How to Enjoy Playtime with Your ADHD Child

Playtime for children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, usually referred to by its abbreviations, ADHD, has to be carefully structured to be safe. This is because children with ADHD tend to be hyperactive. They're also impulsive and easily distracted. Since they're talking incessantly and in perpetual motion, they rarely follow directions and can challenge and irritate parents.

The Value Of Playtime

Playtime is an opportunity for a child to learn many useful life skills and to bond with parents.

Some impatient parents may be reluctant to spend much time playing with an overactive child, but they need to remember that play is the expression of children and allows them to release pent-up emotions, rehearse life skills, adopt social roles, and coordinate motor skills. The rules, activities and coordination of a game are important to a child's growth and development.

Play helps a parent learn more about their child and it also helps them to bond with him or her, and play improves their relationship, allowing for spontaneity and rapport. Plato, the Greek philosopher, was once known to have said, "You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation."

How ADHD Affects Play

Since ADHD children have difficulty paying attention, following simple game rules, or waiting their turn to participate in an activity, playtime can often make parents feel exasperated. In addition, they tend to do things that could be potentially harmful, like jumping off a swing while its still in the air. All this erratic behavior may push buttons for both the parent and the child. Overcome with anger, parents may end up yelling and threatening to punish a child rather than playing.

Happy Playtime With An ADHD Child

Here are five rules of thumb to follow to ensure happy playtime with an ADHD child:

First, only do what a child can tolerate and not play the same game for a long time.

Second, decide before playing the goals of playtime. If it is to bond, then the rules can be flexible or skipped altogether. If it is to learn a skill, like how to pitch a ball, then the game has to minimize the amount of time necessary to concentrate on the task.

Third, reduce over-stimulating your child as much as possible. Keep the rules simple, the instructions short, the activity easy, and the number of players down to just the two of you.

Four, set aside regular playtime so that it can be something the child can look forward to and that creates a sense of familiarity and predictability.

Five, stay positive, offering praise for what is done correctly, rather than criticism for not following instructions or doing something in a clumsy, thoughtless, and dangerous way.