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ADHD Symptoms in Teens – Esta Rapoport Part II : How Can Parents Recognize Social Skills Issues and/or ADHD Symptoms??

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ADHD Symptoms in Teens With Social Skills Issues:

Dr. Esta Rapaport shares Part II of our interview,  what can parents do to recognize ADHD and/or social skills issues with their children. This is Part II of a two-part interview with Dr. Rapaport- Read Part I for info on what teens can do for teen social skills!

For parents, how should they recognize when their child is having some social skills issue with ADHD in children or ADHD symptoms in teens?

What is ADHD and social skills issues? From a young age, children with ADHD arguably exhibit socially inappropriate behavior that should be easily recognizable to their parents. Those socially inappropriate behaviors arguably cause children with ADHD to have social skills problems. Some of those behaviors, among others are:

  • Difficulty waiting their turn
  • Running around in situations when it is inappropriate to do so
  • Blurting out answers
  • Not listening to their peers speaking
  • Interrupting or intruding upon their peers’ interactions by barging into their conversations
  • Asking questions or making comments that are not related to the topic about which their peers are talking
  • Talking excessively without realizing that they are doing so
  • Talking so infrequently that people do not even know they are in the room

What is the key to parents recognizing that their child/teenager is having social skills difficulties as related to them having a diagnosis of ADHD and therefore, exhibiting socially inappropriate behavior?

First and foremost, parents must determine if their child has friends in school as well as at home. That being said, it is also possible that despite having ADHD and social skills problems, that their child does have friends. However, those relationships may be strained due to his social skills difficulties.

Second, the parents should pay attention to whether or not their child talks about his friends less often than he has done in the past. Third, they may ask themselves if their child sees his friends less frequently than during previous times.

Fourth, and finally, the parents should examine whether or not their child’s behavior is different than it has been before. Was he always a happy child who now appears to be sad? Does he remain uninvolved with other children/teenagers and prefers to stay at home? At home, does he stay in his room for most of the time?

If parents of children who have ADHD evaluate their children’s behavior and identify ADHD symptoms in teens, they can begin to help them to self-regulate their socially inappropriate behavior, as a way of ameliorating their social skills problems.

For more information on Dr. Rapoport, follow her on Twitter at @adhdanswers and follower her on Facebook, or she can be reached here:

Esta M. Rapoport, Ed.D
E-Mail: estamrapoport@gmail.com
Blog: adhdanswers.blogspot.com

Website: http://www.socialskillstrainingservices.com/

About the Book and Places Where to Purchase

Individuals can search for ADHD and Social Skills: A Step-by-Step Guide for Teachers and Parents, written by Esta M. Rapoport, Ed.D and published by Rowman and Littlefield, or check out Amazon to buy the book.

“An insightful resource filled with useful examples and anecdotes from Dr. Rapoport’s field research with families of children with ADHD. This book provides parents and teachers numerous concrete methods and techniques to help children with ADHD learn and perform appropriate social skills that are critical for getting along with others and experiencing social success.”—Sandra Rief, Author of How to Reach & Teach Children with ADD/ADHD and The ADHD Book of Lists

“This is a lavishly detailed book providing numerous recommendations for ways to address the social interaction problems and social skills impairments associated with ADHD in children. Dr. Rapoport combines her knowledge of the research literature on social skills interventions for children with her own direct, hands-on experience in designing and implementing social skills programs for socially impaired children. Teachers will find here a wealth of information on how to improve the manner in which they educate children with ADHD around their social interaction problems while parents are likely to benefit as well from adapting these same methods for use at home with their children’s peer relationship problems.”—Russell A. Barkley, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) leave for school in the morning with a smile and a backpack, ready to make friends. They often return from school after having been bullied. Children with ADHD appear vulnerable to their peers, because they misinterpret social cues and behave in a socially inappropriate manner. These children have few if any friends.

This book explains the difficulties that children with ADHD endure to those individuals who do not understand the complexities of these children’s problems. Difficulties with attention, organization and social interaction are listed, defined, and described. Teachers and personnel who work with these children in school and parents who work with their children at home are offered innovative techniques for improving these children’s behavior, in a way that everyone can understand and implement. Real-life experiences of average people living with children with ADHD are included, so that parents can feel less alone in their experiences.

Esta M. Rapoport, Ed.D does social skills training with children who have ADHD.