Behavioral Parent Training

There are many methods of treatment for ADHD. Stimulants, antidepressants, and antihypertensives are medications commonly used to increase attention and decrease activity level. Behavioral interventions are used in addition to medication or in place of drugs if they are not an option for a particular child. BPT is a behavioral intervention in which parents are trained to use reinforcement and punishment to help manage their child's behavioral symptoms. Studies have supported the efficacy of BPT in reducing secondary ADHD symptoms. Several similar BPT programs exist, including: Community Parent Education, The Incredible Years, parent-child interaction therapy, and Defiant Children. These programs are all based on reinforcement, such as praise, privilege, or tokens, for positive behavior and on punishment, such as loss of positive attention, privileges, or tokens, or formal time out, for noncompliant behavior (Smith, 2006).

Barkley's Defiant Children program is commonly used. It consists of 10 weekly meetings that last for one or two hours each. The first session provides an overview of the nature, developmental course, prognosis, and etiologies of ADHD. The second week, parents learn what causes the development of defiant behavior. Parents learn to attend more to their children's behavior in week three. The forth week focuses on giving direct commands. During week five, parents are instructed about the way to develop a home token economy. Implementing time outs for noncompliance is learned in the sixth and seventh sessions. The eighth week teaches parents how to manage noncompliance in public places. In week nine, parents learn to assist their child's teacher with the management of classroom behavior problems by using the daily school behavior report card. The final session reviews previous material and challenges parents to think about how they will deal with future misconduct (Smith, 2006).

BPT has three main goals. The first goal is to improve parental management skills in dealing with behavior problems. The second is to increase parental knowledge about the causes of childhood misbehavior. The last goal is to improve commands and rules given by the parent to increase child compliance (Newby, Fischer, & Roman, 1991).

BPT seems to be effective in reducing behavior problems but not in decreasing ADHD symptoms. This may explain why it is often use in conjunction with medication which has a stronger effect on hyperactive-impulsive and inattentive symptoms. BPT is a cost effective way to help improve the quality of life for children with ADHD because reducing behavioral and social problems will allow them to function more effectively in the world.

References

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