CBT For Children With ADHD

If your child has ADHD, this can make everyday tasks feel overwhelming, upsetting, and stressful. Staying focused in class, completing homework, managing big emotions, following directions, and getting along with peers often require skills that don’t come naturally to children with ADHD. Medication can be an effective part of an overall treatment plan for children, but it’s not the only option that can help. Many times, children with ADHD also have feelings and thoughts of shame or anxiety. Some youth think “why can’t I do this as easily as other kids? There must be something wrong with me.” When ADHD increases a child’s distress or decreases their self-esteem, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based approach that helps children with ADHD learn skills to manage their symptoms, challenges, build confidence, and succeed at home, in school, and with peers.

What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

CBT is a hands-on, goal-oriented form of therapy that helps children understand how their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors influence one another to address negative thought patterns. When negative or unhelpful thought patterns take over, this can lead to frustration, anxiety, or acting out. CBT helps children recognize these patterns and replace unhelpful thoughts with healthier, more balanced ways of thinking. As they practice these skills, they’ll become better equipped to:

• Improve emotional regulation
• Build problem-solving skills
• Develop healthy coping strategies
• Build self-confidence

How Does ADHD Impact Learning For Children?

ADHD can make learning more challenging, even for children who are intelligent, curious, and want to do well in school. Difficulties with attention, impulse control, and staying organized can make it harder to follow lessons, complete assignments, remember instructions, and demonstrate what they know. When these challenges happen day after day, children may begin to feel discouraged or believe they’re not capable, even when they are.

Why Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Works For Children With ADHD

Medication is often part of an ADHD treatment plan, but it doesn’t teach the coping skills children need to be successful and thrive. CBT is what helps children develop long-term strategies for managing ADHD.

How CBT Helps With The Emotional Side of ADHD

Many kids with ADHD struggle with more than just focus or follow-through. They often experience the social implications and criticisms of not being able to focus as well as other. Judgments from peers, families or educators can induce shame, anxiety, and more negative emotions. Our therapists adapt CBT for each individual child to specifically treat those emotional symptoms.

Cognitive Restructuring

Many children with ADHD carry an inner narrative of “I’m bad at this,” “Something is wrong with me,” or “Everyone is mad at me,” – these messages can be reinforced by varying, even well-meaning, levels of correction from teachers and parents. Cognitive restructuring is a CBT method that teaches children how to catch those judgments, question their validity, and replace them with kinder, more accurate self reflections. This technique can alleviate the shame many kids with ADHD experience and set them on a path where correction does not equate failure or inadequacy. 

Emotional Regulation

Children with ADHD can often experience emotions with both high intensity and rapid onset. Many adults may see this as an overreaction; when a seemingly small frustration escalates quickly to a huge meltdown. Emotion regulation in CBT teaches children concrete tools – deep breathing, counting, naming triggers–  that can help them feel more confident and capable of managing their big emotions in real time. 

Problem-Solving Skills, For The Emotional Moment

In moments of high distress, it can feel very difficult to locate cognitive skills, especially for children with ADHD. Decision-making and emotional processing may feel completely out of reach when you are flooded with emotions. Problem Solving Skills in CBT, teach children how to slow down in these moments and break the overwhelm into smaller pieces; what is currently happening, what are my options, what is one small step I can take. The goal is not to take away the emotions but rather to give children with ADHD a way through the moment when the emotions have taken the wheel. 

Social Skills Training, For Rejection Sensitivity

Often children with ADHD can be hyper aware of social dynamics. Things that other children may easily brush off– miscommunication, interruption, mistakes, facial expressions– children with ADHD experience as extremely overwhelming. Social Skill Training/Rejection Sensitivity, help children learn to recognize social cues, practice repair, and build confidence to try again if necessary. The goal is not to perfect social behavior but rather to help a child stop carrying every small moment as an affirmation that there is something wrong with them and help them build resilience moving forward. 

Behavioral Strategies To Reinforce Emotional Wins

Many children with ADHD experience low self-esteem as a result of the internal and external obstacles they face of working twice as hard and others interpreting them as “not trying hard enough”. Reinforcing emotional wins can build a child’s self-confidence like praising a child when they are able to regulate emotions effectively. Parents also learn effective ways to better praise their children.

CBT Complements Other ADHD Treatments

CBT for emotional symptoms of ADHD works best as part of a broader plan, not instead of one. CBT pairs well with:

• Parent management training
• School accommodations, IEP or 504 Plans
• Collaboration with teachers
• At times, medication

Los Angeles & Beverly Hills Cognitive Behavioral Therapy For Children With ADHD

ADHD can make everyday challenges feel overwhelming for some children, but with the right support, they can learn skills to build confidence and thrive. Our experienced CBT therapists in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills provide personalized support and are here to help and support your child. Reach out today with questions or schedule a consultation.

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