Group play therapy or something similar for ADHD kid?

[Anonymous]

My eight year old son has trouble relating to his peers. He’s very impulsive, bossy, loud, and has difficulty modulating his energy level based on social cues. If you’ve been through something similar, what helped?

Are there any therapeutic play groups that might help him build social skills? Anything else you might recommend?We’re flying blind at the moment.

[Anonymous]

We did Superflex at that age. It was helpful. There is also Unstuck and On Target. Not sure if that is the right fit based on your description.

[Anonymous]

Talking through situations at home helped. Articulating my feelings (or siblings feelings). Making sure kid was treating parents and siblings the way I would want them to treat friends. It's difficult to do so it doesn't come across as constantly criticizing, so pick your issues and try to notice when kid does anything well.

[Anonymous]

Starting young (8 is fine) is so important. You can correct his social behaviors and he won’t get take it as a personal criticism or ignore you. At that age we did take my son to a social skills group that was a small group of other boys his age with adhd, once a week. It was expensive as hell and not covered by insurance but it was really helpful. Also, one on one therapy that focused hard on social skills and emotional regulation.
Now he’s 11 and his teacher says he is well liked- even popular- and pleasant, and she’s shocked to hear he ever struggled socially with his adhd when he was younger. Now his problems are more executive functioning with more long term school projects and multiple subjects to deal with. But I can’t recommend going in hard on social skills and emotional regulation at a young age when they’re still receptive to it. Do not hesitate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Talking through situations at home helped. Articulating my feelings (or siblings feelings). Making sure kid was treating parents and siblings the way I would want them to treat friends. It's difficult to do so it doesn't come across as constantly criticizing, so pick your issues and try to notice when kid does anything well.

This is excellent advice.

I am not really a believer in structured social skills groups but any kind of actual social group where kids play together could help.

[Anonymous]

Oh- the group he used was in northern Baltimore county. If you’re closer to DC, it probably won’t be helpful for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Starting young (8 is fine) is so important. You can correct his social behaviors and he won’t get take it as a personal criticism or ignore you. At that age we did take my son to a social skills group that was a small group of other boys his age with adhd, once a week. It was expensive as hell and not covered by insurance but it was really helpful. Also, one on one therapy that focused hard on social skills and emotional regulation.
Now he’s 11 and his teacher says he is well liked- even popular- and pleasant, and she’s shocked to hear he ever struggled socially with his adhd when he was younger. Now his problems are more executive functioning with more long term school projects and multiple subjects to deal with. But I can’t recommend going in hard on social skills and emotional regulation at a young age when they’re still receptive to it. Do not hesitate.

As a counterpoint, nothing we did at a younger age seemed to make a difference socially other than in the home where I could implement skills I learned from parent management. Age and maturity helped a lot as DS got old enough to care about what other kids thought and want to be part of the mix socially.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Talking through situations at home helped. Articulating my feelings (or siblings feelings). Making sure kid was treating parents and siblings the way I would want them to treat friends. It's difficult to do so it doesn't come across as constantly criticizing, so pick your issues and try to notice when kid does anything well.

This is excellent advice.

I am not really a believer in structured social skills groups but any kind of actual social group where kids play together could help.

I disagree! For my son, the social skills group made a tremendous difference. The kids would play and the psychologists would stop them and they’d talk things out- “I notice Max is talking about race cars and Joe and Colin are not looking at him. Max, did you notice that? What are Joe and Colin doing when you started talking about cars again, after you’d already told them all about your favorite car a few minutes ago? That’s right, they walked over there instead. Let’s talk about that- how can we tell if someone is interested in what we are trying to tell them?” That’s one example but they did all sorts of stuff with real time feedback and it was fantastic. Practicing play in groups with no feedback isn’t going to be helpful for a kid who doesn’t see social cues. A lot of adhd kids have to be explicitly taught them.

[Anonymous]

Children's has social skills/unstuck & on target groups. The waitlist can be long though.

[Anonymous]

https://insteppc.com/groups/social-skills/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Starting young (8 is fine) is so important. You can correct his social behaviors and he won’t get take it as a personal criticism or ignore you. At that age we did take my son to a social skills group that was a small group of other boys his age with adhd, once a week. It was expensive as hell and not covered by insurance but it was really helpful. Also, one on one therapy that focused hard on social skills and emotional regulation.
Now he’s 11 and his teacher says he is well liked- even popular- and pleasant, and she’s shocked to hear he ever struggled socially with his adhd when he was younger. Now his problems are more executive functioning with more long term school projects and multiple subjects to deal with. But I can’t recommend going in hard on social skills and emotional regulation at a young age when they’re still receptive to it. Do not hesitate.

We did the same, but started younger than 8, and I agree. Expensive, not covered by insurance, and worth every penny. They did a lot of follow directions and turn taking games (which was really hard for our ants-in-his-pants, couldn't sit still kid). Kid still has ADHD, but the impulsiveness is under much better control

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have suggestions on groups in or close to Alexandria or Arlington?

[Anonymous]

https://www.sensationalkids-therapy.com/social-skills-groups

[Anonymous]

Alvord Baker