted and not completing the task.
2. Impulsive. In the classroom, the child, without waiting for his turn, shouts from his place. It is difficult for him to follow the established rules, he constantly interferes in the conversation, etc.
3. Hyperactivity. It is difficult for a child to sit still, he constantly fidgets in his chair, talks a lot, constantly runs even where this cannot be done. The kid cannot calmly play or relax, he always asks a lot of questions, but he cannot remember even one answer. Many of the actions and actions of the child are completely thoughtless, he often breaks objects, or breaks dishes. Even during sleep, he is not calm - he constantly wakes up, tossing and turning, sometimes screaming in his sleep.

Hyperactive vs Active: Differences

Often when parents say about their child that he is hyperactive, they put a positive meaning into this word. But most people simply confuse two different concepts - active and hyperactive. It is really good when a child is inquisitive, shows interest in the world around him, is drawn to newknowledge. But hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder, which are often interrelated, are neurological-behavioral disorders. They most painfully make themselves felt after the age of five, which undoubtedly has a negative effect on the child, preventing him from developing along with other children.

Active children can be active at home, on the playground with friends, in the kindergarten, but when they come to any new place for them, for example, to visit or see a doctor, they immediately calm down and begin to behave like real quiet. With hyperactive children, everything is different regardless of the circumstances, place and people who surround them: they always behave in the same way and simply cannot sit still.

An active child can be carried away with a normal game, such as checkers or picking up a puzzle, while a hyperactive child lacks perseverance.

In any case, everything is very individual, so only based on observations, you can give recommendations to parents. Hyperactive children are more difficult to frighten, they have a lower pain threshold, they are not afraid of anything, without thinking about their safety at all.

From all of the above it follows that if the baby loves outdoor games, he likes to learn something new, and this curiosity does not interfere with his studies and social relationships, then you should not call him hyperactive. The child is developing normally for his age. If the baby cannot sit still, listen to the tale to the end or complete the task, he constantly requires attentionor throws tantrums, then this is a hyperactive child. What should parents do? Psychologist's advice can help in this difficult matter.

Schooling

If before the start of school, parents are not particularly worried about this trait of character, then with the beginning of training, seeing the many problems that their child faces, they begin to worry a lot. It is difficult for these children to understand how to behave and how not. The child does not know where the acceptable line is, it is difficult for them to establish relationships with other children and the teacher, and just calmly learn the lesson. Therefore, during the adaptation period, recommendations are necessary for parents of hyperactive children, since this age is the most critical. You can take your child to a psychologist. If you have a hyperactive child, the recommendations of specialists must be followed literally in everything.

It's important to remember that hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder often go hand in hand with other serious problems.

Advice for parents of a hyperactive child

Hyperactive child: what should parents do? Read below for psychologist's advice to follow.

It is important to carefully approach safety precautions, remove all unsafe and sharp objects, turn off household appliances when leaving the room, as ordinary children often break something, or fall and hit, and this happens twice with hyperactive or three times more often.

If a hyperactive child has something important to learn, the advice of a psychologist to parents will be useful. You need to make sure he listens. It is not enough just to call out to him - you need to establish contact, remove toys from your field of vision, turn off the TV or computer. And only after making sure that the child is really listening to you, you can start a conversation with him.

It is necessary to establish rules in the family that the child would steadily follow. And it is very important that they are always performed every day without exception, regardless of the circumstances. It is important to constantly remind the child about them, repeating that some tasks must always be performed, and doing something is strictly prohibited.

A very important nuance is the mode. The kid needs to be taught to do everything on time, and exceptions cannot be made even on a day off. For example, always get up at the same time, have breakfast, do homework, go for a walk. Perhaps this is too strict, but the most effective. It is this rule that will help the child to adapt to school and learn new material in the future.

These kids are very sensitive to mood, so it is very important that the emotions they receive are positive. Praise them for even the smallest achievement. Let them feel that his parents are proud of him. You should support the child in difficult moments for him, more often speaks of love for him, hug.

You can organize a reward system, for example, if he behaved well all week, then on the weekend he receives a small present or a trip to nature, a movie trip, a museum. Let parents come up with joint games,that will enthrall the baby. Of course, it will take a lot of time, patience and ingenuity, but the result will not be long in coming.

It is important in general to monitor the atmosphere in the family so that all conflicts pass by the baby, and especially it is impossible for him to participate in them.

If the child behaved badly, then you can punish, but not severely, and it is better to refuse assault at all.

A hyperactive child never runs out of energy, so it is constantly necessary to create conditions for him to put it somewhere. The kid should walk more in the air, go to the sports section, play. But there is also an important nuance here: the child should be tired, but not too overtired.

When forbidding something to a child, it is extremely important to provide him with an alternative, while explaining in a calm tone why his actions are wrong.

You can’t take your child to places dominated by large crowds of people: his psyche is already too sensitive and weak, and the crowd can lead to overexcitation of the nervous system, so you should avoid mass events, supermarkets during busy hours. But walks in the fresh air, forays into nature have a beneficial effect on the baby. It is better for such a child to play with only one friend.

It would be nice if parents keep an observation diary in which they can note all the changes and reactions to the world around them that occur with a hyperactive child. After this diary can be shown to the teacher (it will be much easier for him to draw up a generalpicture).

Hyperactive child: what should parents do? The counseling tips listed above will help solve many problems.

Working at school

Initially, the teacher should be aware of the presence of a hyperactive child in his class in order to properly build work with him in the future, so parents should notify the teacher in advance and share all available information.

First of all, the child should sit as close as possible to the teacher - so the latter will be much easier to control the discipline. It is also important that the baby has the opportunity to ask all the necessary questions at any time.

The teacher should write down all tasks on the blackboard and give only one task for a certain period of time. If the task is too large, then it must be divided into several parts, to limit the execution of time and constantly monitor their execution.

It is difficult for a hyperactive child to sit in one place for a long time and still memorize the material presented. Therefore, it is necessary to teach him consistently, to involve him in the lesson, even if the baby is spinning, shouting, fidgeting in a chair. Next time baby just focus on being calm.

He just needs to move, so it's best not to monitor his behavior in class too much, let him run around on the school playground or gym.

Also, children often fall into a vicious circle: praise is simply necessary for them, but studying well costs them incredible efforts. Due to the fact that they are inattentive and cannot normallyconcentrate, they make many mistakes and their work is sloppy. Therefore, initially, they should be treated less strictly.

During a lesson, activities can change several times, and if this is beneficial for ordinary children, it is much more difficult for a hyperactive one to switch. Therefore, they need to be warned in advance, given the opportunity to prepare.

It is very difficult for a teacher to work with such children, but still, if you find the right approach, the result will be excellent. Hyperactive children are intellectually well developed, as evidenced by many tests, but they find it difficult to cope with their temperament.